This simple, five-ingredient vegetable side dish of roasted golden beets with rosemary and garlic is fabulous with any entree. It takes minutes to put together and it's a vegan, gluten-free and nut-free recipe.
Easy roasted golden beets
Red beets are delicious, but I've always been partial to golden beets. Not only are they prettier (arguably), with their radiant, yellow-orange color, they are also milder in flavor and sweeter than regular red beets.
When I find golden beets at the market, I love using them in recipes like golden beet pesto and golden beet and carrot slaw. But my favorite way to cook them is to roast them with a very simple dressing of fruity extra virgin olive oil, aromatic garlic and savory rosemary. The herbs and garlic enhance the sweetness of the beets, and roasting the beets further concentrates their beautiful flavor.
This is a ridiculously simple recipe and it's very beginner friendly. Just mix the olive oil, herbs and garlic with ground black pepper and salt, and toss the beets in it before roasting. The oven does the rest of the work. This dish has all of the right flavors for the holiday table, but you can make it any time you find golden beets in the market.
Besides serving them as a side dish, I frequently toss these roasted golden beets into salads - they are especially delicious with the mild bitterness of arugula and/or watercress.
An important tip to keep in mind when you roast beets is to make sure they cook through. Beets that are correctly cooked will darken and shrivel up a little, which may not look as pretty as if you get them out of the oven earlier. But they will be tender and they will taste much better. There's nothing so awful as biting into a half-cooked beet. Well, maybe biting into a half-cooked eggplant, but that's a story for another day!
Recipe card
Roasted Golden Beets
Ingredients
- 3 large golden beets (washed thoroughly to remove any grit, then cut into one-inch chunks)
- 3 cloves garlic minced or crushed
- ½ tablespoon fresh rosemary (or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary. Chop the fresh rosemary finely)
- 1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/205 degrees Celsius.
- Mix the garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the chopped golden beets to the bowl and toss them thoroughly in the herb-olive-oil mixture.
- Spread the beets in a single layer on a baking sheet, You can line the baking sheet with aluminum foil to make cleanup easier. Roast 40-45 minutes or until the beets are fork tender and a darker gold. Stir once or twice during roasting to make sure they cook evenly. Serve the beets warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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Roasted golden beets FAQs
Absolutely! Your dish will be just as flavorful and healthy, because beets of all color are very similar in their nutritional value.
I used to peel the beets for an earlier version of this recipe, but I stopped peeling them because I learned that beet skins are rich in insoluble fiber, minerals like iron and potassium and other nutrients. Golden beet skins are quite thin and you will not really notice them after roasting. But if it makes you more comfortable you can peel them before tossing them in the olive oil, garlic and herbs.
The beets will appear a little shriveled and a knife inserted in the center of a piece will go through cleanly. There should also be no resistance when you bite into a piece - the beet should literally melt in your mouth.
Serve these golden beets with nearly any entree of your choice. I often serve them as a side with holiday dishes like vegan wellington and vegan pot pie, or with a hearty vegan white bean chili.
Recipe first published April 25, 2016. Updated and re-published on Nov. 11, 2025.
Marian says
I bought golden beets as an afterthought quick sale. This is a fabulous recipe! Easy to prepare, no peeling, no red stains and they were absolutely delicious. The recipe is nice enough for holiday side
Vaishali Honawar says
So happy you loved it!
Joyce cantin says
Hi! This recipe is the best ever, full of flavour, nice and crisp. However was wondering do we preserve all vitamins and minerals when we roast vegetables?
Vaishali says
Joyce, so happy to hear you enjoyed it! Cooking does reduce nutrients in almost any vegetable, but it's not a huge difference and one can only eat so much beet slaw. 🙂 I like my beets cooked rather than raw because that also concentrates the earthy flavor into a mellow sweetness.
Pati Manich says
Can I peel the beets before roasting?
Vaishali says
Yes, you can.
Leslie says
I want to cook these at the same time I am cooking a beef brisket at 300 degrees. I am trying to figure out when to put the beets in the oven during the brisket's "low and slow" approximately 5 hour cooking time.
How long do you think they will take at that lower temperature?
Vaishali says
Prob one hour and 15 minutes at that temperature.
Anonymous says
Thanks!
Trudee K. says
We got golden beets in our CSA box. I had never cooked golden beets before. I used fresh rosemary from my 1st time herb garden. Yum! This recipe was easy and delicious!
Vaishali says
Yay! Happy to hear Trudee.
Kayla says
Wow! My first time having Golden Beets and I couldn't have come across a better recipe!! Oh how the aroma filled the air 😀 Rosemary and garlic are too good. Thanks for sharing!!
Vaishali says
So happy you loved them, Kayla!
Brenda says
Hi! I'm so excited to try this! I have a few giant yellow beets so if I cut up two of those instead, it should work right? Also, could I add a couple small red beets for color... do they cook the same?
Thank you for taking the time to help ☺️
Vaishali says
Yes, beets of any color and size would work here!
Bernadette Mroz says
Have you tried this recipe with cooked beets? or frozen beets?
Vaishali says
It won’t work with beets that are already cooked— they’ll burn. Frozen could work.
Joanna says
Excellent! Thanks for the idea for my farm share beets. Followed recipe but cooked in air fryer in half the time.
Sarah says
What does 6 inch beets mean? Is it 6 beets or one large beet?
Vaishali says
It's 6 medium-sized beets, cut into 1-inch chunks. Some of the words got moved around when I moved to a new recipe editor--I've corrected now.
Havatselet says
Thank you for this super easy and SO delicious recipe! I made it for the first time yesterday, and absolutely intend to make it again. And again...
Joshua Howard says
Thank you for the recipe! It sounds very delicious but I have a question. Can it be made oil-free?
Vaishali says
You can sub the oil with 1/4 cup of vegetable stock. Your beets may not turn out as crunchy, but they'll be tasty!
Joshua Howard says
Thank you!
Glenn Modrak says
Hi. What is the weight of 6 beets
Moon says
Thank you for the recipe. I peeled and cut them after cooking but they're tasty.
Janet says
My favorite recipe for beets! These are SO good.