Sautéed Beetroot Leaves (Without Oil)

Tender beetroot leaves sautéed without oil in garlic and soy sauce. Great as a side dish or part of a buddha bowl.

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Jump to:

• 😋Why you’ll love this recipe
• ✔️What You’ll Need
• 🥘Ingredient Notes
• 🔪Step-By-Step
• ✔️Variations
• 💭Pro Tips
• ❓FAQ
• 🥘Related recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Community

I’ve always been aware of how much food wastage there is behind the scenes between farms to consumers. 

I put my awareness down to the way my Mum raised me, she hates food wastage. Something I hate too. She cooks every part of any edible food there is.

Recently, I was at my local supermarket and wanted to purchase beetroot for making a salad, they only sold beetroot that had been trimmed, all those glorious green leaves cut off and dumped. It was so disappointing.

Beetroot leaves can be thought of just like silverbeet (chard) or sorrel. They can be enjoyed in soups, stews, baking (use the leaves in these spinach fatayer), juicing and even salads. Also, beetroot leaf & stem looks similar to silverbeet, red veined sorrel and rhubarb.

😋Why you’ll love this recipe

• Oil, nut, gluten free and vegan
• Easy to cook
• Great as a side or part of a buddha bowl
• High nutritional value
• Less wastage

✔️What You’ll Need

🥘Ingredient Notes

Here are notes on some of the ingredients;

Beetroot leaves are also known as beet tops or beet greens and are normally sold attached to the beetroot bulb. Both the leaves and stems are edible. 

Choose leaves that aren’t wilted when purchasing, normally found at your local fruit market or farmers market.

Cut beetroot stems into 4cm (1 1⁄2”) lengths and chop up the leaves into 1cm (⅓”) widths.

Soy sauce* is not made equally, some have more salt than others, be sure to factor this in when cooking. If you are gluten-free, check the label.

Fresh garlic can be either sliced or crushed.

Water is needed to help wilt the leaves and steams, the beetroot leaves will soak up all the water that is used when sautéed without oil.

Chilli only a tiny amount is needed. You can use your preferred chilli, either dry or fresh, I used dried birds eye chilli.

🔪Step-By-Step

Let’s get to how to sauté beetroot leaves;

Step 1 - Heat up a non-stick pan on high until very hot and then turn heat to medium. Add beetroot stems and stir continuously until they have wilted. About 4 minutes.

Step 2 - Add garlic and 1 tablespoon of water and continuously stir until the garlic has softened.

Step 3 - Add beetroot leaves, soy sauce, chilli and rapid stir, adding 1 tablespoon of water at a time until all leaves have wilted. Serve warm.

Beetroot stems after a few minutes of sauteing without oil.

✔️Variations

This type of oil-free sautéing can be applied to other green leaves. Though the amount of water and cooking may need adjusting.

Ginger can be added.

Soysauce can be swapped with tamari sauce*

Oil can be used if you are inclined to do so.

Seeds or nuts can be dry roasted and added on top of the sautéed beet greens.

💭Pro Tips

Cleaning each beetroot leaf thoroughly is important. As they are attached to a ground root vegetable, there is normally quite a bit of dirt. 

It is easy to loosen the dirt by soaking the leaves first and then using your hands to rub the leaves and stems. 

Sauteing the stems before the leaves is important as the stems take longer to cook.

Soy sauce, water, garlic and chilli amounts can all be adjusted to suit your taste.

Cooking without oil can be a little tricky, it is imperative to use a non-stick pan* and it is best to use spoonfuls of water at a time. This will help the beetroot leaves not dry up so quick. Continuous rapid stirring is also needed to ensure nothing burns.

❓FAQ

Once the beetroot greens are sauteed - the end result is a gorgeous very deep maroon colour.

🥘Related recipes

Another low-fat recipe is my big flavored Asian brussel sprouts.

Did you enjoy learning how to cook beetroot leaves? I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment below and give me a rating. This will help me sustain Plant Based Folk. 

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Janelle x

📖 Recipe