If you’re wondering how to cook beets to make them taste like vegetable candy, you need to know that roasted beets are the BEST. Read on! Save This Recipe! Enter your email and I'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you'll get new recipes from me every week! By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Happy Healthy Mama.
This post was first published Sept. 2015. Recipe card was updated 2018.
So, yes. I put both the words beets and candy in the title of this post. Candy legitimately belongs in the same title as a recipe for roasted beets. Wait! I’m not crazy. When you roast beets with coconut oil, their sweetness comes out and if there ever was a vegetable that deserves the name Vegetable Candy, it’s Coconut Oil Roasted Beets. 
Roasted beets are the BEST! I didn’t even realize I liked beets until I was an adult. I’m pretty sure the only beets I was served as a kid were canned beets. If you’ve only ever had canned beets, I urge you to give them another try.
Let me assure you, these ARE NOT canned beets. Repeat after me: These are not canned beets!
I can thank my CSA box for introducing me to beets as an adult. Not wanting to waste the food I was paying for, I started experimenting with how to cook them. Lo and behold, I discovered the goodness that is roasted beets. 
How to Cook Beets (So they taste like candy!)
You’ve got to roast ’em! This is one of those recipes that I’ve been making for years now but figured it was too simple to share.
Then I thought about the fact that there are probably a lot of people out there who don’t get beets in a CSA box and have only tasted canned beets and therefore pass them by in the grocery store. That’s a tragedy and I felt compelled to help change it.
For full disclosure, I’m the only one in my family who loves beets. As a baby/young toddler, Luke loved them right along with me, but now he’s a 3-year-old who’s a much more reluctant eater. (I knew the day was coming!) Meghan claims to not like the flavor much (what?!) and Tim tolerates roasted beets, but wouldn’t order a roasted beet salad at a restaurant like I do.
I still roast beets and think you should, too, even if you think you’re family won’t love them. Here’s the thing. Food acceptance often comes down to exposure.
Kids (and husbands!) benefit from multiple exposures to foods, and eventually learn to like previously rejected foods. It’s happened in this family plenty of times. Plus, I love them. Like, really, really love them. Their nutritional value is hard to beat. (See what I did there? Ha!) Beets will be a mainstay in this house. 
Now these are delicious straight from the bowl, nothing added. But I also love tossing them into a salad and often have a bowl of roasted beets in the fridge for that purpose. It adds a fun variety of flavor and texture to a green salad.
Ready to give this recipe a try?! I hope you love roasted beets (Vegetable Candy!!) as much as I do! Please let me know what you think. If you love coconut flavor, give this Coconut Rice recipe a try!
How to Make Roasted Beets
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Coconut Oil Roasted Beets (AKA Vegetable Candy!)
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This is the BEST way to cook beets! When you roast beets in coconut oil, they taste like candy!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds beets, peeled and diced
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread your diced beets onto a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with coconut oil and toss to evenly coat all the beets. Add the salt and toss again to coat with the salt.
- Roast in the preheated oven 35-45 minutes, until the beets are soft, slightly caramelized, and starting to get crispy. Cook them shorter for soft and not crispy, longer if you like the crispy edges. Be careful not to burn, them, though. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35-45 minutes
Nutrition
- Calories: 183
- Sugar: 19 grams
- Fat: 7.2 grams
- Carbohydrates: 27 grams
- Protein: 4.6 grams
Does it matter on the color, like if the beets are red or yellow beets? I just got yellow beets in my imperfect produce box.
Nope, the color doesn’t matter! Golden beets are delicious roasted, also. 🙂
Mine never made it to caramelized, and I cooked them for over an hour. And they never had a sweet taste. They tasted okay …. kinda earthy …. but not candy-like.
What am I doing wrong?
I think the best way to make everyone loves the beets is try to advoid making them disgusting such a canning them or else. Maybe this kind of candy would help my child eat them more. Thank a lot.
