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.
Julie
Martha,
Please don’t add any red coloring of any kind to your hummingbird food/nectar. Just use a red hummingbird feeder or plant red flowers by/near where you hang your feeder. Works just as well and better for the birds.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Julie,
Thanks for your comment. I have no idea about the safety of beets for hummingbirds, so I’m glad you were able to better help Martha out! 🙂
JoeW
Hi, Tracy,
I found your blog while looking for a substitute for red food coloring that was used in a chicken recipe.
If this works, I’ll also try making Red Velvet Cake, which I’ve avoided doing, because of the food coloring.
Thanks for the post.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your comment.
I hope it worked well for you!
Prabu S
HI TRACY
IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE A COLOURING AGENT FOR YELLOWFIN TUNA MEAT
Tracy Ariza
Hi Prabu,
I wish I could help you, but I don’t really have any experience with that. Maybe somebody reading this could help you out.
sANDY
Love the blog. HATE THE ADS!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Sandy,
Thanks. I’m glad you like my blog.
I’m sorry about the ads, and wish I could keep up the blog without them, but the truth is that I wouldn’t even be able to afford maintaining the blog without the ads. I can look to try to make them less obtrusive. I have been experimenting with new ways to use the ads, and there are a few changes that I’d like to make when I get home from vacation, but unfortunately ditching them altogether isn’t an option for me at this point.
Anuja
Hi Tracy 🙂 great post 🙂
Have you tried drying your beet slices in the sun? How long do you think it’ll take? Also, can we store the powder in the freezer to keep it fresh for a few months maybe?
Thank you for your time:-)
Tracy Ariza
Hi Anuja,
I haven’t dried the beet slices in the sun as I’ve never done it in the summer, but have with other things. It tends to take a little longer, but it depends a lot on the weather. It can work pretty well on a sunny and windy day. You should cover it with some netting, though, to keep bugs and birds away.
I usually leave dried slices in a jar and grind them as necessary. The ground powder does keep pretty well. I’ve found that my homemade powder has kept it’s color and stayed pretty fresh for a very long time.
If you take a look at my paleo sprinkles post, you’ll see the color of coconut sprinkles that I colored with my homemade beet powder 10 months after I colored them.
I may have to do a similar experiment with just the powder so I can give people a better idea of how long it has kept fresh for me.
Tracy Ariza
As for freezing- I have no idea. I’d suspect the it would help, but since I have been having luck with the powder lasting quite well for me as is, I’m not sure it’s necessary. 🙂
Martha
I was wondering if this would work for hummingbird food.
I make my own hummingbird food with boiled water ad sugar and then add the red food coloring from the store.
Reason I am asking, is I can’t recall , as I am a grandma who cant remember things that well, but I think I tried adding some dried beets ground up to my humming bird food years ago and it turned into a gooey mess in my hummingbird feeder was it sat in the sun/shade area…? but maybe it was something else besides a beet I had tried? I cant remember….
Tracy Ariza
Hi Martha,
I have no idea as I’ve never made hummingbird food before. We don’t have hummingbirds here in Spain.
That said, you probably wouldn’t need very much to color it.
If you are worried about the texture, perhaps straining it out once the sugar water is colored might help?
I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it.
Poohhill
I make my hummingbird food and if you use beet powder just make sure you boil it with water and sugar!
Crystal
Hi there 🙂 im obsessed with beetroot! saw a 100g bag of beetroot powder for $16 definately think it would be cheaper to make my own.. Few questions, firstly do you think grating the beetroot would work?, how long did it take in the food dehydrator and on what level (1, 2 or 3), also did the beetroot stain the racks of the food dehydrator?
Thanks for your time
Crystal
Tracy Ariza
Hi Crystal,
You could probably grate the beetroot, but I think it would be a lot messier that way.
I just made more the other day to check on the amounts that could be made with beetroots. 513grams of fresh beetroot (451g once peeled) ended up drying into 72g of dried beetroot. I think I used 3 small beetroots, so, yes, you’d definitely save money making your own!
The other times I always sliced the beetroot with the food processor, but this time I sliced it by hand in thicker slices. They still dried after an afternoon in my dehydrator. I didn’t really time it, but instead checked on it every hour or so to see which pieces had become dried and brittle.
The beetroot makes it look like the dehydrator is stained, but I was able to remove the “stains” on mine pretty easily with soap and water. Lemon juice would also probably help if yours are more stubborn than mine.
I hope that helps!
Kristy Holbrooks
Hi! I need abt 10lbs of pink powder, for a gender reveal, any clue as to how many beets equals Oz or grams of powder? I may be better off spending the $50 and just buying powdered dye. Thanks!
Tracy Ariza
10 lbs.!?!?!?!
That sounds like a lot! I’m sort of curious as to why you need so much.
Somebody asked me once, so I made a note of it the next time I made some. This is what I had written:
513grams of fresh beetroot (451g once peeled) ended up drying into 72g of dried beetroot. I think I used 3 small beetroots.
I can’t imagine trying to make 10 lbs., though, nor can I imagine using 10 lbs. for anything. 🙂
You’ve seriously piqued my curiosity.
I wish you the best of luck, and I’ve love to hear what you end up doing!
Rifka Dirkzwagger
Heey love this idea! But I do have a question. Are you using a cooked beet or a raw one ? ❤️
Tracy Ariza
Hi Rifka,
I have always used raw beets, but I imagine it would be possible to use cooked too. I’m not sure how bright they would end up being, though, or the consistency that you’d end up with in the final powder. The raw beets make a beautiful, vibrant powder.
muthu
nice idea but i have one question 100g beetroot, how many beetroot powder will be comes
Tracy Ariza
Hi Muthu,
That’s a good question. I haven’t ever really measured it out to see.
I always have some dried beetroot slices on hand that I make into powder in small batches for homemade blush, food coloring, etc., but I do such small batches at a time that I don’t really measure it out.
I can at least measure how much the beetroot weighs before and after dehydrating next time I make it, and maybe I can give an estimate on how much powder volume-wise you obtain for a certain weight of dehydrated beetroot. I’ll try to give it a shot soon and update the post. 🙂
Debbie
I love this idea, especially when I discovered the hidden fact of coloring for red velvet cake. All natural is the way to go. Thank you for this.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Debbie,
Beet root powder works great as a natural food coloring. It’s probably my favorite of all because it has a sweet flavor which doesn’t negatively affect most foods.
Did you see my posts about natural food colorings for other color ideas?
(There’s even an idea for a color changing food coloring.)