Kristen Grace Beets: The Lovechild of Dirt and Candy - with beauty, with food, with travel

By someone who didn’t sign up for this but now has very strong opinions about root vegetables

Let’s talk about beets. You know, those ruby-hued orbs lurking in your CSA box, looking suspiciously like they were dug up by a particularly ambitious raccoon.

Beets are the kind of food you either adore with the fiery passion of a thousand suns or regard with the same enthusiasm you’d reserve for jury duty.

They’re sweet! They’re earthy! They’re nutritious! They can turn your bathroom experience into an impromptu episode of CSI: The Toilet Bowl! What’s not to love?

For the uninitiated, the beet-curious, and those who suspect their local farmers market is attempting to sell them decorative dirt, here’s everything you need to know about these root vegetables, from their surprisingly interesting history to their nutritional benefits and the unfortunate reality of beet juice versus white countertops.

What Even Are Beets?

Beets, scientifically known as Beta vulgaris, are root vegetables in the same botanical family as Swiss chard and spinach. They grow underground, like carrots and potatoes, while their leafy greens grow above the soil. Both the roots and the leaves are edible, which is more than we can say for certain other members of the vegetable kingdom.

They come in several varieties, including:

Red beets: The classic deep-red variety responsible for approximately 90% of the beet-related kitchen crimes in my imagination.

Golden beets: Yellow-orange roots with a similarly sweet, earthy flavor and a less dramatic approach to staining your kitchen.

Chioggia beets: Candy-striped Italian heirlooms with concentric rings of red and white. They look like a vegetable that auditioned for Cirque du Soleil and got the lead role.

Baby beets: Small, tender beets harvested young. Cute, convenient, and considerably less intimidating than a root vegetable the size of a softball.

And here’s a fun fact: beets have a history that stretches back thousands of years. Ancient Mediterranean civilizations valued beet plants for their leafy greens, while the cultivation of the plump, swollen roots we recognize today developed later. By the sixteenth century, recognizable root beets were being cultivated in Europe.

In other words, people have been figuring out what to do with beets for a very long time. Humanity has had centuries to develop a better relationship with this vegetable, and yet we’re still arguing about whether it tastes like dirt.

Progress is a beautiful thing.

The Pros: Why Beets Are Basically Superheroes in Vegetable Form

1. Nutritional Powerhouses

Beets are the vegetable equivalent of someone who wakes up at 5 a.m. to do yoga, meal-preps for the week, and somehow has a spotless kitchen. They have their lives together, and frankly, it’s a little annoying.

A cup of cooked beetroot provides fiber, folate, potassium, and other nutrients, although the exact amounts depend on serving size and preparation. Folate helps your body make DNA and form healthy cells, while potassium supports normal muscle function and helps regulate blood pressure.

Beets also contain naturally occurring plant compounds called betalains, which give red and yellow varieties their distinctive colors. Researchers have studied these compounds for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, although promising laboratory findings shouldn’t automatically be interpreted as proof that eating beets prevents or treats disease.

Think of beets as a nutritious addition to your diet, not a tiny edible pharmaceutical company.

2. They Might Give Your Workout a Boost

Here’s where beets get genuinely interesting.

Beets contain dietary nitrates, which your body can convert through a series of reactions into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps blood vessels relax, influencing blood flow and blood pressure.

Researchers have investigated whether these effects can improve exercise performance, particularly endurance activities. Some studies suggest beetroot juice may provide modest benefits for certain people and types of exercise, but results vary depending on the individual, the activity, and the preparation used. It is not a guaranteed athletic-performance upgrade.

So, could beetroot juice help your next workout? Possibly.

Will it make you a marathon runner if your current exercise routine consists of walking from the couch to the refrigerator? Probably not.

Science has limits. Apparently, those limits include the consequences of skipping leg day.

3. Versatility: The Taylor Swift of Vegetables

Roast them, boil them, steam them, grate them, pickle them, blend them. Beets can do it all.

They’re the Taylor Swift of the vegetable world: endlessly adaptable, capable of reinventing themselves, and somehow always showing up in conversations where you weren’t expecting them.

Here are a few ways to eat them without feeling as though you’re participating in a particularly earnest gardening experiment:

Roasted beets: Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roast until tender. Roasting brings out their natural sweetness.

Beet salad: Pair them with goat cheese, toasted walnuts, citrus, and a tangy vinaigrette.

Pickled beets: Add them to sandwiches, salads, or whatever lunch needs a little acidity and a lot of personality.

Raw beets: Grate or thinly slice them into salads for a crunchy, colorful addition.

