Pickled Pink!

If you haven’t figured it out already, I am a dork. I am a dork with a long history of good ideas gone wrong; good intentions gone totally retarded. I have another one to add to the list: it began with a bright idea that swiftly went dim, and 10 pounds of beets that narrowly averted an unfortunate, and premature, trip to the great green bin in the sky.

I decided to pickle, and can, beets.

Great idea, right? The delicious little beasties are very much in season right now, and I am a domestic goddess. What could go wrong?

Well, to start, I have never pickled or canned anything, ever. So I had no idea how scary the process is. Hot pack! Cold pack! Sterilization! Botulism! The more I researched my pet pickling project, the more terrified I became. But I pressed on. Or rather, I sliced on. Or rather, I washed, boiled, cooked, cooled, peeled, and then sliced on.

I got my adorable Golden Harvest Mason jars clean, sterile and hot. I got my beets prepped and my pickling liquid cooked (it smelled so yummy! I was sure this was going to go well!). I got my beets in the jars and the liquid on the beets and then went to preserve my jars.

And then I realized that I didn’t have a rack to go in the bottom of my pot. But I improvised, and seriously started rolling a little grate out of tin foil when I realized that I had aluminum trays for the grill that I could just cut to size. Phew!

And then I realized that I didn’t have those funny grabbers to get the jars in and of the water. But I improvised and realized that my silicone-tipped tongs would hold on to the jars well enough to do the job. Double phew!

And then I realized that my pot was not large enough to fill to 2 inches above the jars. And it was 10pm on a Thursday night. Crap. Double crap.

In the end I decided that it was not worth the botulism risk to cowboy it up on the preserving, and ended the process there. So the beets were pickled, but not preserved. They were still really, really yummy, and I had a good excuse to eat really large servings, and an even better excuse to share my bounty with friends, family and neighbours.  And now I know exactly what to put on the top of my Christmas list.

 

Pickled Beets

Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 30-40 min
Yield: 6 250ml jars

- 5 lbs beets
- 1 c. apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 tbsp. Pickling spices

- Trim all but 1” of stem from beets.
- Place beets in LARGE pot and cover with water. Heat to boiling; reduce heat and simmer 20-30 min., until tender.
- Drain, reserving 2 cups of the liquid.
- When cool enough, peel and slice beets into 1/4” thick slices. Place beets in jars, leaving an inch or so at the top.
- In non-reactive saucepan, heat reserved beet liquid, vinegar, sugar and picking spices over med. heat. Stir frequently, until sugar has dissolved.
- Pour over beets; tighten lids.
- Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks, and enjoy scrubbing purple stains off of everything!

SoundBITE
Beets do a body good. Not only are they delicious, transforming from a hard, gritty root to a soft, buttery treat when cooked, but they are super-duper healthy. Rich in folate, magnesium, calcium, potassium, fibre and vitamin C (and that’s only the root of it’s benefits – waka waka), beets are also a proven cancer fighter. That’s thanks to their betacyanin – the pigment that gives beets their vibrant colour is also a powerful fighter against colon cancer. So get 'em while their pickled.

Comments

[nomotherearth]

I LOVE pickled beets! Do you have an spare jars?

[kerry]

I love beets! Thanks for posting this- funny and yummy :)

[kittenpie]

What could go wrong? Oy. You NEVER say that, didn't you know?

We've been eating beets like crazy, too. Yum.