You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, but you can from a beet. In fact, you have to be careful with beets. They bruise easily despite their tough appearance and release juices at the slightest scratch. Beet juice will stain your clothes and is very difficult, if not impossible, to remove. Why is this?
The answer is very simple. The cellular structure of beets is quite fragile and breaks easily under any kind of pressure, causing leaks. However, boiling fresh beets in their skins greatly reduces this leakage, so this tactic should be considered when preparing beets. For Borscht, for example, it is desired that the escape produces the magnificent blood red associated with the soup, while if it is served as garrison, one may want beets to look as much as possible.
Be very careful with beet juice when preparing raw beets as a grated garnish for salads. Raw beets in particular ‘bleed’ a lot, and since salads are often prepared in a rush, it’s easier to stain your clothes this way.
No other vegetable loses its juices as dramatically and prolifically as beets, although some fruits like plums do. Even tomato juice is quite clear: it is the pulp that makes tomato juice red. As far as tubers go, beets are really weird. I’m sure the juice would make a good tint, though I’ve never heard of it. It would certainly be a good marinade.
The last word on handling fresh beets is this: with caution. If you are going to be the host of a party, remember that beet juice will stain the skin of your hands for hours and you will not be able to wash it off. So if you’re going to be shaking hands with a lot of people, you might be embarrassed to extend a beet-red hand to your guests.