How to Make Beet Root Powder

I love experimenting with the various veggies I grow in my garden, especially when I have a huge bounty.  Sometimes, those experiments take me beyond the “practical, regular everyday” home cooking practices that most people might want to try at home.  Making beet root powder, I suspect, is one of those things!

garden beets

It all started with the idea of making beet chips – you know like the ones that come in the really expensive bags of veggie chips in the health food aisle. I could almost taste them as I sliced three big beets and put them in the dehydrator.
dried beet chips
It took two days to dry them until they were actually crispy.  As you can see, they didn’t come out looking like expensive veggie chips.  They came out looking… well, let’s say they were a little weird.  And as for taste – they were quite sweet and tasted very much like a beet.  The dehydrator took out all the water and left all the things that makes a beet a beet – the sweetness, the earthy flavour and the colour.  If you really, really love those things then you might like dehydrated beets.  We did not.
 
Not wanting to waste these dried edibles, I took things a little further and turned those chips into beet root powder with the help of our coffee grinder.

beet chips in coffee grinder

ground beet chips in grinder

beet powder

beet powder in jar

My husband, children and close friends thought I had definitely gone off the deep end.  But, 1 tsp of beet root powder has the equivalent nutrition of one whole beet!  That’s pretty powerful.  And so, despite or maybe in spite of their laughter, I’ve been using my beet powder in all sorts of recipes -soups, stews, cakes, apple sauce, yogurt, smoothies – you name it, I’ve tried it!

How much powder I use depends on the recipe and how much I want the color and flavor to influence the end result.

Sadly, I’ve run out of beet powder – but if there’s another great beet harvest, you’ll know what I’ll be doing!

10 Comments

  1. Dear Getty, Thanks for the tip on how to make beet root powder. I have a dehydrator and a coffee grinder so I am going to try it. I am interested in the nitric oxide available from the powder.

  2. Hi Getty I was wondering if you think that making beetroot powder is a way to make good money on the side? I also saw that you can make sugar beet homemade sugar I was thinking of selling to the local farmers market what do you think? Thank you,Marci

    1. Hi Marci,
      Interesting question. You’d have to do some market research to see if there is any interest in buying beet powder at your local farmers market. I have not tried to sell my beet root powder. I think you would need a lot of beets to get enough quantity to sell. If you go for it, let us know how it goes.

      Good luck,
      Getty

    1. No, you can’t taste the beet flavor at all. The color changes only a little bit. Just the way my family likes it. If you want to bring out the beet flavor, simply add more powder.

  3. Have you realized that that beetroot can be used as pink eye shadow? Many people who have experimented with natural (the real natural :)) eye shadows use beetroot powder!

  4. Hi, Thanks for sharing your way of doing betroot powder. I will definetly try it. Do you have any ifea, how long these powder can be kept?

    1. As long as you keep the powder completely dry, it will last for years! Never shake beet powder or any dry spices by holding the jar directly above a bubbling pot of anything – even a little bit of steam will add humidity that can lead to powders becoming rock solid.

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