marinated golden beets

Marinated beets are such a gift to have on hand, and they really are so easy to make. We love adding them to salads (they’re especially delicious in our spring salad), or tossing with fresh herbs for an easy starchy side. Note you can follow this method with any color beets - we often opt for golden because the mess is slightly more manageable.

marinated golden beets
~4-8 servings

Ingredients
1 - 1 1/2 pounds beets, all roughly the same size
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to roast the beets
3 tablespoons freshly squeeze orange juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Remove the tops and tails from the beets. Scrub the beets thoroughly and place them in a glass or ceramic baking dish. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and toss to coat, then add 1/3 cup of water to the dish and cover it tightly with foil.

2. Place the foil covered dish in the oven and bake the beets for 45 minutes to 1 hour, shaking the pan once or twice, until the beets can be easily pierced with a sharp knife. You can remove the foil to check around the 45 minute mark (be careful as the steam will be hot!), and simply recover with the foil to cook longer if they aren’t quite done. If the beets are different sizes, some may take longer to cook. Don’t worry about overcooking, it’s better if they are a little overcooked vs. undercooked.

3. Remove beets from the oven, uncover carefully (again, steam will be hot!) and allow to cool slightly.

4. Once cool enough to handle, use a dry paper towel to rub the skin gently - it should slip right off.

5. Dice beets into uniform cubes or chunks and place in a large glass dish. While the beets are still warm, drizzle with the orange juice, apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil along with a large pinch of sea salt and toss to coat. Taste, adding more sea salt as needed. The beets should taste delicious right away, but the flavor will continue to develop as the beets marinate.

Note: store marinated beets in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.