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Find out how to make beetroot powder for your homemade cosmetics, food colorings, or as a healthy supplement to your diet.
Beetroot powder has been gaining popularity in the last years for a number of reasons.
Many people use it as a supplement to help lower blood pressure, or to boost energy and help detox. Others use it to naturally sweeten while receiving the benefits of its added nutrients. In the natural communities, though, it has become popular due to its beautiful color.
Not only can you use it as a natural food coloring, but you can also grind it into a really fine powder that can be used in homemade natural cosmetics.
A couple of years ago I wanted to do just that. I was looking to make some natural blush with beetroot powder, but couldn’t find any at any local stores. Desperate to try it out, I ordered a bunch of it in bulk online because the shipping costs were higher than the actual product and I figured that if it worked as well as I thought it would, I would eventually use it all up.
Unfortunately things didn’t go as well as I had planned.
First of all the beetroot powder that I bought wasn’t ground very finely, and it didn’t stick to my face when trying to use it as a blush. When trying to use it in lipglosses and the like, it only made a gritty mess!
I gave upon the idea for a while and hid it all away in my cabinet for a couple of months.
Fast forward a few months, I decided that I wanted to try to dye fabric with it. (Don’t expect to get beautifully dyed fuchsia fabric if you try it, but that’s a story for another day.) I went to my cabinet, and was disappointed when I saw that my pretty fuchsia beetroot powder had turned an ugly shade of brown!
I decided that, after having made several types of flour from fruits like carob and coconut, that I could use the same procedure for making my own beetroot powder. No more spending exhorbitant shipping costs or having to buy in bulk. It’s easy to make just the amount you need, when you need it, and have fresh beetroot powder available for your projects and recipes.
It also has several other advantages. You can choose which beets you want to use, whether it be organic or fresh from your own garden, so you know exactly what you are using. You can also dehydrate beetroot chips, which tend to stay bright pink for longer, and wait to grind the up until you need them. I find that when exposed to the air, beetroot powder eventually turns brown, especially if there is any humidity where you have stored it. When well sealed, it will last longer, but if you only grind up as much as you’ll need for several weeks at a time,you can ensure that you’re always using fresh powder.
How to make Beetroot Powder
How to Make Beetroot Powder
Ingredients
- 1 beet
Instructions
- Wash and peel fresh beet roots and slice thinly. You can use a food processor to thinly and evenly slice the beetroot quickly.
- Dry the slices in a food dehydrator, a convection oven on low heat, or in the sun covered with a net to keep insects from touching them.
- You can now eat or store your homemade beetroot chips. 🙂
- When you want to make fresh beetroot powder, take a few dried beetroot chips and grind them up finely in a powerful food processor, or in a coffe grinder like I do.
- If you are having a hard time getting the powder fine enough for your use, like when you want to use your beetroot powder as a powdered blush, I’ve found that the best way is to grind with a coffee grinder until the powder starts to accumulate on the cover of the grinder. The powder that builds up on the cover should be very fine and perfect for cosmetic uses. You can easily remove it with a paintbrush.
- Store the beetroot powder in an airtight container if possible to keep it fresher for longer.
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Robbie
What temperature in the oven?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
The lowest temperature you can get it- and preferably with a fan. You want it to dry without cooking.
Jennifer L Nygaard
Is it imperative to peel the beets?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Jennifer,
Probably not. It might depend on what you want to use it for. I was looking to use it for a natural colorant, so I wanted to remove as much of the darker color as possible. For culinary uses, though, it’s probably fine to leave them unpeeled.
Anita Flores
Since the greens have more vitamins, can you dehydrate and use them in the powder?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Anita,
That’s an interesting thought.
I like to try to obtain a bright pink powder, so I probably wouldn’t grind them together. If you’re only using it for nutritional purposes, though, yeah! Go for it!
You could also dry them and grind them separately for the best of both worlds!
Shelly
Yes greens can be dehydrated and turned into powders. I have powders of many fruits and vegetables
Sandra Agyeiwaa Yeboah
Hello, please can beetroot powder be used as a preservative for tigernut flour
Tracy Ariza, DDS
I’m not sure how beetroot powder would be considered a preservative- nor why tigernut flour would need it?
Tiffany
Can I use canned beets to do this?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Tiffany,
I’ve never tried it, but I suppose it would work. The resulting powder would be slightly different, though, because the beets would be cooked. That said, I’m sure you could use it in a lot of the same ways.
Emma Jordan
Hi my beetroot powder was brown? What am I doing wrong? X
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Emma,
The only thing I can think of is that it’s being cooked when you are drying it.
What are you using to dehydrate?
It should dry at a very, very low temperature so that it doesn’t cook.
