Pickled Beets Recipe
My mom has always made these pickled beets every summer and I've carried on the tradition with my family.
You can keep them in the refrigerator and add more cooked beets to the liquid when they start to get low. We also add shelled, hard-boiled eggs to the juice in this pickled beets recipe, and after 2 to 3 days, they are a beautiful purple all the way down to the yolk (and taste divine!). Slice these eggs, and they are a stunning garnish to salads.
Submitted by: Katherine from Petersburg, TX
Yield: 3 quarts
Preparation Instructions:
- Put beets in a large saucepan or stockpot and add enough cold water to cover them with 3 inches over the top. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to maintain a slow boil. Cook until beets are tender when pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes. Pour water off and let beets cool. Slip skins off once the beets are cool enough to handle. Slice and set aside.
- Place the sugar, cider vinegar, water, salt, and spices in a smaller saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Pour this pickling liquid into a large glass jar (1.5 liters or ½ gallon), add the sliced beets, cover with a lid and refrigerate. Let the beets sit at least a week before tasting.
- Add shelled hard boiled eggs to the mixture as well. Try to use them in 2 to 3 days. If left in the pickling liquid too long, they turn rubbery.
- Keep adding more cooked beets (and eggs) as needed. May keep in the refrigerator up to 6 months.
thespicehouse.com
More About This Recipe
These beets make a delicious summer lunch accompanying good cheese and home made bread. For vegan beets, make sure the sugar you use is vegan. Some white sugar is processed with bone char.
You have the exact recp. as my Mom. Yiu don,t come by that too often.
I found this recipe to be very easy to follow. It provided just the right sweetness and tartness to my beets. My children have a hard time eating vegetables, but I couldn’t get them to stop eating the beets. They were very delicious!!!!!
@ Paula – I just let the spices freely float with the beets. They tend to float on the surface so I find its easy enough to keep them in the jar and off of the beets you are getting ready to eat! Bon Apetite!
I have a question. Do you seperate the liquid from the spices before adding the beets to the liquid? I wouldn’t want to have to pick the spices of the beets before eating them but you don’t specify whether or not to drain it first.
Loved this recipe!
Great recipe! So reminiscent of the pickled beets my dearly departed father made. Unfortunately I never got his recipes for many dishes. This recipe helps keep his memory alive. Thank you.
An afterthought: I prepared the brine while the beets boiled. The beets lose quite a bit of color to the water while boiling. Next time I will hold off making the brine until the beets are boiled and cooling, so I can use 2 cups of the reddened boiling water in the brine. Perhaps they will re-absorb some of the color? Just a thought.
Add: Sorry about the last comment, the boiling water does not retain the redness I had hoped. A la Roseanne Roseannadana: “Never mind.”
I’ve made these several times and they’re absolutely wonderful! I am, however, a little leery of reusing the brine once it’s had eggs in it. Your thoughts on that?
Couldn’t wait a week to try them. I tried them their second day in the refrigerator and they are great!! I haven’t had a good pickled beet in 20 years and I love them.