Instant Pot Beets For a Boost in Energy, Anti-Oxidants & Detoxing Power

As gorgeous as they are, beets can be intimidating because they're mistakingly thought to be time-intensive and messy.

In this recipe, I'm going to show you how you can take them from raw to cooked in under 30 minutes with less than 5 minutes of hands-on effort. Plus, I'll share how I minimize the mess so clean up is super easy.

Beets are delicious powerhouses packed with nutrients, including lots of fiber and folate. As the color would have you guess, beets provide lots of healing antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients—specifically betalains and beta-carotene.

Their powerful phytonutrients also help boost our detox systems, so if you're someone interested in clearing out unwanted toxins, beets should be a staple in your diet.

As if all these reasons weren't enough, there's one more reason their fabulous and this is probably the biggest driver for me to eat them regularly. Beets are rich in nitrates, which is converted to nitric oxide in your body and is very powerful at reducing blood pressure and improving blood flow.

Of course, this is great for people dealing with hypertension. However, beets and beet juice can also be used to improve performance, which is why more and more athletes are drinking beet juice a couple of hours before training and competing.

When you improve blood flow, you're delivering oxygen at a faster rate to your muscles, including your brain and heart, which allows them to perform better.

Although cooking beets does reduce the impact of the nitrates, the amount delivered is still significant. PLUS you still get the many other health benefits!

Follow this recipe for Instant Pot Beets, and you'll see how easy and quick it can be to enjoy this colorful root vegetable!

Personally, I like making big batches of beets in the Instant Pot (other electric pressure cookers work too) to enjoy them all week long. What's shown in the photos here is only half of my preferred amount to make at one time!

If you're going to make something, why not cook lots so you can spend more enjoying life outside of the kitchen?

Instant Pot Beets

By Chef Katie Mae

Makes 4–6 servings | Ready in 35 minutes | Stores 1 week in fridge

INGREDIENTS

• 8–10 medium-size beets, washed and stems removed*

DIRECTIONS

1. Add 1 inch of water and the metal rack or steamer basket to the Instant Pot. Then add the beets—wash them first, but don’t peel the beets.
2. Lock the lid in place, and close the steam valve.
3. Turn the setting to manual and adjust the time, between 20–25 minute. The larger the beets, the longer they take to cook.
4. Let the cooker come to pressure and then cook. When the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally if you have time. Otherwise, carefully turn the pressure valve to release the pressure manually. They should be tender when pierced with a fork. If they’re not, then put the lid back on, close the valve, and steam them for 5 minutes.
5. Transfer the beets to a strainer. Then one at a time, run them under cold water as you use your hands to peel the beets. Discard the skins.
6. To chop the beets, I recommend laying a piece of parchment paper or a few towels on the cutting board first and place the beets on top. This way you’ll keep a lot of the beet juice from reaching the board which makes clean up a lot easier. Also, you may want to wear gloves while handling the cooked beets. Otherwise. you’ll turn your hands red.

CHEF'S NOTES

I like making a big batch of beets to enjoy for several meals and the smaller beets cook faster (around 15 minutes) so when buying beets, I usually buy 3 to 5 bunches of small to medium size beets. If you have extra-large beets, you may only be able to fit 3 to 4 individual beets in the pressure cooker.

When washing your beets, slice the ends to take off the greens and root end, which can be saved for another dish. They’re great in a stir-fry.