I just love pickled beets.
Of course you can buy them ready made in the grocery store, but oh the sweet delight of opening a jar that you made in the summer when beets were plentiful and sweet.
This recipe for pickling beets is simple.
Other recipes I have seen call for sliced onions or chopped peppers. While you can certainly add these, I am a bit of a purist and prefer just the luscious red jewels on their own.
Both the beets and cider vinegar are very healthy for us, so as side dish condiment recipe, these pickled beets are a fairly healthy choice. You can cut the amount of sugar a bit to make the recipe healthier.
Pickled Beets
Ingredients
- 6 quarts beets, small
- 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup brown sugar
- whole cloves
Instructions
- Cook the beets in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and plunge the beets into cold water.
- Rub off the skins. If the beets are very tiny, you can pickle them whole. If not slice them or cut into bite size pieces as in the image.
- Drop the beets into sterile jars. Make the pickling syrup of vinegar, water and brown sugar. Let the syrup simmer for 5 minutes. Add the syrup to the jars to within 1/2 inch of the top. Place 3 whole cloves in each jar and screw down the tops.
- Ideally do not use for at least 3 weeks as it gives the flavors a chance to meld.
Note:
- You may want to use rubber gloves (prewashed) to take the skin off the beets to prevent your hands from turning bright red.
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If you like this pickled beets recipe, have a look at our recipe for harvard beets.
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Oh, this recipe looks DIVINE but Im confused as to how many beets to use. It appears this recipe yields 2 cups of brine but it says to use “6 quart2 beets”. Does this mean 6 quarts of small beets? Im sorry that my pea brain cant figure it out! Im brand new to pickling beets. This will be my first time and anxious to get it perfect! Thank you so much.
Sorry Kimberly, that should have read 6 quarts of beets. The number of beets depends on the size. If you have medium size beets I would start with about 6. You might have too much brine but that’s fine. After cooking the beets either slice them or cut into bite size pieces. The cloves are optional. Good luck with them.