One of our favorite ways to enjoy beets! Our Easy Pickled Beets recipe is simple, fast, and will make a great side, condiment, or addition to any meal!
Beets have always been a favorite in our house. Even when my girls were little, they loved the bright color and earthy yet sweet flavor. Steamed beets are still a favorite of my 7 year old, but only second to this Easy Pickled Beets recipe! The sweet and tangy vinegar brine and tender beets are great to make ahead and keep in the fridge for when your meal could use a little sweet, acidic, earthy flavor!
Ingredients Needed
- Fresh Beets - Fresh is of course best for this recipe, although you can use any beets you'd like! Red, golden, purple, or even striped!
- Apple Cider Vinegar - We prefer this slightly sweeter brown vinegar, but you can also use white vinegar or even rice vinegar.
- Water - Equal part to the vinegar (excluding the water needed to boil the beets!)
- Sugar - This is a lower-sugar pickled beets recipe because we prefer to have the natural sweetness of the beets shine!
- Garlic - Totally optional, we just love to add just a couple of cloves to the jars.
- Peppercorns - Also optional, but it adds great flavor.
- Kosher Salt - Just enough for the pickling brine.
Tools Needed
(Amazon affiliate links)- You can find all of my kitchen essentials here!
Vegetable Peeler - A good peeler will make beet peeling so much easier!
Colander - To drain those freshly boiled beets.
Medium and Small-Sized Saucepans - To boil the beets and to heat your pickling liquid. You can of course just use one, but to save time, we make the pickling liquid in the final minutes of the beets boiling.
Wide Mouth Mason Jars - This is what we use to store the pickled beets. For this recipe, it will fill 1 32 oz jar and 1 of these 17 oz jars.
Pyrex Measuring Cup- This will make filling those jars with the pickling liquid much easier!
SO Easy to Make
Peel and Chop Beets
My girls prefer a large chop on the beets, but you can also chop them smaller or even slice them.
Boil the Beets
Once the beets are peeled and chopped, then you can either boil or roast the beets. We prefer boiling because it's a little faster and also we prefer the flavor of pickled boiled beets over pickled roasted beets.
Add the pickling liquid
While the beets are boiling, it's a quick heat / dissolve of the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar for the pickling liquid that can then be added to your beet-packed jars.
Let Cool
Seal your jars and then let them cool and pickle away!
After about an hour of chilling (although you could give them a go in about 15 minutes), you have Easy Pickled Beets ready for whatever you'd like to use them for!
Recipe Tips
You can boil or roast the beets for pickling, but roasting (as with other veggies) will help concentrate the beet's flavor and can give them a bit more of a roasted flavor while boiling is much more "just beets" flavor. Plus, boiling is faster. Either works great though, but we prefer the cleaner flavor of boiled beets.
Whichever you prefer! We actually like to do some of each but keep in mind that the boiling time will vary when the size and cut of the beets is different, so we will often boil two small pots of each cut and jar each!
This recipe is for a quick pickled beets recipe that is for refrigerator beets. When canning, you will want a greater vinegar ratio and of course the processing time for the sterilized cans (which varies based on altitude).
For this recipe, we use wide-mouthed mason jars. Wide-mouthed is preferred mainly because it makes getting the beets in (and out) a bit easier.
Add cloves, allspice, coriander, or a bay leaf. You can also use a different vinegar (like wine or rice!), and add a little cinnamon for a warm touch.
How to Use Pickled Beets
My girls love pickled beets right out of the jar for a pickled snack or side, but they also make a great addition to salads, sliced for sandwiches, or to add some colorful zippy tang to any dish! Because they last for about 1-2 months in the fridge, these are great to make a big batch of and have on hand whenever needed! Store them next to your Easy Pickled Onions or Bread and Butter Pickles!
Tender, tangy, and guaranteed to add color to any table or meal! Take another store-bought item off of your list and make these Easy Pickled Beets from scratch to store in your fridge instead!
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Easy Pickled Beets
Ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh beets or 5 cups peeled and chopped
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar 70 g
- 3-4 cloves fresh garlic
- 8 whole peppercorns
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Prep and Boil Beets: Peel and chop the beets to the desired size. Add them to a medium-sized saucepan filled with water. Heat on high and boil for about 15 minutes or until the beets are fork tender. Drain into a colander and set aside.
- Prep Pickling Liquid: In the final minutes of the beets boiling, add the 1 cup of water, vinegar, sugar, and salt to a small saucepan and heat over medium. Bring it to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar and cook until all of the sugar is dissolved into the liquid.
- Fill Jars: Fill mason jars with the boiled beets and add peppercorns and garlic, splitting them between the two jars. Add pickling liquid to a Pyrex measuring cup, or use the pot to pour the liquid into the jars, covering the beets completely.
- Chill: Cover and let the beets chill in the fridge for 1 hr (although pickling will start after 15 minutes). Use as a snack, side, or salad or sandwich topper!
Amy Liu Dong
This is a great recipe of pickled beets and i want to try this one out! I just need to gather the ingredients and i'm good to go!
Linda
Can canned beets be used? Or will finished product be too mushy?
Tracy
Hi Linda! Yes, you can use canned beets and just skip the boiling step! 🙂