Beet soup: Try borscht, the traditional Eastern European soup often made with beets.

Beet smoothies: Blend cooked, cooled beets with fruit and yogurt for a colorful drink.

Beet brownies: Add beet puree to certain chocolate recipes for moisture and color. Whether you disclose the vegetable content to your family is a separate ethical question.

The scientific literature also distinguishes between whole beetroot, beetroot juice, and concentrated supplements. These aren’t nutritionally interchangeable: juice and supplements can deliver different amounts of nitrate and fiber than eating the whole vegetable.

And before you start buying beet powder by the industrial barrel, remember that a balanced diet doesn’t require you to turn every meal into a supplement delivery system.

4. They’re Pretty. Ridiculously Pretty.

Let’s not overlook aesthetics.

Beets bring serious drama to a plate. Their deep red pigments can turn an otherwise boring salad into something that looks like it belongs in a restaurant where the menu doesn’t have prices.

Golden beets offer a softer, sunny color, while Chioggia beets have those gorgeous concentric rings that make you wonder why more vegetables don’t have the decency to be this photogenic.

The pigments responsible for these colors are betalains. Red beets are particularly associated with betacyanins, including betanin, while yellow varieties contain yellow-orange betaxanthins. These pigments are also used as natural food colorants.

Of course, beet juice can stain everything from cutting boards to your favorite white shirt, but my gosh, does it make a dish look fancy.

Just remember that your kitchen is not a tie-dye studio.

5. The Sweet, Earthy Flavor

Beet lovers often describe the taste as “earthy.”

Beet haters also describe the taste as “earthy,” but with the addition of a gag reflex.

And honestly, both groups have a point.

Beets have a naturally sweet, distinctive flavor that can become more pronounced when they’re cooked. Their sweetness pairs beautifully with tangy goat cheese, citrus, nuts, and sharp vinaigrettes.

The problem is that the earthy flavor doesn’t politely excuse itself when it arrives. It’s right there, making itself comfortable, asking whether you’ve tried gardening.

If you enjoy that flavor, beets can be delicious. If you don’t, no amount of nutritional information is going to convince your taste buds to file a change-of-heart petition.

The Cons: What Beets Don’t Want You to Know

1. That “Earthy” Taste

Let’s be real: to some of us, beets taste like dirt.

Sweet dirt, sure, but still dirt.

There are people who describe the flavor as pleasantly mineral, rustic, or complex. These people might also enjoy spending an afternoon discussing soil composition.

Others would prefer their food to taste like food that has not recently been excavated.

The good news is that preparation matters. Roasting brings out their natural sweetness, while acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar can help balance their flavor. Pairing beets with creamy goat cheese or salty feta can also make them more approachable.

The bad news is that if you fundamentally hate beets, you may still hate them after introducing them to a lovely vinaigrette.

You are allowed to have boundaries.

2. Prep Work Is a Crime Scene

Cutting beets is an experience akin to filming a low-budget horror movie.

Your hands? Red.

Your cutting board? Red.

Your kitchen towel that you specifically bought because it looked lovely with the new decor? Congratulations, it’s now an abstract art piece.

The same betalain pigments that give beets their beautiful color can leave very memorable marks on kitchen surfaces and fabrics. The intensity of staining depends on the material and how quickly you clean it.

My advice? Wear an apron, use a cutting board you don’t mind staining, and clean up spills promptly.

Or buy precooked beets.

There is no shame in outsourcing root vegetable labor. You have things to do. Probably none of them involve scrubbing magenta liquid out of your grout.

3. They Turn Your Pee Pink

Nobody talks about this enough.

You eat a serving of beets, go about your day, and eventually make the deeply unfortunate discovery that your urine appears to have been sponsored by a neon highlighter.

Welcome to beeturia, the term for reddish or pink urine after consuming beets.

The discoloration is associated with beet pigments, including betacyanins, passing through your digestive system and being excreted. Not everyone experiences it, and the color change is generally harmless when it’s clearly associated with eating beets. One medical reference estimates that beeturia occurs in approximately 10% to 14% of the population, although reported rates can vary.

Beet pigments can also make your stool look reddish. Because apparently one bodily function wasn’t enough.

A quick but important note: don’t automatically assume red or pink urine is caused by food. If it appears without an obvious dietary explanation, persists, or comes with pain or other concerning symptoms, contact a healthcare professional. Visible blood in the urine warrants medical evaluation.

In other words, beets can make your bathroom experience weird, but they shouldn’t become your excuse to ignore a potential medical problem.

