IN SEASON ALERT! It is the beginning of April and the ingredients you'll need are in season so that means they are cheap and plentiful!

As a vegetarian, I substitute proteins a lot. One of the substitutes I like to make is seitan (aka wheat gluten; GLUTEN y'all!). And occasionally one needs to spice that seitan with beet root powder; for color and not for taste. Beet root powder is a natural red pigment (but don't use it to dye; it will turn dyed items brown).

It is very simple to make: raw (as in not canned or pickled) beets (the bulb part, not the greens) dehydrated and then ground up in a spice grinder.

Want that in more detail?

Materials List

• beets
• spice grinder [substitute mortar and pestle]
• dehydrator [substitute flatish basket, convenient tree limbs, and a tea towel over it like this]
• knife & cutting board [substitute mandolin slicer]

Procedure

1. Buy a bunch of beets. I bought this bunch of beets which made two tablespoons of beet root powder, plus a lot of greens to eat for a different meal. You want a bunch of beets like that. You don't want a single beet. You also don't want an unabridged dictionary's weight in beets. Four or five beets that each can individually fit in the palm of your hand will do you.
2. Give the outside of the beets a good scrub to remove any lingering dirt (don't want to eat dirt).
3. Use a knife to remove the beet greens. Use those for a different recipe. They can be cooked the same as collar greens or spinach. Yum! Chop off any trailing beet taproots and put them on the dehydrator trays.
4. Cut the beets in half from top to bottom, so that you get two rainbows (or smiles, if you'd prefer).
5. Thin slice the rainbows and place those rainbows on the dehydrator trays.
6. Set the dehydrator to 120F and leave it to do its thing for 8+ hours. When the beets are fully dehydrated, you can stop the dehydration process. This may take several days if using the solar (aka "outdoors with a basket") method, and the tea towel will keep bird poop from being added to your beets.
   
   How will you know the beets are fully dehydrated? If you have to ask, they aren't. You'll have no doubts because there won't even the the slightest hint of moisture when they are, and you'll know by feel and sound alone.
7. Put the dehydrated beets into your spice grinder (or mortar and pestle) and whirr until static electricity causes some of the beet root powder to stick to the top of the spice grinder cup. This indicates a finished consistency and can be removed with a dry paintbrush (which you might have in your kitchen for spreading sauces).
8. Move beet root powder into its final storage container.

NOTES

On a personal note, I keep my dehydrated food powders in old pill bottles. They are just the right size to fit in my spice rack.

Bibliography time! This general procedure comes to you courtesy of this site which taught me that beet root powder is nothing more than powdered, dehydrated beets. That generality was supplemented by this site which provided the ideal dehydrator temperature to set for beets so that the beets aren't cooked (and thus turn brown) by the dehydrator but preserve that magenta color. For those doing the solar dehydrating method, this site also has tips for having a success experience your very first time.