Roasted Beets with Fresh Orange and Balsamic Vinegar Marinade
We just harvested some big beautiful beets from the garden, and I knew right away what I wanted to do with them! Roasted beets with fresh orange and balsamic vinegar is one of my favorite simple ways to prepare beets. They’re wonderfully tangy, earthy, beautiful, and naturally sweet. Once cooked, they’re good in the fridge for up to a week – prepped and ready to add to meals on the go!
Ways to eat roasted beets
We love these orange and balsamic glazed roasted beets on salads, sandwiches, or as a side on their own. They’re delicious both warm and cold, and pair exceptionally well with goat cheese or feta, apples, arugula, basil, cucumber, nuts or pumpkin seeds. We also enjoy them sliced on top of veggie burgers or grilled portobello mushrooms. I had a roasted beet sandwich with a runny fried egg on top at a pretty hip restaurant once, and it was stellar! They also offered one with beet and bacon; a fun take on a BLT.
Do you have to peel beets before roasting them?
You can peel your beets if you like, but we don’t! That’s one of the beautiful things about this easy roasted beets recipe. The skin is edible, softens tremendously during cooking, and is full of nutrients and fiber! Plus if you don’t want to eat them, the skins slip right off after roasting anyways. It’s much less fuss and mess to leave them unpeeled to start!
Ingredients
- Fresh beets
- 1 to 2 oranges (sub with 1/4 cup store bought orange juice)
- Balsamic vinegar (thick aged balsamic vinegar is even better!)
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Black Pepper (optional)
Instructions
- First preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Wash the beets (scrub if necessary), and then trim off the tough top and root end. You can peel them if you wish, but again, we don’t. Next, cut the beets into fairly equal-size pieces (so they’ll cook evenly): halves, quarters, or small bite-size chunks.Smaller pieces will cook much faster, and the marinade will penetrate each piece more deeply due to the increased surface area. We chose to leave these big beets in quarters because I wanted to be able to cut nice slices for sandwiches later.
- Add the beets to a roasting pan or other oven-safe baking pan. I like to use a 1.5 or 2 liter glass casserole dish since it’s fairly deep and compact. That helps the beets marinate in the liquid and also prevents the pan from drying out.
- Next, add a generous drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the beets, along with the juice from one fresh-squeezed orange. In a pinch, you can substitute with a ¼ cup store-bought orange juice. We honestly don’t measure, but probably used about 1 Tbsp of olive and 3-4 Tbsp of vinegar (enough to create a little pool on the bottom of the pan with the OJ). Finish it off with a sprinkle of sea salt, optional black pepper, and a couple of thick slices of orange (also optional).
- Roast the beets on 400°F until fork tender. It can be as quick as 20-30 minutes for small pieces, or take up to an hour for extra large chunks like these. Modest size beets usually take about 45 minutes on average. We typically cover the pan (with a lid, or use foil) for the first half to partially steam them, and then leave them uncovered for the second half. Toss or stir the beets in the marinade halfway through cooking.
- Once they’re finished, you can enjoy the roasted beets right away or transfer them into a glass food storage container with a lid. Pour the juices from the baking pan into the storage container to keep! The beets will continue to marinate and develop flavor. Plus, the acidic balsamic vinegar and citrus can help extend the shelf life of the roasted beets. They should stay good for up to a week in the fridge. The marinade makes a delicious salad dressing too!
Oh my yes.
I hope you enjoy this simple roasted beet recipe as much as we do. Please stop back by for a review once you give them a try!
Looking for other ways to enjoy beets? Try these lacto-fermented beet “pickles” with dill and garlic. You can also pickle beets in a classic vinegar brine, or simply grate them to serve raw on top of salad. It sounds a little weird, but beet-pickled eggs are another tasty treat. Finally, don’t forget that beet greens are edible, delicious, and highly-nutritious too! Reminiscent to Swiss chard, beet greens are excellent in soups, sautéed, juiced, and more.
Roasted Beets with Fresh Orange and Balsamic Vinegar Marinade
Ingredients
- Fresh beets
- 1-2 oranges (sub with 1/4 cup orange juice)
- 3 TBSP balsamic vinegar
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- salt
- black pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Thoroughly wash the beets, and trim off the tough top and bottom end. You can leave them unpeeled, or peel the beets if you wish.
- Cut the beets into equal size pieces, such as halves, quarters, or bite-size chunks. Put them in a deep roasting pan or casserole dish.
- Add the fresh-squeezed juice from one orange, a drizzle of olive oil, and generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar (enough to create a shallow pool of marinade across the bottom of the dish). Top with a sprinkle of sea salt, optional black pepper and orange slices.
- Bake on 400F until fork tender, about 45 minutes on average. Cover the pan for the first half with a lid or foil, and then leave uncovered during the second half. Toss/stir halfway through. Smaller pieces will cook faster than larger chunks.
- Once finished, transfer the beets AND the marinade juices into a glass food storage container with a lid, and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
11 Comments
Sharon
Making this as I write this. So excited
I only had one orange would lemons work?
Also would be great if you had how to do insta pot because of summer.
Thank you so much love your recipes and site. I share it all the time!!!🩶
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Sharon, yes lemons will work great! They won’t have as much sweetness but should offer a nice citrus bite along with some nice balsamic vinegar, we have an Insta Pot and really need to start using it more, thanks for the recommendation. Enjoy your beets and thank you so much for the support, we are so grateful!
Sharon
It is sooo good I have made 2 times already. Have you ever tried freezing it with the juice? It would be nice to preserve some for later when k don’t have beets.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Sharon, so glad to hear you enjoy the recipe so much! Yes you can freeze your beets for later use, you could freeze them with the juice in containers or freezer bags but do so in portions that you would likely use at a later time as everything will be frozen together. You could also just line a baking sheet with parchment and lay the cooked beets out in a single layer for flash freezing, once frozen you can transfer them to freezer bags or containers for long term storage to use within 8 months or so. Flash freezing is great so the beets won’t all stick together and you can easily pull out specific amounts you want to use when it comes time to defrost them but unfortunately you won’t have any of the juice to work with either. Hope that helps and thanks for the review!
sherice potter
I must make that sandwhich
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
It’s so tasty!
Cara in Pasadena
Hi Guys,
Do you think that this roasting could possibly be done on an outside grill?
Maybe after marinating the beets?
Kinda hard to imagine using the oven when it’s in the 90s (in June!!).
Keep up the great work and enjoy your dream home and landscape.
(Soooo envious. But you both worked hard to achieve and create your dream.)
Congratulations!!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Cara, absolutely you can cook the on the grill! You could wrap them in foil like a potato, grill them in a veggie basket, or even roast/grill them right on the grill itself. You may want to adjust your beet piece sizes depending on the method you choose. Thanks for following along and hope you enjoy those beets!
Bree
I honestly love this recipe, and so do my picky teens! I’m curious, do you think I could do these in the pressure cooker, I don’t want them to be mushy….. And I have one that doubles as an air fryer…. Thinking of how I could make these without using the oven for Thanksgiving. 😩😬
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Bree, so glad to hear you and your family enjoy the recipe! Absolutely you can do this in a pressure cooker or InstantPot. You may have to play with the cook times but I think 15-20 minutes should be about right, you could always do a test batch before Thanksgiving so you have one less thing to worry about. Hope that helps and good luck!
Cathy
Mmm…delicious! I made this last night for dinner using some freshly-harvested beets from our garden. Will be on the menu regularly now, thanks!