Pickled (marinated) beets
Last night we enjoyed a jar of our favorite marinated beets, as we call them, so I decided to share this super quick and simple recipe! We usually overdo our beets patch out of worry the transplants won't survive, but they all do and we end up with lots and lots of juicy red beets.
The pickled beets is a great as a winter salad by its own, especially with some freshly cut garlic and olive oil, but we also use it as an ingredient in other salads like leafy greens and chickpea and beets salad :) OK, now I'm hungry! Should remember to not write recipe posts on an empty stomach! :D
First, you'll need some beets from the garden. We don't let them grow too large, as they tend to get fibrous.
We do succession planting, so in this photo you can see an almost ready to harvest beet along with some babies that are just transplanted.
Wash the beets thoroughly, using a brush if needed. You're going to use the water they're boiled in, so the cleaner - the better. If a beet is larger than your fist, cut it in half. Smaller beets can be boiled whole.
Fill a large pot with the beets and water enough to cover them. Boil for 15-20 minutes - you're not looking for completely cooked beets, just enough to flavor the water (beet stock) and to allow easy peeling of the skin. It's important to boil them with the skin, as it contains the most saturated flavor!
A good way to check for readiness is to poke a fork in one of the beets. It should penetrate slightly, but there should be some resistance, we're not looking for soft and mushy beets!
After the initial boiling, strain the beets while keeping the beet stock. Peel and cut in bite-sized chunks. Fill a jar loosely with beet cubes to the top without pressing them. Add the other ingredients from the list below. Fill with beet stock, again straining it with a fine mesh or two layers of muslin cloth.
Cap the jars and boil them 20-30 minutes, or 10-15 if you're using a pressure canner. You're done!
Ingredients
- 1 table spoon of salt
- 2 table spoons of sugar
- 5 table spoons of vinegar
- Spices: onion rings, 1 clove, 1 cardamom, 1 allspice, a few black peppercorns, a pinch of nutmeg.
- Water from the boiling pot
- This amout is for a single 24 US fluid ounces jar (700-800 ml).
Bon Appétit!
Here are some of my other posts:
- Recipe: Pesto alla Genovese (basil pesto)
- Recipe: Ginger ale (or something like it)
- Gardening: Growing asparagus from seed
- Gardening: Slow and lazy compost
- Intro: My introduction post from last month
Beetroot is my favourite salad vegetable. I eat it fresh during the summer and pickled in the winter.
My crop failed last summer though - not sure why - hopefully will be better this year.
If it grows well this year hopefully I will be able to pickle some. I will keep your recipe on hand for that.
Failed how? Did it just dry out and die or there was another problem? Our main problems with beetroot were a consequence of a too late planting out date, combined with a very hot start of the summer.
They were tiny! The previous year had been good. I am going to try a new planting place with different soil / compost this year.
Ours are grown in clay soil (Vertisol) with no other added stuff except what's in the seed tray. I've found out that the largest plants develop in partial shade - this is related to the fact we don't water them very often and the clay soil in the shade retains most of the moisture.
Interesting. The previous year I had them in a partially shaded area, this year they were in full sun.
So, I'm a firm believer that if there's a food you don't like, you just haven't had it in a context that you like. I am determined to learn to like beets. I grow a few every year and experiment with them. I've come to a place where I think they're okay, edible at the very least. I'm going to try this recipe and see if I can like them a little more!
That's a great point! I am usually not a fan of beets, but I have a feeling that @bobydimitrov recipe is going to change my mind :)
~ Kevin
We can only hope! 😀
Our kids dislike them grated in a salad and also steamed... they'll nibble, but won't really eat much. However, the pickled variety is their favorite! They'll go through a whole jar in a single seating. And later of, scream in panic in the toilet, of couse :) RED PEE ALERT!
Thanks for warning!! 😬
Hi @bobydimitrov. I love beets and will definitely try your recipe. Very interestign to see a clsoe up shot of your uccession planting. I find this concept very interesting. Are you succesfull with it so far?
Here's another photo of the beets patch, from another year, end of May:
In the photo you can see some big plants in the middle, those are directly seeded in the bed in mid March and ready to pick, golf-ball size, very nice for boiling whole. The mid-size plants are started in tray around mid April, planted in the garden in early May. The smallest sized plants are from early-to-mid May tray started seeds, just transplanted in the bed.
We could do it without the trays, however the slugs and snails would destroy everything, with the help of the ants. When we seed in March, the plants develop enough before the ants and slugs become very active. But if we continue to plant seeds directly, they suffer much more - for example a few years ago we lost more than 200 beet seedlings to "pests" (a.k.a. duck food)!
Oooo picked beets yumm!
My partner makes bright pink betroot bread i'll see if I can grab the receipe from him.
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Very cool! Beets are some of my favorite vegetables and pickled beets sounds way better for keeping them. Thank you!