Polish Shredded Beets are a delicious side dish traditionally served hot. It features roasted beets and a handful of pantry ingredients for a hearty, warming dish that’s perfect served alongside simple meat-and-potato dinners.
Check out also Polish cold beet salad!
Polish Shredded Beets (‘buraczki na ciepło’, pronounced ‘boo-RACH-ky na CHEP-woh’) is an age-old dish, sweet, earthy, warming and almost addictively delicious. It always has been and still is one of my favourite traditional Polish side dishes.
Apart from its delicious flavour what I also love about this dish is how easy it is to make. Because the beets are roasted (which itself requires minimal effort) essentially all that’s needed is to grate them, combine with the other ingredients, heat and serve!
Polish shredded beets ingredients
- Beets: use firm beets with fresh looking tops (avoiding those with wilted tops).
- Butter.
- Flour: makes this dish slightly creamy and prevents the sour cream from curdling.
- Sour cream: adds a subtle tang and creaminess.
- Lemon juice: helps the beets retain their vibrant colour. This dish is not meant to be sour so don’t add too much.
- Salt and pepper: use according to taste.
- Water: add a splash of water to loosen the mixture if needed before serving.
- Soy sauce: not a traditional ingredient but these days we are always looking for that elusive umami element in our food and soy sauce is a great ingredient for adding depth of flavour. And it goes exceptionally well with beetroot (I also use it in traditional Polish barszcz soup!).
Equipment you’ll need
- Box grater or food processor
- Baking sheet
- Medium sized pot
- Whisk
How to prepare the beets
There are several ways of preparing the beets for this side dish:
Roasting: This, in my view, is the tastiest method as the beets retain all their flavour and colour. It works well in recipes with few ingredients (such as beet risotto, horseradish beets or beet feta salad).
Boiling: This is another popular method.
Stewing: This involves peeling, grating then stewing the beets until tender. This method is the most labour intensive as you have to stir the mixture repeatedly making sure the beets don’t stick to the pot.
Using leftover beets: Polish people are very resourceful (this is what’s at the heart of traditional Polish cooking) and often make shredded beets using leftover beets from other dishes such as Polish barszcz. In my house they usually appeared on the table after Christmas day alongside other Christmas leftovers!
Step-by-step recipe instructions
1.Prepare beets: Preheat the oven to 400 F/200 C/ gas mark 6. If your beets are small roast them whole, but large beets can be halved. Wrap the beets individually in foil and place on top of a small baking sheet. Alternatively, line your baking sheet with foil and place the beets on top (cut side down if they’ve been halved) then cover with foil.
2. Roast beets: Place in the centre of the oven and roast for 45-50 minutes or until fork tender (but not too soft). Remove from the oven and set aside for a few minutes until the beets are cool enough to handle.
3. Shred beets: Peel the beets by gently scraping the skin off with a knife (the beets will be tender so this should be easy to do). Coarsely grate the beets (also easy to do using just a box grater though you can use a food processor instead if you like).
4. Make roux: In a medium sized pot melt the butter, add the flour and whisk in until smooth.
5. Add beets: Add the grated beets, lemon juice, salt and pepper, stir thoroughly and cook for a minute or so until the mixture is hot, stirring often.
6. Add sour cream: Stir in the sour cream and adjust the seasoning if needed (optionally add the soy sauce). Add 1-2 tablespoons of hot water to loosen the mixture if you find it too thick and heat up again if necessary. Serve hot.
Serving suggestions
Polish grated beets can be served with all Polish-style meat dishes whether pork, beef or chicken. A typical dinner would consist of Polish meat kotlety or egg patties accompanied by mashed potatoes and a hot side of cooked shredded beets.
Do I have to peel the beets
Traditionally beets are always peeled for this dish, which makes sense as the skin comes off quite easily once the beets have been cooked. So even if you don’t peel the beets most of the skin will come off spontaneously as you grate them. For best results I recommend peeling the beets before grating.
