Cooking beets in a pan is a very long matter, so it takes a huge amount of time to prepare a dish where this ingredient will need to be added. So instead, it’s better to cook the beets in a bag in the microwave, after spending about 10 minutes on it and significantly simplifying the cooking process.
Beetroot preparation
First of all, if you want to cook beets quickly in the microwave in a bag, you should take care of preparing the vegetable for this process. After all, when we buy it or bring it from the garden, you can see the adhering dirt on it, which will stain the package, and maybe the equipment itself. Therefore, before sending the root crop into a package, it should be thoroughly washed with a brush and then allowed to dry, since wet vegetables should not be put in the microwave. And of course, it is better to pick up vegetables of the same, small size, trying to make the weight of one beet about 150-200 grams, because otherwise, at the end of cooking, one root crop will be digested and the other raw.
Beet Bag
After you wash the root crops, you can think about how to cook beets in the microwave in a bag. And the most important thing here is the stage of placing the vegetable in a baking dish. First of all, you can put the root crop only in a dense food bag made of cellophane or in the sleeve for baking in the oven.
So, after taking out the bag, you should first tightly tie it with a sewing thread on one side. Then our washed and dried beets are placed there, and it is just as accurately tied from the opposite side. No need to pour water into the bag. If you just took an ordinary dense bag, then, of course, it will need to be tied only on one side. After that, 2-3 punctures with a knife should be done in the container, and it will be possible to place it inside the unit.
Beetroot Cooking Time
However, before you start cooking, you need to find out how long it will take you to cook the beets in a bag in a microwave without water. It turns out that everything here depends on the power of the equipment. Most often, in microwave ovens, the maximum power is 700-850 watts. In this case, a medium-sized root crop will be cooked within 10 minutes, and a small one - about 5-7 minutes. However, if you are lucky and your equipment allows you to cook at a power of 1700-2500 W, then in this case you should not go far from the microwave, as the beetroot cooking time here will be less than five minutes.
Vegetable cooking process
And now, finally, we move on to finding out how to cook beets easily and quickly in the microwave in a bag. So, having determined the time for boiling the root crop and placing it in the sleeve, you need to put it on the refractory dish and set the timer for the calculated time, after which you can go to do other things.
During cooking, the bag “inflates”, becomes like a balloon, a vacuum is formed inside it, and due to this the beets will be cooked. As soon as the time runs out, the microwave will turn off, the dish can be pulled out of it, gently cut the bag with a knife and let the beets cool. Well, after that, the beets will only have to be cleaned and act according to the further instructions of the recipe for the dish you want to cook.
Cooking beets in the microwave for vinaigrette in a bag
Separately, it is worth mentioning the preparation of the root crop for vinaigrette. As we know, for this dish beets will need to be cooked and cut into small cubes. Therefore, to simplify the task, you can slightly change the principle of preparing a vegetable for laying in a vinaigrette.
To do this, before cooking beets in a microwave in a bag, you will need to not only wash it thoroughly, but also clean it, and cut it into thick rings. Only after this we put the root crop in a bag, tying its edges, as indicated earlier, put it on a refractory dish and place in the microwave.
But thanks to the fact that we previously sliced the beets, set the time equal to five minutes on the technique, set the microwave oven at full power and set off to cut other ingredients. When time is up, the package will need to be opened, the beets cooled, and then cut into cubes, as required by the salad recipe.
Cook the vegetable without a packet
It happens that you decide to cook the beets in a bag in the microwave, and then it turned out that you simply did not have a tight package. However, this is not a reason to despair and get a pan to cook the ingredient in the old grandfather way. It is possible to weld the root crop without a packet, in any refractory container that closes with a lid.
First of all, as in the case of cooking in a bag, you need to thoroughly wash the beets, and then put them in a pan that can be put in the microwave. Then we add water to the container so that it covers its bottom by 1 cm, close it with a lid and send it to the microwave oven. Next, set the technology timer for 10 minutes, turn on the microwave at full power and then just wait for the result. In the end, as soon as the device turns off, you just have to get the beets, cool it and treat it as required by the recipe.
The second option for cooking beets without a packet
There is another way to get out of the situation if you can not cook the beets in the bag in the microwave due to the lack of dense cellophane. In this case, we need a refractory dish, a plastic lid and small wooden skewers.
Naturally, first you need to thoroughly wash the root crop, and then pierce each beet to the middle with a wooden skewer over the entire surface of the vegetable: bottom, top and sides, making about five punctures. After that, we put the vegetables on a dish suitable for placement in the microwave, and cover them with a plastic lid with an open valve.
Next, put the beets in the microwave, turn on the device at full power and set the timer for 10 minutes. After this time, the microwave oven will turn off, but root crops must be allowed to stand there for another 3 minutes. And after this, the vegetables can already be taken out, cooled and then treated with them as required by the instruction.
Microwave replacement
But there are also such cases when cooking beets in a microwave in a bag is also impossible because you simply do not have this unit. First of all, for this purpose you can use a slow cooker. In order to cook the root crop in it, it, of course, first will need to be thoroughly washed and cut in half. Then we put the vegetable in the bowl of the unit, fill it with water, select the "Legumes" mode, set the timer for an hour and set off to do our own thing. After the allotted time, the beets will be ready. And if you need to prepare a vegetable for laying in a vinaigrette, then it can be cleaned and cut into rings, and then set the timer for half an hour, which will save even more time.
Well, if you don’t have a multicooker, then in this case you will need an oven where you can also cook beets. Naturally, as in previous cases, first you have to thoroughly wash the vegetable, and then each beet will need to be individually wrapped in foil without leaving a gap. Next, turn on the oven, heat it to maximum temperature, put root crops there and set the timer for half an hour. After the allotted time, we take out the beets, carefully remove the foil, cool the vegetable, and then you can safely cut it into a salad or any other dish.
Mistress note
And now you know exactly how to boil the beets in the microwave in a bag. However, it is also important to remember a few nuances of preparing the root crop, which will help you facilitate and simplify the process of cooking vegetables:
- It is best to wash the beets before putting them in a bag with a brush or an iron sponge, because in this case they will not only clean the dirt on the vegetable, but also reduce the thickness of its skin, making the root crop cook faster.
- It will be much easier to remove the peel from the beet, if before that it is placed under ice water, then the peel will literally lag behind the root crop by itself.
- Before you put the beets in a bag, you should trim its tail, because otherwise it will lead to the fact that cellophane can break.
- After you get the beets in a bag from the microwave oven, you should be very careful, because when you open it, you release very hot air from there. So you need to be careful to avoid getting burned.
- Having taken the vegetable out of the bag, stick a knife or a toothpick into it. If they pass freely into the pulp of beets, then it is completely ready for use, and if not, then it must be re-placed in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
- According to the same principle as with beets, it is possible to cook carrots and potatoes in a microwave oven, only in this case, their boiling time will be about 5-7 minutes.