Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: An Instant Pot makes it easy to get perfectly tender beets in minutes. Use Instant Pot beets in your favorite recipes or dice them up and enjoy them as a simple side dish.
How long it takes: 5 minutes of prep, plus 40 minutes in the Instant Pot (including time to pressurize)
Equipment you’ll need: Instant Pot
Servings: 4
When it comes to cooking beets, you have options! While I love roasted beets and air fryer beets, if you want whole beets that are moist and tender, the Instant Pot is the way to go.
These Instant Pot beets are pressure cooked, which makes them fork-tender and perfect for adding to a salad (like my beet and feta salad or asparagus ribbon salad with beets and burrata), puréeing into hummus, or layering onto bruschetta with goat cheese.
Easy Instant Pot Beets
The easiest way to prepare beets. If you roast whole beets in the oven, they’ll take at least an hour, more if they are larger. Boiling beets on the stove can be messy, and you have to keep on eye on them. Instant Pot beets take about 45 minutes, the time is all hands-off and you don’t have to peel them ahead of time, which is always a bonus in my book.
Make as many or as few as you like. Okay, maybe the “as many part” is a bit of a stretch, but you can cook as little as a single beet in the Instant Pot and as much as three pounds, which is a whole lot of beets! Basically, the limit is how many you can fit.
Great for meal prep. Make a batch of Instant Pot beets on the weekend to use in salads, wraps, sandwiches, and pasta throughout the week.
Ingredient Notes
- Beets: Trim and scrub them well. Although you will be slipping off the skin, you still don’t want them cooking in dirty water. Use golden beets for a milder, sweeter flavor.
- Water: Water simply provides the steam needed to cook the beets. If your tap water has an off-flavor to it, use filtered or bottled.
- Instant Pot: You’ll also need the wire rack that fits inside the Instant Pot.
How to make Instant Pot Beets
After you prepare the beets (wash and cut off the greens), pour the water into the Instant Pot, then arrange the beets inside on a wire rack.
Secure the lid, then set for Pressure Cook 25 minutes (Manual, High Pressure). Once the timer has gone off, allow 10 minutes natural release.
Once 10 minutes has elapsed, carefully release any remaining pressure and remove the lid.
Allow the beets to cool enough that you can handle them safely, then slip the skin off under cold running water.
Cooking Time
When a beet is done, it should be fork tender. That means if you poke a fork into the beet, it should go in without resistance.
We tested this recipe multiple times using different size beets. As you would expect, the larger the beet, the more time it took to become tender. For best results, cook beets that are roughly the same size.
If you cook more than 1 pound of beets in your Instant Pot, note that it will take longer to come to pressure. The cooking time will remain the same.
How To Serve Beets
If you love beets, simply seasoning them with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of good olive oil might just be enough for you! For a little extra flavor and flair, try one of these ideas.
- Vinaigrette: Whisk balsamic vinegar (or another vinegar you like) with olive oil and drizzle this over the cooked beets.
- Lemon or orange juice: Like vinegar, citrus juice will brighten up the flavor of Instant Pot beets and tame some of their earthiness.
- Tahini sauce: Drizzle tahini sauce over beets, or use it to dress a beet salad.
- Brown butter: For something a little more decadent, pair your beets with brown butter.
- Honey or maple syrup: Lean into the natural sweetness of these Instant Pot beets by tossing them with a touch of honey or maple syrup.
- Garnishes: Goat cheese, feta, thyme, rosemary, and toasted walnuts are all excellent finishing touches for beets.
Meal prep Instant Pot beets and refrigerate the cooked beets for up to a week.
Raw beets: Fresh uncooked beets will keep in your refrigerator for at least 7 to 10 days. Store them in a plastic bag but make sure there is no moisture in the bag.
Cooked beets: Refrigerate cooked beets in an airtight container; they can also be frozen in a storage container or zip-top bag for up to 3 months, then thawed before cooking or using.
To serve: Reheat cooked beets in the microwave or eat them cold.
More Instant Pot Favorites
Instant Pot Beets
Ingredients
- 1 lb. beets, trimmed and scrubbed (about 3 large beets)
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Add 1 cup water to Instant Pot. Arrange beets on wire rack inside Instant Pot. Secure lid. Set for Pressure Cook 25 minutes (Manual, High Pressure), with 10 minutes natural release (see note regarding cooking time).
- Once 10 minutes has elapsed, carefully release any remaining pressure and remove the lid. Allow the beets to cool enough so you can handle them. Slip peelings off under cold running water.
Notes
- Yield: You can cook up to three pounds of beets in the Instant Pot, as long as they fit. Cooking time remains the same but the Instant Pot will take longer to come to pressure.
- How to choose beets: The size of the beets affects the cooking time. For best results, choose large beets that are roughly the same size, 3 to 4 inches in diameter. If your beets are quite a lot smaller, decrease cooking time.
- Storage: Cooked beets can be refrigerated in a covered container for up to a week. They can be frozen for up to a month in a freezer-safe container or bag. Thaw overnight before serving or reheating.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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