Beet greens are edible and tasty! This sautéed beet greens recipe will show you how to cook them easily and quickly. Just a few ingredients, vegan, gluten-free and ready in 20 minutes!
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Sautéed beet greens cook up quickly in a skillet like spinach or swiss chard, or any other hearty green. Look at 'em! So pretty! I also like to chop up the stems and add them for texture and color.
If you've ever bought fresh beets with the stems and leaves attached in the past and thought that it seems a shame to throw them out, well... that's because it is! Let's promise to never do that again!
This is kind of a recipe without a recipe. It's going to depend on how many beets you bought and how tall the leaves are. And one important note: save all the seasoning for the end, so you can adjust to your taste and the amount of greens you have.
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Sautéed beet greens are quick, easy, tasty, and a great way to reduce food waste!
- Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, and dairy free!
- Ready in less than 20 minutes.
- Easy to make using only 6 ingredients.
- A great way to reduce food waste. Instead of throwing out beet greens and stems, let's eat them, they're delicious!
- Customizable: add more or less garlic and chile flakes to your taste.
Ingredients you'll need
- Beet greens: Just cut the beet greens away from the beet and rinse them well.
- Beet stems: Yes! We're using the beet stems, too. They add a great contrasting texture.
- Olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, kosher salt: simple seasonings to let the flavor of the greens shine through.
How to make sautéed beet greens
Step 1: Prep the beet greens and stems
Remove the stems from the beet leaves, then use a good chef's knife and chop them into a small dice.
Give the greens a rough chop.
Step 2: Cook the stems and prep the garlic
Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat, then add the beet stems and let them reduce down and start to get brown and crispy, about 5 - 7 minutes. Meanwhile, chop a few cloves of garlic.
I used my Lodge carbon steel skillet for this recipe because it's lightweight, cooks evenly, and it's nice and shallow so it can hold all of the mounds of raw greens.
Disclosure: am a part of the Lodge Cast Iron Blogging Partners Program. This skillet was provided to me free of charge by Lodge Cast Iron. All opinions are my own.
Step 3: Cook the garlic and beet greens
Add the garlic to the pan and sauté just until it becomes fragrant, about one minute.
Add the beet greens to the skillet and use tongs to keep moving them and the garlic around. You don't want the garlic to get stuck on the bottom of the pan and burn.
They start out looking like you'll never be able to fit all of them in your pan, but you can just keep cookin' 'em until they shrink down to almost nothing. They are mostly water, after all.
Keep turning the beet greens, allowing them to wilt. I prefer to sauté mine until they have just barely wilted. I like them when they are heated through, but still have some heft and substance to them.
Once the greens have cooked down, season with salt and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and serve. See tip below.
Tips for cooking beet greens
- Beet greens can be sandy or gritty since they are low to the ground, so be sure to wash them thoroughly.
- It's very important to wait until the beet greens are cooked down to salt them. They start out as a LOT in the pan, but they cook down so much. If you salt at the beginning, you will have greens that are way too salty to eat. Trust me, I've done it. Just give them a kiss of salt at the end.
- This is really a use what you have kind of recipe. If you don't have 6 cups, cook them anyway, if you have more? Same. Adjust garlic to your liking and season with salt at the end and you're good!
FAQ
Beet greens and stems are 100% edible. Why wouldn't they be? And they are just about the easiest side dish you could ever wish for on a weeknight.
Sautéed beet greens are sweet, earthy, and mild in flavor and tender when cooked. If you like other cooked greens like swiss chard or spinach, you'll love the taste of beet greens.
Beet greens are high in vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, copper, manganese and potassium. They're also rich in calcium and low in calories. Enjoy them and feel good about it!
Try these beet recipes
We've learned how to cook the beet tops, so here are some ideas for the beets themselves!
- You've probably only got beet greens around because you're planning to make the beets themselves, so I suggest Oven-Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese, Orange Vinaigrette, and Mint.
- Beets add a rich earthiness to this Roasted Vegetable Salad with Charred Lemon Vinaigrette.
Recipe
Sautéed Beet Greens with Garlic and Crushed Red Pepper
Ingredients
- 6 cups beet greens
- 3 cloves garlic
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- kosher salt
Instructions
- Remove the stems from the beet leaves. Roughly chop the leaves, and finely dice the stems.
- Heat olive oil over medium in a large skillet
- Add beet greens and sauté until they are reduced in size and beginning to get brown and crisp, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add garlic and sauté just until fragrant, about one minute.
- Add all of the greens to the pan, turning frequently with tongs to keep the garlic from burning, until greens are wilted and cooked to your liking.
- Season with salt and crushed red pepper.
Notes
- This is really a use what you have kind of recipe. If you don't have 6 cups, cook them anyway, if you have more? Same. Adjust garlic to your liking and season with salt at the end and you're good!
- It's very important to wait until the beet greens are cooked down to salt them. They start out as a LOT in the pan, but they cook down so much. If you salt at the beginning, you will have greens that are way too salty to eat. Trust me, I've done it. Just give them a kiss of salt at the end.
- I used my Lodge carbon steel skillet for this recipe. It's lightweight and shallow, great for holding all the mounds of fresh greens and provides even heat.
- Once you add the greens to the pan, keep turning them with tongs, lifting what's on the bottom up to the top. This will keep your garlic from burning, and it will help the greens to cook down faster and more evenly.
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