Haha! You are exactly right. 🙂
I am definitely going to try this. Beets are supposed to be a great anti inflammatory food which is super healthy for everyone. I can’t wait to try. Thanks for deciding to post this easy recipe.
You’re welcome! This is definitely one of my all-time favorite recipes! 🙂
Wondering if you could share the nutritional info on this recipe?
Do you have any tricks for peeling raw beets?
I either use a pairing knife or my vegetable peeler. I cut the top and bottom off and then peel from there. I like using the vegetable peeler better. I never have a problem–what issues are you having?
WOW!!! Why did I wait so long to make these. You are right I could probably eat the whole tray! Delicious thank you for sharing.
Thanks for your feedback, Vannara! 🙂
Just made these little candies and am trying not to eat them all before dinner. Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!! I had 4 beets from my garden because I didn’t want to roast too many. My kids now claim they don’t like roasted beets although they loved them last year. No surprise – they like these.
Yay! I’m so glad to hear this, Carol. 🙂
Made these roasted beets today and they were awesomeness! Could eat them all. Next time will definitely have to make more.
I could eat a whole batch of these, also! Thanks for letting me know you tried them. 🙂
Did you use refined coconut oil? I’m confused. Doesn’t regular unrefined coconut oil have a smoke point of 350 degrees? Every time I’ve tried to roast with coconut oil it smoked, even close to 350.
Yes, I used refined (organic) coconut oil when roasting.
Hi, Do you cook your beets before you peel them or do you peel them raw? Thanks!
I peel them raw, then dice them, then roast. 🙂
Can you freeze this?
I haven’t tried it, so I’m not sure. I do think it would work, though. Please let me know if you try it!
I just just got some Chioggia Beets (red and white striped one’s) Im gonna give this recipe a try with those, im sure they will really look like candy then! 🙂
I just received two giant beets in my CSA and was wondering what to do with them when I came upon your recipe. Yuumm!!!!! Thanks!!! I made them and they are super tasty!
Glad you liked these, Melanie!
Made the beets tonight, first time using coconut oil as well – turned out great, really do taste like candy. Thank-you for such an easy and great tasting recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you liked these–thanks so much for letting me know!
Just made these and threw them in my salad. Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome! 🙂
I want to make these as a side dish for Christmas dinner. If I make them the day before will they be as good the next day reheated??? Or should I serve them cold?
They will be good reheated! I like them much better warm than cold.
Oooh that looks amazing. Do you think it would work with frozen beets? I have some on order from Azure later this month & that would be a great quick side dish.
I don’t see why not!
Simple whole foods that taste good. Yes please!
Ooh I have to try this! You, also, have never diced them, usually doing wedges when I roast them. But our favorite way has been to peel, quarter and freeze them, then add to our smoothies. Adding a beet turnsturns normally muddy colored smoothies (with both greens and berries) into a beautiful bright pink that makes my girls think it’s going to be super sweet! It does add some sweetness, but it seriously gets them to drink more than a typically colored smoothie, which I love. I however want to taste my beets (love a carrot, Apple, ginger and beet smoothie for me) so I’m going to try this today!
Do you add them to your smoothie raw?
I do! I often peel them, quarter and freeze, then add them to smoothies. But I will add them fresh also. Depending on the other flavors they aren’t very noticeable, but my littlest one loves them even if they are quite strong. She (21 months) was also a big fan of the “vegetable candy” way of roasting!! I’ve done it twice now and I had to double the recipe the second time because I wanted to have some too lol. We made a delicious side of roasted sweet potatoes and beets, and now I want to try using it as a hash, with eggs, or adding sausage and topping with a little cheese … So good!!
I am going to have to try adding it raw to our smoothies. I’ll bet the color is just beautiful!
I’m with you. I LOVE beets to the max. I’ve never chopped them up small like this. I’m totally going to do this next week during our 2nd Whole30.
I started doing it this way when Luke was a baby and have stuck with it. They cook faster and are the perfect size for sprinkling in salads!