How to Roast Beets and Easily Freeze Them For Later (Picture Tutorial)
Yes, you CAN freeze beets! With this easy step-by-step tutorial learn how to roast beets and then freeze them to preserve for the year. After thawing they taste just like you cooked them fresh! Roasted, frozen beets are perfect for salads, sides, and other recipes – and may just win over non beet lovers, too.
✩ What readers are saying…
“This recipe worked perfectly! When I took them out of the freezer for use, it was like I had just cooked them. Thank you! ” -Suzy
Have you noticed that beets can be a pretty divisive vegetable? It seems you either like them or you think they “taste like dirt.”
Personally, I don’t get it. I mean, cooked correctly beets can be as sweet as carrots – which are also grown in the dirt and most people seem to like.
But I’m the lone beet fan in my family. The kids won’t touch them and Brian merely puts up with them. Which means I don’t serve them very often and I don’t grow a ton of them in our garden, just a couple of rows for me.
But you know what happens with even a few rows, right?
Most of the beets are all ready to be harvested at once. I had the problem of too many beets for just me – but then none for the future. Which made me wonder if beets could be frozen.
Can beets be frozen successfully?
Pickling seems to be the most popular way to preserve beets, but my few small rows never made enough to pickle (update: not since I discovered this easy way to pickle jar-by-jar!), so I decided to try freezing some that I had oven roasted–even though I had never heard or read of it being done.
Seems like I’m a rebel like that – see my non-blanched frozen green beans, corn freezing experiments, and best ways to freeze basil tests.
I roasted them in the oven, in their skins to preserve moisture, then chopped and added them to freezer baggies in small portions.
The Results – Tested on Guests
Surprisingly, the beets tasted just as good after a couple months in the freezer as they did the day I roasted them!
So I made my favorite salad with them, Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, and served it to company.
Um, didn’t I just say beets are divisive…and I served a salad with beets to company?
In my defense, I thought I was safe because our company was a gardener, and don’t most gardeners grow beets? Well, not the one sitting at my table.
He promptly said, “Beets are the one vegetable I don’t eat” and proceeded to give me the dirt comparison. Great – of all the vegetables on the planet I pick the one he didn’t eat.
Of course I said he didn’t have to eat them, but he decided to try them anyway. The verdict?
“These are the best beets I’ve ever eaten. They don’t taste like beets!”
Now I make sure to grow enough rows to be able to freeze beets in small packages to last me through the winter (as well as now pickling a few jars of these easy, honey sweetened beets).
Though I only serve them to people I know will enjoy them – I don’t want to waste them!
How to Prepare, Oven Roast and Freeze Beets
Here is a step-by-step tutorial to prepare, cook, and freeze beets because I didn’t know how to prepare them when I first started growing beets and I’m pretty sure there are some people out there who may be as clueless as I was.
Of course, this is just one method for cooking beets (like cooking beets in a slow cooker or Instant Pot!), but most of these steps are the same no matter how you decide cook them.
Step 1: Wash and trim. Wash beets thoroughly with a vegetable brush in order to get all the dirt off. Trim the greens off, leaving about an inch of the tops. Trim the roots as well, if needed.
Step 2: Prepare for baking. Place the beets in a shallow baking dish and pour in about 1/4 cup of water.
Note: I suppose this isn’t true “roasting” like when we toss vegetables with olive oil (which you can do with beets, by the way… they get nice crispy edges which is great for that application, but not what I want on a salad…), but it’s like roasting meat, I guess. We don’t want the beets to dry out too much or they won’t freeze as well.
Step 3: Bake. Cover well with foil and bake at 400 degrees for up to an hour, depending on the size of the beets.
Step 4: Test and let cool. Check doneness by inserting a small knife into the thickest parts of the beets. Let cool until you can comfortably handle them.
Jami’s Tip
The beets pictured were fairly large so I cut them in half to speed the cooking time (small to medium beets can be left whole). They were done in about 45 minutes.
Step 5: Peel. Cut the rest of the tops and bottoms off and skin the beets by pulling with a small knife.
TIP: Some directions say to put gloves on and “rub the skins off” but that hasn’t worked well for me, but you do what works for you. And I don’t wear gloves- I just wash my hands afterwards and don’t have a problem with staining.
You can use the beets any way you’d like now – serve right away with butter or on a salad.
Or read on to see how to easily freeze cooked beets:
Cut beets. Cut the cooked beets into any shape you’d like – I typically cube the beets into bite-size pieces. You can also, slice, julienne or cut into wedges.