4. The Kidney Stone Caveat

Beets are nutritious, but they aren’t the perfect food for absolutely everyone.

Beets contain oxalates, naturally occurring compounds found in many plant foods. In susceptible people, oxalates can contribute to the formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones.

This does not mean everyone should avoid beets. Many people can enjoy them as part of a balanced diet without a problem. However, if you’ve had calcium oxalate kidney stones, ask your healthcare professional whether you need to moderate high-oxalate foods. Dietary recommendations depend on your medical history and individual risk factors.

And no, you don’t need to panic because you ate a beet salad once. The human body is complicated, but it isn’t generally waiting for one innocent vegetable to ruin your entire afternoon.

5. Texture Troubles

Beets have a texture problem, and I’m prepared to die on this hill.

Cook them too long, and they can become soft and mushy. Pickle them, and depending on how they’re prepared, they can become slippery little discs of questionable enthusiasm. Eat them raw, and you’ll encounter a much firmer, crunchier experience.

That last option isn’t necessarily bad. Raw beets can be grated or thinly sliced into salads, where their crunch can be an asset.

But biting into a thick slice of raw beet when you’re expecting something tender is a culinary plot twist nobody requested.

If you’re new to beets, roasting is probably the friendliest introduction. It softens the texture and brings out their sweetness without requiring you to develop an entirely new relationship with the concept of dirt.

*Not pictured: Beet juice staining EVERYTHING.*

So, Should You Eat Beets?

The answer depends on what you want out of your food.

If you’re looking for a colorful, nutrient-rich vegetable that provides fiber, folate, potassium, and dietary nitrates, beets are a perfectly respectable choice.

If you’re looking for a vegetable that doesn’t taste remotely like the place where it grew up, you might want to keep looking.

Beets are not a miracle cure, a substitute for medication, or a requirement for living your best healthy-girl life. The research on their nitrates and betalains is interesting, but evidence for specific health outcomes varies, and some of the more exciting findings still need further investigation.

There are also a few caveats worth knowing. People who form calcium oxalate kidney stones may need individualized dietary guidance about high-oxalate foods, including beets. And while beetroot juice can influence blood pressure, anyone considering concentrated beet products for a health purpose should discuss relevant medical conditions and medications with a healthcare professional.

For most people, though, enjoying beets as part of a varied diet is perfectly reasonable.

You don’t need to drink beet juice every morning, buy a supplement with a name like BeetMax Ultra Performance, or start referring to yourself as a beet enthusiast on LinkedIn.

How to Make Beets Actually Delicious

If you’re willing to give these little dirt nuggets a chance, here are three ways to start.

The gateway beet: Roast peeled, cubed beets with olive oil, salt, and pepper until tender. Add crumbled goat cheese and toasted walnuts. The creamy, tangy cheese and crunchy nuts balance the beets’ sweetness and earthiness.

The sophisticated beet: Thinly slice cooked beets and serve them with orange segments, arugula, pistachios, and a citrus vinaigrette. Suddenly, you’re the sort of person who serves composed salads at dinner parties.

The comfort-food beet: Try borscht, a beet-based soup with variations across Eastern and Central European cuisines. Depending on the recipe, it can include cabbage, potatoes, carrots, broth, and a dollop of sour cream. It’s hearty, colorful, and a lovely reminder that beets have culinary traditions far more interesting than their reputation suggests.

And if none of those appeals to you? That’s fine, too. There are approximately a million other vegetables waiting for your attention.

The Final Verdict

Beets are nutritious, versatile, visually spectacular, and capable of making your kitchen look like a low-budget crime scene.

They have a fascinating culinary history, naturally occurring compounds that scientists continue to study, and a flavor that inspires the sort of deeply personal opinions usually reserved for politics and pineapple on pizza.

Are they worth eating? If you enjoy them, absolutely.

Will their nutritional benefits persuade every beet skeptic to change sides? Not a chance.

Sometimes a vegetable is simply not your vegetable.

And if the beet isn’t yours, at least you now know why your bathroom might briefly resemble a neon art installation after dinner.

That’s knowledge you can take to the bank.

Fresh red, golden, and Chioggia beets showing different colors and patterns.

Recipes:

Beet Box: Turning Purple Never Felt So Violent

Editorial note: The medical information is general education, not individualized medical advice. The references support the factual claims, but they do not mean every proposed benefit of beetroot has been conclusively established in human studies.

*This post was updated October 2026*

Beets: The Lovechild of Dirt and Candy

What Even Are Beets?