Beetroot

Beetroot, or beet, is the taproot portion of a cultivated variety of Beta vulgaris, a root vegetable also known as the table beet, garden beet or dinner beet, or categorized by color as red beet or golden beet, whose leaves form a separate leaf vegetable called beet greens; it is native to the Azores, Western Europe, the Mediterranean and India. Beetroot can be eaten raw, roasted, steamed or boiled, and is also commonly canned, pickled, spiced or served in a sweet-and-sour sauce; other cultivated varieties of the same subspecies include the sugar beet, the leaf vegetable Swiss chard, and the fodder crop mangelwurzel.