How to Cook Beet Greens

Step 1

Trim the beet greens from the beets. Leave a good inch of stem attached to the beets because that’s best for roasting beets (it stops the beets from bleeding red as much if you don’t actually cut into their flesh). Set beets aside for another use.

Step 2

Cut the stems and leave into 2 inch pieces. Put the pieces into a colander and rinse them really well. Often there is a lot of sandy, grainy dirt on the stems and leaves and you want to get rid of that.

Step 3

Put about an inch of water into a medium sauce pan and bring it to a boil.

Step 4

Add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and stir it in.

Step 5

Add your stems and leaves to the sauce pan.

Step 6

Bring back to a boil over high heat and then stir and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 3-5 minutes until a stem is very soft when pierced with a fork.

Step 7

Drain the beet greens. Be sure to use a clean colander. You don’t want the dirt from before to end up on your cooked greens.

Step 8

Return the beet greens and stems to the sauce pan or a serving dish and add about 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Stir and taste. Add salt if desired.