甜菜, photo 1 of 2
甜菜, photo 2 of 2

Photo credit

Photo
-2018-12-14 Jar of pickled Beetroot and Scallions, Cromer (1)
By
Kolforn (Kolforn) I'd appreciate if you could mail me ([email protected]) if you
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Source
Wikimedia Commons
Changes
Cropped and resized

Photo credit

Photo
-2021-10-17 A Jars of pickled beetroot and onion, Trimingham, Norfolk
By
Kolforn (Kolforn) I'd appreciate if you could mail me ([email protected]) if you
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Source
Wikimedia Commons
Changes
Cropped and resized

甜菜

tiáncài
noun #18,501

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 beet; beetroot
  2. 2 sugar beet

About the ingredient

蔬菜 Vegetables

A round root with deep red, sweet flesh. It is not common in Chinese cooking and turns up mostly in salads, juices and Russian-style borscht; the white sugar beet, grown in the north, is used for sugar.

Also called  红菜头、 甜菜根

Examples

HSK 5
Tā xǐhuan bǎ tiáncài jiā dào shālā lǐ.
She likes to add beets to her salad.
HSK 6
Tiáncài shì zhì táng de zhòngyào yuánliào.
Sugar beet is an important raw material for making sugar.

Tips

memory
甜 (sweet) + 菜 (vegetable) = sweet vegetable, i.e. a beet. Sugar beet is literally the 'sweet vegetable' that sugar comes from.

Stroke Order

甜 tián
菜 cài