This is an easy salad and side dish for the spring and summer. Like many Ukrainian recipes, it has cream and then you add a bit more cream. It’s a rich salad with great garlic and beet flavours.
The Instant Pot speeds up the cooking time on your beets (or in my case, one giant beet). And, you can take advantage of spring garlic if you can find this special springtime treat.
I was fortunate to get some green garlic (young garlic or spring garlic) this week. It’s a juvenile form of the garlic before it matures. It has a lighter flavour than garlic, and you can use it the same way you’d use green onions. You can also use regular garlic and just slowly saute it a little longer.
But, I started out with a giant beet. This single beet weighed in at 1 pound.
Quickly scrubbed to remove any dirt and weird strings, I put it in the Instant Pot with 1 ½ cups of water and steamed it for 25 minutes on High Pressure using Manual. With smaller beets, you can adjust that time down to 20 minutes.
I ran the beet under cold water and peeled the skin off of the beet and removed the stem. Usually, I’d suggest using rubber gloves but it’s It’s May 2020, and everyone should be washing their hands enough that the beet colour will come off.
Cube the beet into small cubes.
I sliced the green garlic and chopped up some dill that I had frozen.
Saute the green garlic for about 3 minutes until it’s slightly wilted. Here, I’m using a stovetop frying pan it will be easier to control the temperature when the cream comes into the mix. You could try to saute in your Instant Pot.
Add the beets and saute for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Add ½ cup whipping cream and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. The cream will turn pink and thicken.
Pull it off of the heat and add even more cream – 2 or 3 Tablespoons of sour cream along with the dill, salt, pepper, and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice.
This rich beet salad can be served warm or chilled.
Time saved
- The Instant Pot steaming can save about 30 minutes of the time that you would need to boil the beets on the stovetop.
Special equipment
- Instant Pot (mine is a Duo)
- Frying pan

Instant Pot Creamy beet salad with dill and spring garlic
Ingredients
- 1 to 5 whole beets 1 pound
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 to 2 green/fresh garlic sliced
- ½ cup whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup chopped dill or to taste
- 3 Tablespoons sour cream
Instructions
- Scrub beets and steam in the Instant Pot for 20 to 25 minutes on Manual with High Pressure.
- Rinse under cold water, trim and peel. Chop into smaller cubes.
- Saute the sliced green garlic with 1 Tablespoon butter until wilted on medium heat. Add cubed beets and saute for an additional 2 minutes. Add ½ cup whipping cream and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat, add the ½ cup chopped dill, 3 Tablespoons of sour cream, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Didn’t have an instant pot, but boiling the beets turned out well. Really great and not too complicated recipe for tasty salad!
Hi Angie – I’m glad you tried it. It’s easy even without an Instant Pot.