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

Transcript

Beetroot Basics

Ever wonder why beetroot makes your urine pink, or how to turn it into a gentle skin tint? Let’s explore picking, cooking, storing, and a few simple recipes.

At a Glance

Beetroot is in season from November to March, though you’ll find it year-round thanks to cold storage. Look for small, hard, heavy roots with smooth skin. Raw beets keep a few weeks in the fridge, while cooked ones last three to five days.

Pick Beetroot

At the market you’ll usually see round, deep-red beets piled in heaps. Smaller roots, about the size of a cricket ball, are the sweetest. Give them a firm press, there should be no soft spots. Heavy ones are juicy, and the skin should be smooth and rich purple. Golden or striped varieties taste milder and keep your kitchen cleaner, so feel free to try them.

Store Beetroot

For raw beets, trim the leaves but leave a few centimeters of stalk attached, and store them unwashed in a bag in the vegetable drawer. Wrap any leaves in a dry cloth and use them within two days. Cooked beetroot should be cooled quickly, then placed in a covered container in the fridge for up to five days. Fresh beet juice tastes best within a few hours and should be consumed within a day.

Cook Without Color Loss

Start by washing the beet under running water and scrubbing off any soil. Keep the skin, the short stalk, and the tail on; this traps the pigment inside. After cooking, the skin slips off easily with your fingers. If you don’t want pink nails, wear gloves or slip a plastic bag over your hand. A quick lemon or salt rub removes any stains from your board. Boiling, pressure cooking, or roasting in foil all preserve the vivid color, with roasting giving the sweetest flavor.

Honest Benefits

A cup of chopped beetroot is about sixty calories, four grams of fiber, and a solid dose of folate, important for anyone planning a pregnancy. It also supplies potassium and the red pigment betanin. The natural nitrate in beetroot can convert to nitric oxide, which helps blood vessels relax. Athletes sometimes use beet juice for a modest, short-term boost, but it’s not a replacement for any medication.

Pink Urine?

Seeing pink urine after a beet meal is called beeturia and is completely harmless. It happens when the pigment isn’t fully broken down and can appear in urine or stool for a day or two, especially in people with low iron. You only need to see a doctor if the pink color shows up without eating beetroot, lasts more than two days, or if you notice tarry black stools, which could indicate blood.

Simple Recipes

For a quick raita, grate a boiled beet and stir it into plain yogurt with a pinch of salt, roasted cumin, and chopped mint. It turns a pretty pink and pairs nicely with pulao or biryani. A hearty salad mixes cubed beet, grated carrot, boiled chickpeas, onion, lemon juice, chaat masala, and coriander. And for a refreshing drink, blend half a boiled beet with half an apple, a thin slice of ginger, yogurt, and cold water, no straining needed. Enjoy it right away.

Leaves & Peel

Don’t throw away the beet greens; they cook up much like spinach or chard and are rich in vitamin K and minerals. Just remember they contain more oxalate than the root, so people prone to kidney stones may want to limit them. The peel of a well-scrubbed beet is safe to eat, though it has an earthy flavor, so many prefer to peel after cooking.

Skin & Lip Use

Beetroot can give a soft pink hue to skin or lips, but it won’t lighten dark spots or erase scars. For a simple lip tint, grate a small raw beet, squeeze out the juice, warm it with a teaspoon of coconut oil or petroleum jelly, and stir. Patch-test on the inner arm first and wait a day. Dab a little onto your lips and store the rest in a tiny clean pot in the fridge for up to three days. A beet-yogurt face mask, one teaspoon juice mixed with a tablespoon plain yogurt, can be applied for ten minutes once a week.

Old Wisdom

In many traditional homes, beetroot was grated into winter salads for its blood-building reputation and given to new mothers and young girls. The folate content is indeed helpful, but beetroot contains little iron, so it won’t cure anemia. If a woman feels pale, breathless, or unusually tired, a haemoglobin test is the right step, especially during pregnancy.

Myth Debunked

The red color of beetroot comes from betanin, a plant pigment, not from the iron-rich haemoglobin that gives our blood its hue. The vivid color and occasional pink urine can make it seem like the beet is turning your blood red, but that’s just a visual illusion.

Fun Facts

Did you know that chukandar, sugar beet, and Swiss chard are all the same plant species, just bred for different parts? The red pigment is used as a natural food colour, labelled E162, in yoghurts and sweets. And sugar beet is one of the world’s two main sources of table sugar alongside sugarcane.

Take Care If

If you’ve had calcium-oxalate kidney stones, keep beetroot and especially the greens to small, occasional portions and check with your doctor. During pregnancy, cooked or well-washed raw beetroot is safe, but avoid unpasteurised shop juices and concentrated powders without medical advice. People on blood-pressure or angina medication should be aware that regular beet juice can add to the effect of their drugs, so a quick chat with a clinician is wise.

Thanks for Watching

For the full guide, visit thecareonline.com, and remember this is general advice, not medical counsel.