Freezing Beets
Since beets are almost exclusively used in a cooked
form, which means that losing the raw texture is less important, so they do
freeze fairly well. Here's how to freeze beets to store in your freezer
at home. Freezing keeps beets safe to eat almost indefinitely, but the
recommended maximum storage time of 12 months is best for taste and quality.
Directions
Step 1 - Selecting the beets
The most important step!
Select deep, uniformly-red, tender, young beets. You need beets that are FRESH and
crisp. Limp, old beets will make nasty tasting canned beets.
Guests will probably throw them at you.. Select
firm, crisp beets. Remove and
discard any soft, diseased, spotted and chewed up beets.
How many beets and where to get them
You can grow your own, pick your own, or buy them at the grocery store. About
7 pounds of 2- to 21/2-inch diameter beets makes about 8 pints of beets.
Step 2 - Trim the ends and cut into smaller pieces
Just take a sharp knife and trim off beet tops, leaving an 1/2 to 1 inch of stem
and roots to prevent bleeding of color.

Step 3 -Wash the beets!
I'm sure you can figure out how to scrub the beets in
plain cold or lukewarm water using your hands or a vegetable brush.
It's easier to wash them after you've cut off the tops.
Step 4 - Cook the beets
Put similar sized beets (hopefully, they're ALL of a similar size so they
take the same time to cook) together with enough boiling water to cover
them and cook until tender (usually for small beets 25 to 30 minutes;
for medium beets 45 to 50 minutes, in an open pot, or 10 - 15 minutes in
a pressure cooker). Drain and discard the liquid.
Step 5 - Cool the beets
You can pour ice over them, or just let them cool on their own.
It's just to cool them enough so you can handle them to remove the
skins, stems, roots and then slice or quarter them.
Step 6 - Trim, peel and slice
Trim
off the roots and stems. The skins should easily slide off. Slice the
beets into 1/4-inch slices. You can leave the beets whole (if they
are small, say 1 inch or less), or quarter them or slice them into
1/4-inch slices.
Step 7 - Package, label and freeze
Package in ziploc freezer bags, or better, in a vacuum food saver bag.
Label; e.g., "Beets" and the current date. Seal and freeze.
Freezing keeps beets safe to eat almost indefinitely, but the
recommended maximum storage time of 12 months is best for taste and quality.
The quality of the frozen beets is maintained best in a very cold
freezer (deep freezer), and one that keeps them frozen completely
with no thaw cycles. Excluding any air from inside the bags which
leads to freezer burn, by using vacuum-sealed bags, is also important
to maintaining quality.