Variations
Sour cream: I like to serve my shredded beets with sour cream for a hint of sourness and added creaminess, but it can be omitted.
Onion: some recipes include sauteed onion.
Apple: finely diced apple can be cooked along with the onion and then combined with the beets.
Top tips for making beets with sour cream
- I do NOT recommend using store bought ready-cooked beets.
- You can roast the beets in advance, refrigerate, once cooled, and peel, grate and make the dish the next day.
- It is important not to cook your roasted shredded beets any longer than is necessary (once you’ve combined them with the other ingredients heat until hot then serve).
- If you omit the flour the sour cream is likely to split once you combine it with the hot mixture. This won’t look very appealing so I do not recommend omitting the flour.
- Best served hot. Refrigerate leftovers, covered, for up to 3-4 days. You may need to add a splash of water to loosen the mixture when reheating the dish.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
- I recommend wearing rubber gloves when handling the beets.
More Polish shredded beet recipes
Poles love to shred their vegetables and beets are no exception. Vegetables prepared in this way cook faster and the flavour is distributed evenly throughout the dish. This method is used especially often in soups - Ukrainian borscht as well as cold beet soup are good examples.
Salads can be made with either cooked grated beets (as in cold beet salad), or raw (see Polish beet slaw).
More beet sides to try next
Check out also these other easy, delicious side recipes!
Keep in touch!
If you make this shredded beet side dish I’d love to know what you thought. Perhaps you remember this dish from your childhood? How was it prepared? Let me know in the comments below, thanks:)
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Recipe
Polish Shredded Beets (Buraczki na Ciepło)
Equipment
- Small sized baking sheet
- Box grater
- Medium sized pot
- Whisk
Ingredients
- 4 medium beets unpeeled
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 teaspoons flour
- 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ⅓ teaspoon fine sea salt plus pepper to taste
- 2-3 tablespoons sour cream
- 1-2 tablespoons water use as needed
- 1½ teaspoons soy sauce optional
Instructions
- Prepare beets: Preheat the oven to 400 F/200 C/ gas mark 6. If your beets are small roast them whole, but large beets can be halved. Wrap the beets individually in foil and place on top of a small baking sheet. Alternatively, line your baking sheet with foil and place the beets on top (cut side down if they’ve been halved) then cover with foil.
- Roast beets: Place in the centre of the oven and roast for 45-50 minutes or until fork tender (but not too soft). Remove from the oven and set aside for a few minutes until the beets are cool enough to handle.
- Shred beets: Peel the beets by gently scraping the skin off with a knife (the beets will be tender so this should be easy to do). Coarsely grate the beets (also easy to do using just a box grater though you can use a food processor instead if you like).
- Make roux: In a medium sized pot melt the butter, add the flour and whisk in until smooth.
- Add beets: Add the grated beets, lemon juice, salt and pepper, stir thoroughly and cook for a minute or so until hot, stirring often.
- Add sour cream: Stir in the sour cream and adjust the seasoning if needed (optionally add the soy sauce). Add 1-2 tablespoons of hot water to loosen the mixture if you find it too thick and heat up again if necessary. Serve hot.
Notes
- I do NOT recommend using store bought ready-cooked beets.
- You can roast the beets in advance, refrigerate, once cooled, and peel, grate and make the dish the next day.
- It is important not to cook your roasted shredded beets any longer than is necessary (once you’ve combined them with the other ingredients heat until hot then serve).
- If you omit the flour the sour cream is likely to split once you combine it with the hot mixture. This won’t look very appealing so I do not recommend omitting the flour.
- Best served hot. Refrigerate leftovers, covered, for up to 3-4 days. You may need to add a splash of water to loosen the mixture when reheating the dish.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
- I recommend wearing rubber gloves when handling the beets.
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is automatically generated and should be considered as an estimate.
**A note about baking: If using a fan-assisted oven refer to your appliance's instructions and adjust the temperature accordingly.
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