Perfect Roasted Beets
Learn how to roast beets with this simple recipe! No foil here. For best flavor, slice the beets and roast them on a pan.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 2, 2024
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These roasted beets are for everyone! If you already love beetroots, I think you’ll be a big fan of this foil-free, no-peeling-required roasted beet recipe. If you don’t enjoy beets (yet), this roasting method just might change your mind.
These roasted beets feature lightly caramelized, tender-but-not-quite-crisp exteriors and deep, condensed flavor. I don’t love beets in all applications, but these? I have to stop myself from devouring the whole pan before dinner.
With this method, simply scrub the beets well before baking. No need to peel before or after baking. The skin, which is perfectly edible, just seems to disappear during the baking process.
The trick to pan-roasted beets is to drop the temperature a bit. I always roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and pretty much all the other veggies at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
For beets, since we don’t want crispy outsides (tender is nicer), we’ll roast at 375 degrees. Easy!
Watch How to Roast Beets
How to Serve Roasted Beets
Enjoy these roasted beets as a simple side dish, or gussy them up as I did in the first photo (I used fresh dill, chives, goat cheese and a thick balsamic vinegar).
You can also serve them as a component within your meal, or on top of a hearty salad. You’ll find some suggestions below to help you improvise.
Flavors that pair well with roasted beets:
- Arugula and other bold greens, including collard greens
- Avocado
- Balsamic vinegar, as well as red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar
- Black pepper
- Carrots
- Creamy cheese and dairy, including feta, goat cheese, blue cheese, ricotta, crème fraîche, sour cream and plain yogurt
- Fennel
- Fresh herbs, including dill, basil, chives, mint, parsley, cilantro, tarragon and thyme
- Honey and maple syrup
- Lemon and orange
- Lentils (here’s how to cook them)
- Nuts and seeds, including pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pepitas and sunflower seeds
- Onions, especially green, red and shallots
More Irresistible Beet Recipes
- Colorful Beet Salad with Carrot, Quinoa & Spinach
- Gaby’s Roasted Beets and Labneh
- Simple Beet, Arugula and Feta Salad with Hilary’s Balsamic Thyme Dressing
Craving more roasted veggies?
Roasting vegetables is a simple art. Here are quite a few delicious options:
- Roasted Asparagus
- Roasted Broccoli (Plus Four Variations)
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Carrots (Three Ways)
- Roasted Cauliflower (Four Ways)
- Roasted Green Beans
- Roasted Potatoes
- Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Please let me know how your beets turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Perfect Roasted Beets
Learn how to roast beets with this simple recipe! No foil here. For best flavor, slice the beets and roast them on a pan, as you would other vegetables. Recipe yields 4 side servings and fits perfectly on a half-sheet pan.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds beets (about 3 large or 5 small-to-medium)
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean-up. Scrub the beets well with a vegetable brush under running water (no need to peel them at any point).
- Using a sharp chef’s knife, slice off the base of each beet to create a flat surface, and slice off the skinny pointy ends as well. Place each beet with its flat side against the cutting board and slice the beets in half, then slice the beets into wedges of even thickness, about ½ to ¾-inch thick on the widest edge.
- Place the beet wedges on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle the beets with the olive oil and sprinkle with the salt. Toss until the beets are evenly coated, then arrange them in a single layer across the pan.
- Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, tossing halfway, until you’re able to pierce through the beets with a fork with light pressure. Season with additional salt, to taste, if desired, and serve.
Notes
Yield notes: If you’re roasting less than 1 ½ pounds of beets at a time, your beets will have more room around them and may finish roasting a bit sooner. If you want to double the recipe, I’d suggest using two baking sheets in the lower and upper thirds of the oven, swapping the pan positions after tossing.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Followed the directions and the beets came out wonderful. I don’t like pickled beets so I was hesitant to plant them. Once I harvested my first bunch I really hoped I would like them. This recipe redeemed beets as a food worth planting. I only like to plant what I enjoy eating! Follow this recipe and you won’t be disappointed.
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad you enjoyed it, Marty.
Fantastic recipe and foil free way to cook beets. And love the beet-pauring ideas. 5 stars!
