Pickled Beets

Beets are one of my favourite vegetables.  Not only are they quite inexpensive, they are a powerhouse when it comes to nutrition.  They detox the liver, purify the blood and prevent some cancers plus they contain tryptophan that works much the same way as chocolate without all the calories.  Beets are also a good indicator of stomach acid.  If your urine is pink instead of clear after eating beets, it is an indication of low stomach acid so increase your beet and greens consumption.  A ten pound bag of large red beets last long in our home!  Beets are ideal for pickling, canning, roasting, grilling, boiling, and of course making Borscht.  Beets can also be frozen.  I am particularly fond of Harvard beets that are sweet and tangy with their thicken sauce.  So, I knew that 10 lb bag was not going to last very long.

One of my first projects using the beets was a batch of pickled beets.  Pickled beets look like sparkling dark rubies in the jar.  They are just so absolutely gorgeous!  Pickled beets are rather versatile too as well as being a tasty pickle.  The pickling liquid can be drained off then used as a brine to pickle hard boiled eggs giving them a lovely pinkish tinge.  All homemade pickled eggs are not shelf stable so must be refrigerated but they will keep for about six months so it is a good way to use up extra eggs.

I don't make a lot of pickled beets as I'm the only one in our immediate family who likes them.  I normally can them in the 250 ml jelly jars but after the canning tomato products found myself with only 3 - 250 ml jelly.  I could have used the squatty elite jars but decided to can the beets in 500 ml jars instead.  At any rate, the jars looked lovely and oh so tempting!

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