Beets are one of those vegetables I tend to forget about. Once I’m eating and loving them I remember how good they taste, but until then, they slip under the vegetable radar as just another hearty root vegetable.

Oh, the humble beetroot.

So, in order to keep my beet-love alive, I’ve been eating them almost daily and experimenting in various ways how to prepare them. I can assure you, my digestive system is tinted pink.

Sorry for the over share, but eating, digesting, and subsequently passing beets from the bod is a really accurate indicator of health and the inner-workings of the digestive system. Try eating beets and seeing how long it takes for them to come out the other end. This is called the “Food Transit Time” and it indicates how long it takes for a food to be digested and passed from your system. After consuming beets your stools and/or urine will be tinted pink hours later. What matters is how long is takes for the pinkish/reddish tint to appear in your toilet. In the beet-test, a supreme transit time is between 12 and 24 hours, while the norm in the Western Diet is between 60 and 100 hours. The longer the transit time, the longer that gunk sits in in the bowels, and the more likely we are to develop disease and other issues.

Enough toilet talk? Great. The bottom line: eat more beets (and fiber), educate yourself on your digestive transit time, and enjoy all the benefits of consuming more of this root vegetable.

This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy beetroot. Roasting the beets whole completely changes the texture and renders them softer, sweeter, and a bit earthier. They taste fantastic added into salads, sandwiches, hummus, and eaten on their own too. I like drizzling sliced roasted beets with olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh orange zest. They also taste wonderful with arugula, fresh tomatoes, and goat cheese too. No matter their use, roasted beets are an awesome addition to your diet.

Roasted Red Beets

Beets (however many you’d like to roast)

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Wash and scrub your beets. If they are attached to greens, snip off about 3 inches from beetroot. Save your greens for a salad or a sauté!

Loosely wrap your beets in aluminum foil and place on a baking tray.

Roast in the oven for about 60 minutes. After an hour, carefully unwrap a beet and pierce with a fork. If the fork pierces easily, the beets are done.

Unwrap the beets carefully and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, peel skin, cut, and enjoy. You can store roasted red beets for up to 4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.