Thanks so much for this recipe. I always hated beets, probably because of the way they were prepared. Just made a batch of these for myself (beets in my CSA share this week) and I absolutely loved them! Wow!
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Suzanne. Thank you for sharing.
This recipe is so easy and delicious! We put blue cheese crumble and Balsalmic glaze on after the beets were cooked. Yum! Thank you for sharing.
The roasted beets were Delicious ❣️
I’ve made lots of roasted veggies but never beets. Very Yummy. Thank You
Easiest most delicious way to prepare beets!1 Thanks!
You’re welcome, Linda!
Great tip on just scrubbing the beets and roasting them with the skin on. Wish I would have come across this sooner, but will do this next time. Thank you for the recipe. It cannot be “beet”!
Another winning recipe! I rarely add oil to roasted vegetables, and also skipped it today. They still tasted great.
Great to hear, Kathy! I appreciate your comment.
I have disliked beets all my 69 years. Until yesterday. I was offered these perfect roasted beets and thought, “Why not try one?”
Holy Cow these are wonderful! Thanks for giving me a new veggie to like.
Hooray! That’s great to hear, Sally.
Super easy and delicious recipe, thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Jeannie! I appreciate your review.
Never ate beets since I was a kid – hated them (prob pickled). I cannot believe how good the results of this recipe are – 10/10.
P.S. Every recipe from C&K are top notch – Tried 7 or so.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe, Thomas!
Easy and delicious! I had a collection of beets in my refrigerator from various CSA pickups. I’ve been avoiding peeling them so this was a perfect recipe. They are sweet like candy.
Hello! Love your recipes! Your background music is awesome too! Thank you
Sooo good loved it
ForEVER I have always roasted my beets & then peeled them before eating them. Never EVER did I know I could eat the skin after roasting them. And they taste delicious; didn’t even taste any skin!! The peeling part after the roasting was always a PITA – you had to roast them, then wait some time for them to cool so you could peel them….. No more EVER peeling beets after roasting for me!!! What a great tip – thank you!!
You’re welcome, Amy!
You are right about the skin. You slightly notice the texture is a bit firmer than the beet, but definitely easy to eat. First time roasting beets and wow, what a big flavor compared to any canned or shrink wrapped beets. We may need to add some beets to our garden. Will be doing this for a beet salad for thanksgiving. Thanks Kate!
You’re welcome, Annie!
Delicious recipe. I love them cooked in the oven. So much tastier! It’s the only way I’ll eat them! Thank you for sharing!!
I just made the beets tonight. I really wish I had peeled them!!! I had to bite the middle out. And they needed a good bit more olive oil. At least I learned a basic method of temperature and timing.
Great idea for beet preparation. Mine went into my beet hummus recipe…brilliant magenta hummus for the win!
Delicious!! Love no foil. Perfect consistency. Sooo easy.
Thank you for your review, Nicole.
I’m excited to make these and your beet salad. Do you just pop them in the fridge to cool them before adding to the greens? Can they be made a day in advance?
Thank you!
Sure! I hope you love the salad.
I am the only person I know who LOVES beets. But like so many, NEVER knew you could roast them unpeeled. THANK YOU for that time saver. Might be able to convert some with this recipe, but if not I’ll get my fill. Haha
Love Cookie&kate! Thank you for all the great recipes, tips and tricks! ❤️
Hooray! I’m glad you found this recipe the, Debbie. I appreciate your review.
Made them with big yellow beets–they were amazing! Excellent recipe and guidance! Thank you.
You’re welcome, Conny!
just scrumptious!
So easy to make and hard to resist – thank you!
Great to hear, Catherine!
Thank you, Kate, for a simple, delicious recipe! I had extra beets after making a salad, and really didn’t want to peel beets. I’m so glad I found your recipe. And while I’m here, I want to say thank you for your pimento cheese recipe which I discovered during the pandemic. It’s amazing.
Excellent recipe. Use this to roast bets and then chill to have w. goat cheese and poppy seed dressing as a salad. YUM!
I’m delighted you enjoyed it, Robert!
I’ve been roasting whole, wrapped in foil but I want to try this way for a farro salad.
This may not matter much, but are the beets cut in wedges, tapering so they are thinnest at the interior edge, or sliced across the half beet, even from the outside of the beet to the inside? I couldn’t tell from the combination of pictures and video. I’m going to try slices.
