Skip to Content

Sauteed Beets with Balsamic Orange Glaze

I love easy vegetable side dishes where you toss everything into a pan and forget about it for a while. That’s the case with this beet recipe! They’re cooked in a sweet balsamic orange glaze that’s rich and delicious.

A great beet recipe! This photo shows the sauteed beets in a black bowl topped with a sprig of thyme. You can see sliced beets and oranges in the background.

Beet recipes aren’t something you see often around here. I’ve grown to like beets more in the past few years — it was just a matter of finding the right way to cook them!

I linked to other beet recipes on my site at the end of this post, but I wanted to talk about these sauteed beets for a minute.

This beet recipe is a perfect Thanksgiving side dish and here’s why:

(Yes, I made a list. lol)

  • You don’t need your oven. It’s all done on the stovetop, and it’s and easy dump and forget situation.
  • The sweetness counters a lot of the salty dishes that are typically served at Thanksgiving.
  • These beets are delicious warm, room temperature, or even chilled right out of the fridge. That’s the beauty of beets — they’re not high maintenance. You can make these ahead of time!
  • They’re dairy free! In case you need a vegetable side for a dairy-free guest.
Beets sauteeing in a skillet -- the orange-balsamic glaze has reduced significantly and looks like syrup.

The downside of making beets is that it takes FOREVER for beets to cook. WHY IS THAT?

Luckily, all you do is toss everything into a skillet, cover, and forget about it for 30-40 minutes while you work on other things.

And like I said — they’re great at any temperature so you can make them ahead of time.

My favorite part about these beets is the balsamic-orange sauce they’re cooked in. Beets + orange + balsamic is a perfect combo. If you don’t like beets, you might like these.

Another shot of this beet recipe -- Sauteed Beets with Balsamic-Orange Glaze in a black bowl topped with a sprig of fresh thyme.

If you like these sauteed beets, try these other beet recipes on my site!

More Beet Recipes on Perry’s Plate

Russian Palace’s Borscht — Hands down, my favorite recipe using beets. It’s also our family’s favorite soup. I make a double batch every time I make it. (Yeah, that’s a lot of soup, but none of it goes to waste!)

Superfood Beet Brownie Bowls — I love it when breakfast and dessert overlap! These tasty beet brownies are served in a bowl of chia pudding with fresh berries and nuts making it chock full of superfoods.

Candy Striped Beet & Carrot Slaw — Have you ever tried candy-striped beets? They might be hard to find but they’re super delicious and adorable with their striped interior! This slaw recipe is sweet and citrusy and fresh for summer. You can use regular or golden beets instead of candy striped if you can’t find them.


If you make one of my recipes, be sure to post it on social media and tag me at @perrysplate or #perrysplate so I can send you some love!

Sauteed Beets with Balsamic Orange Glaze

Sauteed Beets with Balsamic Orange Glaze

Yield: Serves 6
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

I love easy vegetable side dishes where you toss everything into a pan and forget about it for a while. That's the case with this beet recipe! They're cooked in a sweet balsamic orange glaze that's rich and delicious.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons butter or avocado oil
  • 1 large shallot, sliced thinly
  • 2 1/2 - 3 pounds beets (about 5 large), peeled and cubed
  • 2 large navel oranges
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • A few sprigs of fresh thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

  1. Heat the butter/oil in a large lidded skillet to medium high heat. Add the sliced shallot and cook for 1-2 minutes until it begins to soften.
  2. Add the beets, the zest from 1/2 of an orange, the juice from both oranges, and the remaining ingredients.
  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes until the beets are about fork tender, but not quite soft enough to eat.
  4. Remove the lid from the pan and cook for another 10-12 minutes until most of the liquid has cooked off and there's a thick, syrupy sauce in the bottom of the pan that coats the beets.
  5. Taste, and add more salt if needed. Serve warm or at room temperature. Or even chilled right out of the fridge.

Notes

  1. Feel free to swap out the shallot for 1/4 of a small onion or about 1/2 cup of thinly sliced onion.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 242Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 10mgSodium 390mgCarbohydrates 44gFiber 6gSugar 35gProtein 5g

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Jenny

Wednesday 30th of October 2024

I cannot stop thinking about these beets served over horseradish mashed potatoes with sauteed garlic beet greens on the side. Maybe drizzled with a dill pesto.

Jeanette

Wednesday 15th of May 2024

Hello,

I have a craving for beets and your recipe looks yummy. I noticed two pods of garlic are mentioned in the ingredients, but the instructions do not mention if the garlic needs to be cooked with the shallots or not, diced or not. How do you recommend the garlic to be prepped for this delightful looking recipe? I can’t wait to try it.

Regards,

Jeanette

Natalie Perry

Friday 17th of May 2024

Thanks for catching that Jeanette! I'll add a note in the instructions to dice them. Just add it along with the orange where it says "remaining ingredients". Hope that helps!

Kathy Watson

Monday 11th of July 2022

You don’t need to peel the beets?

Natalie Perry

Monday 25th of July 2022

Ah. Actually I think I did peel them, but forgot to mention that in the recipe. I'll fix that. Thanks for noticing!

Sylvia W

Sunday 12th of December 2021

Perfect timing! I suddenly have beets needing to be used and this sounds like it will make a wonderful side dish with the benefit of making the house smell great too! ;-)

Natalie Perry

Friday 21st of January 2022

Great! Glad the timing was spot on!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Skip to Recipe