Whether you grew them yourself or bought them at Costco, by cooking 2 different coloured beets at the same time you can create a museum worthy salad or side dish.
I don't mean to toot my own bicycle bell here, but I've invented something fantastic. This isn't like the time I thought I invented quesadillas.
Like most inventions ombre beets were an accident.
In the year 2010 I cooked some beets as I always do - by roasting them in the oven wrapped in tinfoil. I used both gold and red beets in the same tin foil packet. When I unwrapped the tinfoil and popped the skins off with a paper towel I saw the yellow beets were now tinged with red. They sort of looked tie-dyed.
I've been doing them this way ever since.
The moment of slicing the golden beets is when you'll WOW.
My invention will probably sweep the nation, so prepare yourself. I may be unable to post for the next few weeks due to the onslaught of magazine, radio and television interviews coming my way. I may even end up on the cover of Vogue.
You can either serve them immediately with the subtle wash of red beet as they come out of the oven, or you can soak the golden beets in the red beet juice from the tinfoil packet.
Just pour the juice into a bowl and add your golden beets, then swirl them around to evenly coat them. Leave for 15 minutes, stirring them around the odd time to absorb the red beet juice. You can also put them in the fridge like that overnight for a cold beet salad with even more ombre effect.
Ombre Effect Beets
An easy method to create a ombre or tie dye effect for beets.
Ingredients
- Red beets
- Golden beets
Instructions
- Wrap however many beets you want, making sure you have both red and gold in 2 layers of tinfoil. Make sure steam can't escape and there are no leaks in the packet.
- Roast in a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour. I just place the packet directly on the oven rack.
- When beets are done remove them from the oven and let them sit in the packet until they've cooled slightly. Be careful when opening the tinfoil it will release a lot of steam.
- Using a paper towel grasp each beet and slide the skin off.
- Toss all the beets together and serve whole for a surprise, or sliced for artistic effect.*
Notes
*For a deeper ombre effect, save the red juice in the tinfoil packet and pour it into a bowl or other container. Place the golden beets in the juice and toss to cover evenly. Refrigerate overnight.
Use cold for a beautiful beet salad or hot for an artistic side dish.
What's so fantastic about this technique is that you don't have to do anything more than what you already do when you cook beets. You just make sure your beets are 2 different colours.
The longer they marinate the further in the red will bleed.
24 hours soaking
48 hours soaking
Obviously this works best with golden and red beets, but it will also make an ombre effect with beets that are different colours of red.
We're almost into pickled beet season by the way so if you always want to make them but also always forget try my pickled beet recipe this year. It's good. It's really good. I use them to make this beet salad all year long.
O.K., I know you've been waiting this whole post to tell me how beets are gross and taste like dirt. Have at it.
Crazy! I absolutely agree with Ned. Only I'd say your site is a 10 out of 10. I saw the "Fire Box" on a different website and clicked the link and now I am in love! Yay!
Your site is 4 *'s, a 9 out of a possible 10 and one that I just discovered and will return to frequently. The "Fire Box" grabbed me & "tie-dyed beets" hooked me.
Great job!
I make tie dyes. I pop in and say "Hi" everywhere I see the word mentioned. I also love food. Works out great. Love beets too. Thanks for posting this. Thanks from Jimmy Tie Dyes.
Karen, you're hilarious. I was having a wreck of a day and then, like magic, you made me laugh over beets. BEETS. and then I thought how fantastic your beet salad with goat cheese would look with these and maybe some of those crazy spiral beets thrown in too. Yeah, and then you made me hungry. I've got to get to the farmers market, stat!
and are you using one of those fancy digital SLRs for these gorgeous pics?
Sera!!! I never even THOUGHT of making the beet salad with these. I'm such a wiener. Thanks! - karen
Love this! I too thought you were going to tie dye something, curtains or a couch or a cat or something!
Will definitely try this, it's sooo cool.
Fantastic! My 5 son had been nagging me to make tie dye shirts all summer. Today we finally did it. While he was doing his shirts I did old stained napkins--but what I really wanted to tell you is that we were checking out some You tube how to videos and there was one where they made the dyes out of food. Talk about worlds colliding.
Great post!
When I started to read this post, I totally thought you were going to do tie dying with beets. Right up to the end, even after roasting them (which seemed like a strange, even if delicious, choice to my crafty mind), I was thinking you were going to whip out an (organic cotton) tshirt and work some natural dye magic ;)
Clearly I've been reading too many crafty and not enough foody blogs recently! Gotta love a good beet, though. Have you tried the striped variety? Maybe called candy stripe? Slice into one of those and try not to take pictures;)
Well, what would happen if you put a plain white t-shirt into the bottom of the pan that the beets were roasting in? The oven temp isn't enough to start cotton on fire, and you could end up with culinary tie-die, AND a starchy, pretty side-dish...
Ginger ... I'm going to have to try that. I realize you were probably joking. But I'm going to have to try that. :) - karen
Did you??!
No one in my house likes beets but me - I think I'll make these just for myself and everyone will give them a try since they are sooooo pretty!
I think a tie-dyed beet is the only way I'll have anything to do with tie-dye. Cause I think tie-dye clothes are U-G-L-Y. ...but that's just me...
I love beets and this is a fabulous idea. My only problem is that I've never been able to find a golden beet in a store. Ever. I've looked at Whole Foods and other natural food stores as well as plain old grocery stores. Where do you find them?
Huh. I admit, I don't see that all that often, but they are around. I found these golden beets at my regular old grocery store (Loblaws if you're in Canada) in the organic section.
So gonna do this for our next dinner-get-together. and don't worry, i won't take credits...just the credit of discovering yet another brilliant thing in the www-world. HA! to my friends who think I spend way too much time with my laptop 8-)
you could always just take a tie dyed beet slice and use it to stamp a pattern on a t-shirt....
beet tie dye
What do you do with beets? I mean, I know people eat them, but are there, like, famous beet recipes?
If the beets are young and realllyyyy good they're sweet and delicious and earthy. And you just eat em. You can add salt, pepper and some balsamic vinegar. Or make a sauce out of a teeny bit of beet juice, vinegar and sugar. That would be the famous "Harvard Beet". Go get em ...
From the comments so far, it sounds like the craze has started. Just remember us "little people" when you get all rich and famous.
Tres cool! Too bad I can't stand beets; taste like dirt to me. But they sure are purty to look at.
Love your blog, Karen! I look forward to your posts. They always put a smile on my face.
Dude. I'm pretty sure I invented putting your french fries in the other side of the Big Mac box.
Karen, you are hilarious.
I hate tie dye too. But the beets are cool. And I want to see what happens to you when you try and tie dye the cat. (Tie Dye Die?)
Yes! Please take lots of photos when you do it.
Always the trendsetter! I think you ought to work up some insanely expensive beet tye-die KIT and market them to Fancy People. Send one to Oprah to get the ball rolling.
[So quick! take this post down!] Heh.
I don't even like beets and I want these now. Sexy macro shots by the way. You did them beets justice.
Thanks Lindsey! Macro shots are my favourite. Even if they DO give me a blinding headache. In my eyeballs. And my eyeball nerve thingy that shoots to the back of your head somewhere.
Spectacular...got me thinking what other foods I can colour with other foods. Also, I wonder what would happen if a gal sliced 'em thin and put them in a food dehydrator or oven on a baking sheet? Tie-dyed beet chips, preserved for all to see. Hippies would rejoice.