Grilled Beets in Foil

Grilled beets in foil. Beets in foil are a simple side dish if you already have the grill fired up. They take a while to cook - about an hour - but they take almost no effort to get onto the grill. Drizzle beets with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and wrap them in heavy-duty foil with an herb sprig. Put the foil pouch on the side of the grill, and they will be ready in an hour. That's it! Slow roasting the beets turns them nutty and sweet, a vegetable side dish that even a beet-hater like me will eat.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• How to Make Grilled Beets in Foil
• Equipment
• Variations
• Tips and tricks
• What to Serve with Grilled Beets
• Grilled Beets in Foil Recipe
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

I have a confession to make: I fear beets. It is one of the few food phobias I have.* Whenever I think of beets, I think of the color and smell of canned beets. That horrifying, blood-red color and that tinny, sweet, off smell. Yuck.

My problem? My wife loves beets. When we'd go to the farmer's market, the beets would sit in their bunches, looking colorful and innocent. Diane would insist on getting some, and then it would be up to me to cook them.
This is one of the few downsides to being a Dad who Cooks Dinner. Sometimes, I have to buck up and cook the beets.
(OK, I confess. First, I tried to distract her with Brussels sprouts, her food phobia. She would not be denied.)

After a while, I realized that roasting beets results in a nutty-sweet vegetable that I…I…I kind of like. There, I said it. I'll eat beets. Especially these beets.

Ingredients

• 6 medium beets (between the size of a baseball and a golf ball)
• A sprig of fresh thyme (optional - you can substitute any fresh herbs you have on hand)
• 1 tablespoon of Olive oil
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

How to Make Grilled Beets in Foil

Prepare the Beets

Scrub the beets to remove any dirt that is still stuck to them. Trim the root and stem ends of the beets. (Leave the skin on, we'll peel it off later.) Put the beets in a line on a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (We want the sides of all the beets exposed to heat, so line the beets up in a single file. Make more than one packet of beets (if needed) to fit on your grill.) Add the thyme sprig, then fold the foil over and crimp the edges to cover the beets tightly.

Prepare the grill for indirect medium-high heat (350°F)

Set your grill up for indirect cooking at medium to high heat, about 350°F. For my Weber Summit, this means turning the two outer burners (burners 1 and 6) to high and leaving the middle burners unlit. In a charcoal grill, push the coals to one side (or use charcoal baskets).

Cook the Beets

Put the foil-wrapped beets over indirect heat (over the unlit burners or the side of the grill without coals). Cook with the lid closed until the largest beet can be pierced easily with a skewer, 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the thickness of your beets. (I use the pointy end of my digital thermometer for this, and I poke right through the foil into one of the beets. I'm not checking the temperature; I'm checking that the probe pushes through the beet without any resistance.)

Clean and Serve the Beets

Remove the foil pouch from the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes to cool down. Open up the foil and peel the skin off of the beets using paper towels. (Wear gloves to keep your hands from staining with beet juice). Cut the beets into halves or quarters, depending on their size. Put the beets in a serving bowl; I'll drizzle them with a little more olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper over them before serving. Enjoy!

Equipment

• A Grill. This recipe will work on almost any grill if you have space to let the foil pouch sit for an hour. (I use a monster Weber Summit, so I have plenty of space. The Summit is overkill for this recipe, but I love it.)
• Heavy-duty aluminum foil

Variations

Cheesy beets

Beets and cheese are a classic combination. Beets stand up to intense flavors, so I like to sprinkle them with crumbled blue cheese, goat cheese, or feta cheese right before serving.

Tips and tricks

Beet Juice Stains

Beet juice stains everything it comes into contact with. When I trim the stem and root ends, I use a cutting board that can go in the dishwasher for easier cleanup. This is why I don't peel them until after they're cooked; not only is it easier to peel them (the skin just slips off), but you don't make as much of a mess. Even so, I try to peel them over the sink and put them directly into their serving bowl.

Don't worry about overcooking

Don't worry about leaving the beets on the grill too long. Beets are almost impossible to overcook. Now, if the grill is too hot, you may burn the outside of the beets. That's OK. If you burn the outside, peel the burnt part off with the skin.

Orange or Yellow beets are training wheels for beet haters

Try the orange or yellow beets if you're beet-phobic like I am. I'm not sure why, but they don't bother me as much. (I think that deep purplish-red color reminds me too much of beets from a can. Yuck.)

What to Serve with Grilled Beets

Grilled beets are a great side dish for any long-cooking grill recipe. I love them with butterflied chicken, rotisserie rib roast, or even a large grilled tomahawk steak. And, if you have a large grill, you can make grilled green beans in foil as another easy side dish.

Print

Related Posts

Grilled Asparagus
Grilled Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Grill Roasted Fennel
Grilled Green Beans in Foil
Grilled Shishito Peppers
My other Grilling Recipes

Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe to DadCooksDinner via email and share this post with your friends. Want to contribute directly? Donate to my Tip Jar, or buy something from Amazon.com through the links on this site. Thank you.