Reduced Cabinet Bingo: Pickled beetroots!

[pseudomonas]

I posted this on my own journal first, but as it happens I was spurred to make it cos a bag of beetroots was 59p in South Harrow and you can't say no to that, can you?

So:

1. Cut your beetroots into chunks. Do not peel or scald them; scrubbing is OK.
2. Put the chunks in a non-airtight jar.
3. Pour a salt solution (35g of salt in a litre of boiled-and-cooled water) over them.
4. Wait for a week or two for the beetroots to become sufficiently delicious.

Yeah, that's it. Hardly worth bothering with, was it?


When it's done you can either just eat the beetroots as they are or simmer them in the brine (which by then will have turned into basically beetroot kvass) and make a borscht out of them.

Variations: you can mix the beetroots with carrots/swedes/turnips; you can add some caraway seeds/dill seeds/peppercorns/garlic.

(being kept company by some cucumbers which are outside the scope of this challenge)

Comments

[fred_mouse]

Interesting! Do you not boil them first? Because the recipe that I have is tedious and time consuming and so I don't do it very often, but one like this that might only take 15 minutes instead of multiple hours might inspire me!

[pseudomonas]

No boiling, no. They turn out crunchy, like pickled carrots or pickled radish. Cutting them smaller would be a good idea if you're going to mainly eat them raw; I'll probably mainly borscht them.

[fred_mouse]

Raw would be the plan -- eldest child is the main beetroot eater of the family, and experimenting with variety would be good.

[pseudomonas]

OK, so if raw you probably want to cut it into matchsticks, like you might cut carrots.

[fred_mouse]

Useful, thank you.

(and after planning on making this, I forgot to buy beets at the shop yesterday, so hopefully I will remember next week, and remember where the recipe is!)