Chukandar (Beetroot): How to Pick, Cook and Use It for Skin

If your urine turned pink after a beetroot salad, relax: that’s usually just the beet’s red pigment passing through. This guide on chukandar answers the rest: how to pick firm beets, how to store beetroot once cooked, how long beetroot juice keeps in the fridge, honest benefits, side effects in pregnancy, the kidney-stone question, and a beet lip tint that won’t wreck your skin.

How to pick chukandar at the market

1. Size: choose beets about the size of a cricket ball or a bit smaller (5 to 8 cm), because the giant ones that look like good value have usually spent too long in the ground and turn out woody, with pale rings and a dull, earthy taste once they’re cooked.
2. Press: it should be completely hard. Soft spots, wrinkles or a spongy feel mean old stock.
3. Weigh: heavy means juicy.
4. Skin: smooth and deep red-purple. Skip deep cuts, scabby patches and wet, dark areas near the root.
5. Leaves: if attached, they should be green and upright with red veins. Wilted leaves mean it was pulled a while ago.
6. The tail: a thin, single tail is normal. Lots of hairy roots signal age.

Most desi chukandar is the round, deep red kind sold in heaps from the back of a cart, though bigger stores sometimes stock golden or striped beets too, which taste much the same, run a little milder and leave far less of a crime scene on your chopping board. Worth a try.

How to store beetroot, raw, cooked and as juice

• Raw: cut off the leaves, leaving 3 to 5 cm of stalk, and don’t cut the tail. Keep unwashed in a bag in the vegetable drawer for 2 to 3 weeks.
• Leaves: wrap in a dry cloth and use within 2 days.
• Cooked beetroot: cool it quickly, then keep it in a covered box in the fridge for 3 to 5 days, and if you can, store it whole and unpeeled, since peeled or cut pieces dry out, bleed their colour into everything nearby and pick up fridge smells much faster than a whole beet in its skin.
• Beetroot juice in the fridge: fresh homemade juice tastes best within a few hours and should be drunk within 24 hours, in a closed glass bottle. Throw it out if it fizzes, smells sour or tastes off.
• Freezing: cooked, cooled and sliced or cubed beetroot freezes well for about 6 months. Raw beet goes soft and watery once frozen.
• Pickled: beet in vinegar keeps several weeks in the fridge in a clean jar.

How to cook beetroot without losing the colour

Wash under running water and scrub off soil; leave the skin on, the stalk stub on and the tail on. That keeps the red inside instead of in the water.

• Boil: cover whole beets with water and simmer 30 to 45 minutes, until a knife slides in.
• Pressure cooker: whole medium beets with water, about 15 to 20 minutes after the pressure builds.
• Roast: wrap in foil and bake at 200 °C for 45 to 60 minutes. Sweetest of all.

Once cool, the skin rubs off with your fingers; wear gloves or use a plastic bag over your hand if you don’t want pink nails for a day. A cut lemon or salt scrub removes stains from hands and boards.

Beetroot benefits, honestly

A cup of chopped beetroot has roughly 60 calories, about 4 g of fibre and a good share of a day’s folate, which matters for anyone planning pregnancy or pregnant. It also carries potassium and the red pigment betanin.

Beetroot is also rich in natural nitrate; your body turns this into nitric oxide, a gas that helps blood vessels relax, and that’s why athletes drink beet juice and why it’s discussed for blood pressure; the effect is modest and short-lived, and it doesn’t replace any medicine.

What’s hype: beetroot doesn’t “build blood” in a real way; it has little iron. If you’re tired and pale, get a blood test, because anaemia needs proper care. For sugar questions, see our separate piece on beetroot and diabetes.

Pink urine after beetroot: is it harmful?

No. It’s called beeturia, and in some people the red pigment isn’t fully broken down and shows up in urine, and sometimes stool, for a day or so; it’s more common in people with low iron, but it happens to plenty of people with normal iron too.

When to worry: if red or pink urine happens when you haven’t eaten beetroot, if it’s there for more than two days after stopping, or if stools are black and tarry, see a doctor. Blood in urine or stool can look very similar.

Beetroot recipes: salad, raita and a smoothie

Chukandar raita (serves 3)

Grate 1 medium boiled beetroot; mix into 1 cup plain whisked dahi with a pinch of salt, half a teaspoon roasted zeera and chopped mint. It turns a startling pink and goes well with pulao or biryani.

Beetroot, carrot and chana salad

Mix 1 cubed boiled beetroot, 1 grated carrot, 1 cup boiled chana, 1 chopped onion, lemon juice, chaat masala and coriander. This makes a filling lunch; the chana brings protein and the lemon’s vitamin C helps you absorb the little iron in the chana.

Beet and apple smoothie (1 glass)

1. Chop half a small boiled beetroot and half an apple, skin on.
2. Add a thin slice of ginger, 4 tablespoons plain dahi and 150 ml cold water.
3. Blend until smooth and drink straight away, unstrained.

Whole beetroot beats a big glass of juice for most people, because juicing concentrates the natural sugar and nitrate of two or three beets into a few gulps and throws away most of the fibre that would have kept you full and slowed the sugar down.

Beet leaves and peel

Beet greens are edible; cook them like palak or chard, which is a close relative, and they’re rich in vitamin K and minerals, but also very high in oxalate, more than the root; the peel of a well-scrubbed beet is safe to eat, but it’s earthy, so most people slip it off after cooking.

Beetroot for skin and lips

Beetroot can add a soft pink tint and a bit of fun. Nothing more. It can’t lighten skin, remove scars or fix pigmentation, whatever the videos say, and anyone promising a “glass skin” result from a beet pack is selling views rather than facts.

Beet lip tint

1. Grate 1 small raw beetroot and squeeze the juice through a clean cloth.
2. Warm 1 teaspoon of the juice with 1 teaspoon coconut oil or petroleum jelly for a few seconds, and stir well.
3. Patch test on the inner arm first and wait 24 hours.
4. Dab a little onto lips with a clean fingertip. Keep the rest in a tiny clean pot in the fridge and throw it away after 3 to 4 days; homemade mixes with water in them can grow germs.

For more on lip care see our homemade lip balm guide.

Beetroot and dahi face pack

Mix 1 teaspoon beet juice with 1 tablespoon plain dahi; apply for 10 minutes on clean skin, then rinse. Once a week at most is plenty; the patch test method applies here too.

The don’ts: no beet or anything else on broken skin, fresh pimples you’ve squeezed, or eczema; stop if it stings, burns or itches. Don’t add lemon juice to “brighten” it, because lemon on skin in sunlight can burn and leave dark patches. Beet juice stains clothes, towels and pillowcases, and it can tint very fair skin pink for a few hours.

Myth: beetroot turns your blood red, or makes blood

The truth: the red in beetroot is betanin, a plant pigment, and has nothing to do with the red of your blood, which comes from iron-rich haemoglobin. Why people believe it: the colour, and the pink urine, make it look like the beet is going straight into your blood.

Surprising beetroot facts

• Chukandar, sugar beet and Swiss chard are the same plant species, just bred for different parts.
• Beet pigment is used as a natural red food colour in yoghurts and sweets, labelled E162.
• Sugar beet is one of the world’s two main sources of table sugar, alongside sugarcane.

Who should limit beetroot

Find more produce guides on the Fruits and Vegetables hub.

Chukandar questions, answered