Instant Pot Hack: Cooking Perfect Less-Mess Beets
While I love root veggies, they can take a long time to cook. Plus, my oven lets off a lot of heat, making me hesitant to use it to cook for long periods of time, especially in the summer months. Beets, which are particularly hard, are no exception! To make matters worse, beets are crazy messy and tend to leave stains all over your kitchen (and you!). But cooking them in the Instant Pot is a great way to reduce the mess and time. You can eat beets on their own or as a side, or add them to another dish or salad! My favorite way to enjoy them is cooled, chopped up, topped with feta and pumpkin seeds, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
Looking to try other root vegetables in your pressure cooker? Try our Instant Pot Hack: How to Cook Sweet Potatoes, Instant Pot Hack: How to Cook Butternut Squash, or Instant Pot Hack: How to Cook Spaghetti Squash!
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1. Trim and Wash the Beets
The first thing you need to do is cut the stems and leaves off and discard them. If you buy fresh beets, they’re likely to be filthy, so fill up your kitchen sink and give them a good clean, scrubbing them with a hard bristled brush if you have one to release all the dirt. No need to dry them! They’re going right into the pot.
2. Add Water and Beets to the Instant Pot
Add one and a half cups of water to the Instant Pot, followed by the trivet. Stack the beets on top of the trivet, keeping them out of the liquid. You can fill up the Instant Pot and cook as few or as many beets as you want, as long as the lid still closes and seals. We fit 6 small to medium sized beets in our 6-quart Instant Pot Duo, but it was definitely full.
3. Pressure Cook
Lid the pot and cook on Pressure Cook (or “Manual” if you have an older model) HIGH for 12 minutes. If you want really soft beets, feel free to bump up the time to 14 minutes. However, we found ours were the perfect texture (cooked but sliceable; not mushy), especially to use in a beet salad.
4. Quick Release
Once the cook time has elapsed, quick release the pressure and unlid the pot. Remove the beets with tongs and drain the water. Be careful – the inner pot and beets will be extremely hot, so don’t burn yourself!
5. Peel
It’s time to peel the beets! The best part of using your Instant Pot to cook them is that the skin peels off with such ease, making them less messy than traditional cooking methods. Allow them to cool for a few minutes before peeling the skin off in sheets. Feel free to use gloves if you’re worried about staining, but we found that the juice washed right off our hands once they were cooked!
6. Chop Beets
Once they’re peeled, cut off the ends of beets and chop into whatever size you need for your dish. Again, you can use gloves for this part but we didn’t need to. To keep from staining your cutting board, we suggest using a plastic (not wood!) one and laying down a few layers of paper towel or an old, clean, dark towel before putting the beets down and chopping them up.
7. Serve
They’re ready to eat! Serve them up however you want and enjoy all the health benefits they have to offer! Not convinced they’re worth the work? Check out our reasons Why You Should Be Eating Beets! Enjoy!
- 6-8 small beets
- 1½ cup water
- Instant Pot
- Trivet
- Cut the tops of the beets off to remove the stems. Scrub the beets to remove any dirt. Set aside.
- Add the water and trivet to the Instant Pot, followed by the beets, stacking if necessary.
- Lid the pot, set the valve to sealing, and cook on Manual/Pressure Cook HIGH for 12 minutes.
- Once cook time has elapsed, quick release the pressure and open the lid.
- Remove the beets from the pot using tongs and discard the water from the pot. Using gloves (if you don’t want to stain your hands), peel the skin off. This should happen very easily because of the pressure cooking process!
- Chop into pieces of your desired size. Serve hot or add to whatever dish you like!