Freeze. Place the cut beets in a freezer bagging or container, label, and freeze.
Big TIP: I remove the air from my freezer baggies with a straw and it keeps most of the frost out of the packages. (And no, I don’t need a food saver – this has always worked great and is less expensive, lol!)
Storage
Try to use the frozen beets within 6-9 months for best flavor and texture.
One time, though, a few baggies got shoved in the back of my freezer and I found them a year later. I served them anyway and was shocked that they were still pretty tasty, even after a year.
However, a baggie I found after 1-1/2 years didn’t fare as well and the beets were shriveled and soggy.
(Of course this was before I had the chalkboard freezer organizer which helps me keep better track of what we have for planning menus and using up food.)
Freezing Beets FAQs
I simply defrost in the fridge or in warm water – it doesn’t take much. And then use cold in salads or gently warm as you’d like (similar to refrigerated cooked beets you can buy in the stores).
Yes, but they will not be as convenient as already cooked. Cut the raw peeled beets into small dices, transfer them into a freezer bag, label and freeze. Any beet variety can be frozen like this.
If you’d like grated beets, you can freeze them raw – grate and lay out on a cookie sheet to flash freeze before transferring to freezer containers.
Yes, if the beets are peeled and cut into smaller pieces first (or grated like above).
It depends on how you want to use them – grated raw or diced beets are good for using raw in salads or adding to soups. Roasted beets can be used to top salads or heated as a side dish with butter that only has to be thawed and warmed.
Beets store in the freezer about 6-12 months.
More Vegetables You Can Easily Freeze
- How to Freeze Green Beans without Blanching
- How to Freeze Snap Peas Without Blanching
- Three Ways to Freeze Corn
- How to Freeze Broccoli – Blanched & Unblanched
I hope you love how these beets turn out – if you do this, be sure to leave a recipe rating so I (and others) know how you liked it!
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How to Roast Beets and Easily Freeze Them For Later
Ingredients
- 8 medium to large beets*
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- To Roast: Wash the beets thoroughly and trim the roots and greens off, leaving about an inch of the tops. For even cooking, cut any large beets in half.
- Place the beets in a shallow 13×9-inch baking dish and pour in about 1/4 cup of water.
- Cover well with foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the beets. To check if they’re done, insert a small knife into the thickest parts of the beets. (If there are smaller beets cooking with larger ones, remove the beets as they finish cooking.)
- Cut the rest of the tops and bottoms off and skin the beets by pulling it off with a small knife.
- Cut the beets into chunks or slices and serve right away or freeze for later.
- To freeze for later: Place the beets in a baggie or other freezer container, removing as much air as possible, label and put in the freezer. Use within 6-9 months for best quality, or up to a year.
Notes
Nutrition
This article has been updated – it was originally published in June of 2010 and updated in 2022.
Jami, big duh from Wyoming. Got it..finally. I may not be good, but I’m slow. Thank you!!!!!
Hello from Wyoming. I’ve read your beet roasting recipe numerous times, and I’ll be darned if I see a roasting temperature. A million pardons if I’m being blind. Maybe it’s somewhat discretionary, but could you put me in the ball-park? Also, can I freeze the greens? I have a good vacuum packer and am thinking zero blanch. I HATE wasting any kind of food.
Click on the arrows to the full recipe either on the top of the recipe or the bottom, Curtis. And I say go for it with the beet tops! I freeze kale and spinach without blanching with good results and these would seem similar.
Hello. What oven temperature? Also, how do you determine when a beet is “ripe”?
Click the arrow at the top or bottom to go to the recipe with full directions.
A beet is ripe when it’s as big as you want it. You can eat it in the baby stage or let it get bigger. It’s more important not to let them get too big or stay too long in the garden after reaching a decent size, as they can get woody.
Thank You!! Damn….a real person out there on this internet thing….a rarity it seems.
🙂
Afterthought: There are many things that can be frozen. Oftentimes, when a bag is filled and then frozen, the contents freeze together and it is tough to pull out one or two servings. To get around this, place what you are freezing on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer. Occasionally, move the peas/beans/cut corn, ect. around so they freeze, individually. Once frozen; bag, suck out the air, seal the bag and you are good to go.
Yep, great tip – this is how I freeze many things on the site like peppers, berries, and even bacon!
Bacon! I love it; we can learn so much from each other!
🙂
This is great! I was looking for a simple way to put up my beets, and here it is. The only reason I planted them in the first place, was as a companion to Brussels sprouts. I got a good laugh when Jami said she removes air from the bags, with a straw. I thought I was the only one to do that; guess not!.
