The Tip For Never Peeling Beets Again, If You Have An Instant Pot
If you tend to think of the beet as your spirit vegetable, you're earthy and people either love you or hate you. You're thick skinned. But, if that personal layer of protection is peeled back, your colorful side freely flows. And, when it comes to the color of the beet (Beta vulgaris L.), its red hue shows up due to a pigment named betanin, which accounts for between 75% and 95% of its hue, according to the National Library of Medicine. When consumed regularly, the library notes them as a powerhouse at protecting against stress-related illnesses, while improving digestion and blood quality.
Not unlike your own proverbial thick skin, sometimes it can prove difficult to peel the real-deal layers back on a beet. It gets messy and even slippery at times. You might try peeling a raw one like a potato with a peeler, as Food Network suggests, or wait until they're cooked so you can easily rub off the skins with a paper towel. But what's better? Using an Instant Pot (or any other type of multi-cooker) can be a total game changer.
How an Instant Pot changes a beet's prep time
You might not even notice the skins after cooking beets in an Instant Pot, according to America's Test Kitchen. While testing recipes for their "Mediterranean Instant Pot" cookbook, testers realized this cooking method melted the skins. "I was delighted to discover that not only did they become tender, they became so tender they were barely discernible after cooking," test cook Nicole Konstantinakos.
Cooking beets in the Instant Pot is also a time saver. America's Test Kitchen notes up to an hour of traditional cook time, but Pressure Cook Recipes shares a recipe for beets that requires just eight to 30 minutes, depending upon the size of the beets.
Pressure Cook Recipes' how-to for cooking skin-on beets requires a cup of water and cooks the beets upon a trivet within the pot. With their method, there's no need to rub away the skins, as they will have dissolved, as America's Test Kitchen notes.