For those who are unfamiliar with this supernutritious plant, there are actually a myriad of ways to cook beets, or the taproot portion of the beet plant. These include the following methods:

• Steaming it and applying a bit of butter and salt
• Adding it into soups
• Eating thin raw slices as part of a salad
• Blending it with juice (e.g., a beets, apple and carrot combination)
• Incorporating it into Asian soups (e.g., make a beets soup with carrot, red dates and pork ribs)
• Incorporating it into western soups: For example, chicken soup (chicken, potatos, carrots, onions, beets) or borscht soup (cabbage, beets, dill, onion etc.)
• My toddler loves having the beets juices (from steaming) added to her rice to make ‘pink rice’!
• Add a bit of the beets juice to your baby’s solids as well for added nutrition, or even blend down the steamed beets to make a healthy vegetable puree

Some additional Cooking Tips:

• It might be a good idea to wear gloves when peeling and cutting this root vegetable to avoid staining your hands. Alternatively, wash your hands and the cutting board as soon as you can after cutting and peeling the vegetable.
• For a shorter steaming time, cut the beets into as thin slices as you can.
• Although beets can be added into soups for extra flavor and nutrition, be prepared that it will turn your soup a pinkish tinge!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cost of beets at the store was not as expensive as I thought. A bunch of beets (3 beets with the attached leaves and stems) was about $3.79 Canadian dollars. This could be because it was still summer/fall at the time I first bought them, so the costs were lower. I cooked the leaves and stems, and still had the beets for 2-3 side dishes over the course of the next few weeks.

Store beets in the fridge and it will keep for about 1-2 weeks (depending on how fresh these were when you first bought them). If you chop off the stalks (leaving about an inch remaining at the top of the beetroot), then cook the beetroot in boiling water for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through, you will also be able to then peel and slice them to freeze and use at a later date!