Actually, I don’t use a straw; I use a hollow Bic pen. 🙂
Ha!
Yep, when the beets are ready, you’ve got to figure out some way to use ’em up!
Sugar beets are grown to have more sugar in them they are not the same as ones sold for raw consumption.
Hi Jami, I follow this method all the time now. Super easy and convenient. When I’ve slightly undercooked the beets the skin does not peel away by rubbing with the fingers.
However when they’re well done the skin will rub off very easily. Super method for cooking and freezing. Thanks mum 🙂
I’m so glad this has become routine for you! It certainly is a way to keep beets – I also like that they are ready to go this way, too, for salads.
Nice illustration and very down to earth explaining the process
Hi – Love the straw idea – will definitely use it! I enjoy roasted beets too. At what temperature do you preheat the oven? Going to go read how you freeze basil….
All the steps, including the temperature are included in the printable recipe – click the green arrow at the bottom of the page.
I have a recipe for slow cooked beets (crock pot) and I would like to do in bulk ahead of time … then vacuum seal and freeze for a church dinner…so all they will need to do is defrost and reheat….
It will have a sauce (lemon juice vinager, honey, rosemary) that will cook down with it. Will it freeze okay? – only need to keep it frozen for 1 week…
Suggestions ….
Hmmm, I think it should, but I haven’t frozen them with an acid-based sauce like that. I wonder if it would start to break down in the freezer? But since it’s just for a week, it should be okay.
Sugar beets are a whole other strain of beets than what you woulda be roasting. I I’ve never near sugar beet farms – it’s like sweet corn vs field corn.
Very true, but what I mean is that there is natural sugar there (in corn, too) that they then work to scientifically create varieties that produce more.
That’s not what you said though
I updated to clarify.
Another great tip is after you slip the skin off the beets, cut them in small bite-sized cubes. Then sprinkle pepper, toss in a handful of raisins, and then add some balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
This is the bomb! I’m eating some now. You can also add diced onions and crushed spearmint leaves for a change.
Before you roast the beets, if you drizzle a bit of olive oil over the beets (with some optional salt), the skins will slip off nicely.
If I forget this step, the skins don’t slip. The olive oil seems to do the trick.
Thank you so much for this tip, Chris – I will do that next time for sure!
What oven temp for roasting the beets. to be frozen?
Click on the arrows for the printable recipe and you’ll find all the details there, Barbara!
Do you warm the beets up after you thaw them out? Or do you eat them cold with your salad? Also, do you season them at all? I love beets…and need a way to save them.
When I make the salad I just thaw them and add them to the salad cold. Sometimes I will add the beets to a pan of roasted vegetables that take 15 minutes to cook and I’ll toss them with oil and a spice mix.
What temperature would you reccomend roasting at? Thanks!
400 degrees, Cheryl – if you click the green arrow, you can find a full, printable recipe!
I just made beets last night and didn’t have enough time to roast–cooked them in the electric pressure cooker! Worked great and tasty–and quick! I’ll have to do some to freeze.
Great idea, Sue!
The only way I had ever cooked beets was to boil them on top of the stove. I am so excited to see that they can be cooked in slow cooker and in the oven. I wasnt sure if they could be frozen so I went on line to check it out and found this blog…so glad I did. I am going to go to my local Amish store and purchase some to freeze..they r so healthy. Thanks a bunch…
I’m glad you found your way to AOC, Linda – I think you will love having beets ready to go so easily. It was really a game changer for me to be able to have them when I wanted!
I have always boiled and frozen them so that I have enough beets to get me through the winter. They are OK, but not nearly as great as roasted beets. I am going to give this a try this winter and hopefully I can thaw and then roast them for a bit with oil and spices or other veggies. Thank you! This is the info I have been searching for.
So glad to have helped, Linda!
Thank you! I love roasted beets and just came into a lot of them and was at a loss at what to do!
Great tutorial! Thank you. Why do you need to remove the skin? I just put a raw beet in my smoothie (yum!) so I want to make sure that if I freeze them, it won’t be harmful if the skin is still on.
Thanks,
Dave
You’re the first person I’ve heard of to eat the skin of beets, Dave! They are typically tough and contribute to the “dirt” flavor people seem to be so negative about, so everything I’ve ever heard of includes peeling them. So I don’t know (although I DO know it wouldn’t be harmful, just may be unpleasant texture-wise).
I’d suggest freezing just a few with skins just to see if you like it that way or not before doing a bunch of bags.