Emily
Hi Tracy, how long does your beet powder stay fresh? Have you ever noticed that it goes bad? I want to use it as a lip balm tint, but I´m afraid it will go bad, I have had the experience where I add natural food colors to lip balms (like raspberry) and it goes bad after a couple days.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Emily,
It has really depended a lot from batch to batch. I had one that stayed fresh for several months and, more surprising to me, stayed a bright pink that long. (And the “sprinkles” I made with it stayed bright for even longer. You can see what I’m talking about if you go to that post.) 😉
I haven’t tried it for lip balm, but I’m surprised about it going bad (if it’s fully dried- that’s important!)…
How are you using the raspberry? You can’t use fresh if you want it to keep well. You’d have to use a dried raspberry powder. (In my experience, though, it doesn’t work very well for coloring a lip balm. It clumps up instead.)
I’ve had the best luck with alkanet powder and achiote. (You can see what I mean in this older post about making a stick blush. I really want to update the post because I think it could be much improved. ? But, if you take from it the important part- the tips about those colorants working well and how to get them to blend in well- maybe it will help you.)
DM
Hi, great recipe!
I am doing a food assessment task for school and the recipe requires beet powder. Unfortunately i do not have enough time to recreate this recipe during class (we only get about 50 minutes) and none of the stores near me sell pre-made beet powder. I was wondering if you knew any easy, simple (grocery-store available) alternatives for homemade beet powder.
I am in no way intending to insult your recipe by asking for an alternative, its a wonderful recipe 🙂
Thankyou!
-DM
Tracy Ariza
Hi DM,
I’m not insulted at all. I understand!
What I don’t understand, exactly, is what you need the powder for.
Without knowing the intended use, it’s hard for me to help you come up with an idea for an alternative. (I don’t know if it’s being used as a colorant, for flavor, for health benefits, etc.)
Dhivya
Hi tracy
How many days, should i sundry it. Am not going to microwave it.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Dhivya,
It’s really impossible to say as it depends on the thickness of your slices, the humidity in your area, the amount of wind/sun, etc.
You really just need to keep checking on them and wait for them to be brittle rather than flexible- that’s the best way to judge if they are completely dry. It’s important to get them completely dry so that the powder stores well and doesn’t develop mold.
I don’t ever microwave either. 😉
Azra
Hi dear
Can I use this beetroot powder to color my lipbalm. ?
And can I put a tiny bit in to colour my cream?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Azra,
You can try it, but you have to make sure it is ground very finely into a very fine powder. It is very difficult to get it fine enough so that it goes on smoothly in a lipbalm. In my experience, it tends to clump up and not color oil-based products very well.
Samantha
Just curious how long you leave them in the oven to dry? Thanks!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Samantha,
I couldn’t really give a time because it depends on so many factors: how thickly you cut the slices, the humidity, the temperature, etc.
It will probably take several hours, though. You’re looking for the slices to get brittle. That shows that you have removed enough humidity from them. If they are flexible, it’s possible that they have enough remaining humidity to end up getting moldy.
I haven’t made any in a while. I should time it next time.
Rosalind
I coated mine with olive oi with skin on. Wrapped in foil and baked for 1/2 hour at 350 tested for doneouse with a pick the skin peeled off slick then quartered and blended in processor. Pouer and spread on parchment paper. Put in 200 degree oven at 6 pm and was ready before noon the following day. Crispy flakes perfect! It may have been ready sooner but wasn’t able to get to it before then. ??
Tracy Ariza
Hi Rosalind,
Interesting!
I’m glad it worked well for you that way too! 🙂
Frica awa
Please Tracy I really want to make my own pink lips palm using beetroot, what should be added into it to make permanent pink lip balm. Thanks
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hello Frica,
This is tricky as beetroot is water-soluble, and most lip balms are oil-based. Every time I’ve tried to make a lip balm with something like beetroot powder, the beet powder clumps up and doesn’t get evenly dispersed in the balm.
You’d have to make some sort of water-based gel with the beetroot powder to use as a lip tint or gel blush. (A water-based product would need a proper preservative, though. See my post about natural preservatives for more information on that.)
It’s something I can try to make a recipe for.
Blu
Doesn’t the heat take away the nutritional Value of the beets?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Very low heat is used. You want the minimum amount to dry the beets.
It may reduce some, although I’ve read it can bring out the bioavailability of others.
It’s all about your priorities and needs for any given situation, I guess. 😉
Joriz Lowel
thank you for your procedure on how to produce powder, I have been working for a school experimental research and I need to dye cotton fabric with a natural dye. My question is, is the powder you have produced soluble to water prior to dyeing???? thank youuu
Tracy Ariza
Hi Joriz,
Yes, you’d want to liquify before using this as a dye.
One thing you should keep in mind, though, is that beetroot will not dye fabric a bright pink color. It will look pink at first, but will later turn brown. The same goes for using beetroots for coloring soap.
If you want to dye a bright pink color, I’d suggest trying with berries or some red fruit instead.
Lilly Sullivan
Hi Joriz, you can get a lovely salmon/pink color dye by using avocado pits!
Tracy Ariza
Really? Interesting!! 🙂