So easy. Makes me love roasted beets even more! Not peeling the beets, just my style. Just bought some large, beautiful golden beets and the oven is preheating now. Thank you for this simple and delicious, easy recipe.
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe, Kelley! I appreciate your review.
Wonderful recipe! Loved the beets, but made too many.
Can I freeze roasted beets?
Thanks!!!
I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do!
I tried this recipe, and frankly did not like it. Did not like the way the beets tasted, and I absolutely did not like eating the skin. After the first night I threw the rest away. I much prefer wrapping.a scrubbed beet in aluminum foil, baking it til it’s soft and then peeling it right afterwards – much much better.
I’m sorry you didn’t love this. I appreciate you sharing, Barbara.
I made this and loved it. My beets were small so they came out a little crispy, but we loved them this way.
Then I wanted to make it again (couldn’t remember the temperature though the rest is easy) and wasn’t a subscriber; luckily, I found it again and am making it right now.
I was going to give it 4* because it’s such a simple recipe, but decided since I loved the taste should give it a 5!
Thank you for sharing, Rosemary!
I followed the recipe exactly only omitting salt due to dietary restrictions. After 55 minutes of roasting at 375 degrees some of the sliced beets were still crunchy. I finished the the dish with small slices of fresh mozzarella and a basalmic glaze. The roasted beets were crunchy and I thought a bit bland. No thumbs up for the veggies at dinner tonite. I did not peel the beets and that part worked out well. Thanks for that tip.
Thank you for your recipe but it is sooo difficult to follow in this format online. There are so many pop-up ads appearing randomly. Even writing this comment is difficult. I have given up
Hi Mark, I’m sorry to hear you are frustrated. I evaluate my ads regularly and will take this into consideration. You can always exit out of them or choose your settings in browser to not show ads.
Late reply but all you have to do is click print recipe and no ads while you are preparing the recipe.
I used the golden beets and roasted exactly per your directions. This is my new favorite way to cook beets! The texture was amazing, and I found it hard to stop eating them right off the baking pan. Thank you!!
You’re welcome, Paige! I appreciate you review.
I made this recipe for my Mom and it was Delicious!!! I cooked it for a total of 60 minutes and it was Great!!! Thank you sooo much for this!!!
Michele
I love beets and this recipe was delicious. Thanks for sharing
Wow!! Delicious! And super easy! Better than foil wrapped. The skin gives a crunch to the beets that I really liked.
I love to hear that, Linda! I appreciate your review.
Hi Kate , I have tried several of your recipes and they are great . I went to the farmers market this afternoon and they had beautiful beets . My husband will usually grill these but he is out of town . I wanted to roast some beets for my salad tonight and was so happy to find your recipe . It was so easy ,quick and delicious ! Thanks again.
Maureen
You’re welcome, Maureen!
We grew some heritage beets and tried this recipe. The skin doesn’t disappear, it just gets dark, which detracts from the designs and colors in the beet when served. I ended up peeling them anyways. Next time, I’ll peel them first.
Good flavor and overall easy to do.
I love beets – have since a child – even from the can! THIS recipe works so nicely and is very easy, THANK you!
You’re welcome, Mary!
Roasted for 40 minutes at 375 convect and beets were still hard. Unfortunately I didn’t check for fork tender, make my arugula salad and it was inedible
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. Sometimes the timing can vary and if you cut your beets larger.
These beets are delicious. I never liked beets because I only tried them pickled. Now I love them
I tried the recipe and they turned out great. Very simple and easy to follow. I will definitely make them again.
That’s great to hear, Jodeph!
I love this recipe! So easy, so delicious! Thank you.
You’re welcome, Barb!
LOVE this! I found it best to scrub submerged in big bowl of water rather than under running water. Less mess and less water waste!!
They came out great!! An easy, no fuss recipe! My husband doesn’t like beets but he quite enjoyed these. Will definitely put into the rotation!
Thank you for your review, Deborah! I appreciate it.
Can you then pickle these after roasting ?
I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure.
If you’re going to pair them with greens, why not make it the greens from the beets themselves? Beet greens are some of the most delicious greens on the planet.