Beets have been the source of a fair share of controversy over the years. Some people love their distinct taste, while others can’t get on board.
One thing is for certain, though: beets are very good for you. Beets are bursting with beneficial minerals, vitamins and plant compounds, and some studies have even found that beets show promise as a natural medicine.
Adding this root vegetable to your diet is easy, especially if you’re a juicing enthusiast. But is it possible to tone down the intense earthy flavor and get more sweetness from your beet juice? The answer is yes – you just need to peel your beets before juicing.
In this quick guide, I’ll be sharing what you need to know about juicing beets, including the advantages of peeling the skin off these veggies, and how to best prepare them for juicing.
Should I Peel Beets Before Juicing?
Like most root vegetables, beets have an earthy taste. While this earthy taste isn’t so offensive in savory meals, you might prefer for your beet juice to taste sweet. In this case, properly preparing your beets for juicing is advisable.
Peeling your beets beforehand will prevent the flavor of the beets from overpowering the flavor of the other fruits and vegetables in your juice. After all, you’re most likely adding beets to your juices for their health benefits, and it’s unlikely that you want them to offer the standout flavor.
I’d recommend peeling the skin off your beets if you’re looking for a healthier, better-tasting beet juice that nicely complements the flavors of other fruits and vegetables in your juicer.
What Are the Advantages To Peeling Beets?
The advantages of peeling your beets are as follows:
Better Taste
When you peel the skin off your beets, you can significantly reduce the taste of these root veggies. If you actually want to enjoy the taste of your juice, peeling your beets is the way forward. The earthy flavor won’t be so overpowering, so you’ll still be able to taste the sweetness from other fruits and vegetables in your juicer.
Healthier Juice
Depending on where you get your beets from, the skins may have been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides during farming. These chemicals can be difficult to remove from unpeeled beets, even if you rinse or scrub them under running water. Peeling your beets will allow you to enjoy all the nutrients from the vegetable without the risk of consuming unnatural chemicals.
Easier To Process
Not all juicers are up for the task of processing the thick skin of beets. You can save your juicer a job by peeling the skin off your beets beforehand. This should help speed up the juicing process and prevent any blockages or jamming.
What Type Of Juicer Is Best For Beet Juice?
Like most other root vegetables, beets are firm, thick, and hard. In my research and my own experiments, I’ve found that the centrifugal juicer is better equipped to process these types of veggies.
The design of centrifugal juicing machines makes them ideal for extracting juice from beets. They use fast-rotating blades that chop hard produce at high speeds. This option is more effective for extracting juice from hard produce than pressing or crushing it.
On the other hand, a slow juicer, otherwise known as a masticating juicer, helps to retain the most nutrients in beetroots. This is because the masticating process is much slower than that of a centrifugal juicer, minimizing the production of heat and oxidation. However, these machines find it harder to process solid fruits and vegetables, which means you’ll have to deal with more clogging and blockages.
Does Peeling Skin Change The Beetroot Juice Flavor?
When you peel the skin off your beetroot, you’ll remove the protective outer layer of the veggie. This layer of skin has the strongest earthy flavor. So, removing the skin from your beetroot offers some taste benefits.
You’ll still get the subtle sweetness of the beet, and you won’t be able to remove the earthiness entirely. But a peeled beet is a much better option for adding to juice recipes that feature fresh fruits with their own understated-yet-delicious flavors. The beet won’t overpower the rest of the juice.
How To Prepare Beets For Juicing
If you buy fresh, unpeeled beets from your local supermarket or food market, you’ll need to prepare them before throwing them into your juicing machine.
Here’s how to prepare your beets before juicing:
1. Wash Your Beetroot
First, regardless of whether you plan to peel your beetroot, I would highly recommend washing it before using it. Washing beetroots can remove any dirt that may have embedded itself into the veggie.
I recommend soaking your beetroots for up to 10 minutes in room temperature water, before washing them with a toothbrush or vegetable brush to get rid of any packed-in dirt of pesticides. It’s important to wash all your fruits and vegetables, even if you peel them afterward, to stay on the safe side.
2. Cut Off The Leaves and Stems
The next step is to cut off the stems and leaves from your beetroots. You can juice the greens, but it’s easier to do this separately from the vegetable itself.
3. Peel The Beetroots
After removing the stem and greens, you can now peel the outer skin off your beetroots.
4. Start Juicing
That’s all the preparation work done – now for the fun part. You can combine beetroots with lemon or other citrus fruits for a rich vitamin C boost, ginger and carrots for nutritional value, and apples for a healthy burst of sweetness. Once you’ve juiced your produce, drink up!
Should I Chop Them Up?
Whether or not you chop your beets depends on the size of your juicer’s feed chute. A wider chute will mean less prep time, and you may be able to drop a whole beet straight into the machine without having to chop it up at all.
In short, chopping your beets isn’t necessary, but you’ll probably still have to bring out the knife and chopping board to remove the leaves and stems.
