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Make this easy Pickled Beet Recipe and add your beets to salads, sandwiches, or charcuterie boards. The best part? Pickled Beets are safe in the refrigerator for up to six weeks and no canning equipment is required.
In addition to calling for zero canning experience or special canning tools, my easy refrigerator Pickled Beets recipe is remarkably versatile. Pickled beets have a sweet and sour flavor, tender-crisp texture, and a brilliant color.
My favorite options for how to use Pickled Beets? As a topping for these cookout MVP Pork Burgers with Feta Mustard, sliced and sprinkled into salads and grain bowls, as a stand-alone snack, or featured as part of a charcuterie board.
Crunchy, briny, and earthy, you’re sure to dig these Pickled Beets.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Beets: This pickling method works with any kind of beet (red, golden, or candy cane-striped beets). I like golden beets because they don’t stain surfaces and hands the way red beets do. If you are pickling different kinds of beets at the same time, roast them in separate pans and brine them separately. Otherwise, the juices from the red beets will bleed into the golden beets and change the color.
- Ginger, anise, and peppercorns: We preferred the taste of 1 tbsp each of ginger, anise, and peppercorns to flavor the beets. But, it’s fine to substitute 3 tbsp of store-bought pickling spice.
Step-by-step instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub beets well under cold water and pat dry. Place in a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish and cover with parchment paper. Bake until tender when pierced with a skewer, about 45 to 60 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove beets to another dish, and immediately cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Allow beets to steam for 15 to 20 minutes, to loosen skins.
- To peel the beets, rub off skins with fingertips, paper towels, or a clean kitchen towel.
- Slice into 1/4-inch thin rounds or crinkle-cut on a mandoline.
- In a large saucepan, pot, or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, combine vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. In a piece of cheesecloth, bundle together the ginger, star anise, and peppercorns. Secure with a piece of kitchen twine, and add to vinegar mixture. Bring mixture to a boil, and add beets. Return to a boil and simmer. Remove from heat and discard sachet.
- With a slotted spoon, transfer sliced beets to jars with tight-fitting lids.
- Carefully spoon or pour hot brine over beets, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 week. Pickled beets can be refrigerated up to 6 weeks.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: My homemade Pickled Beet recipe makes eight 1/2-cup servings. You’ll use more like 1/4-cup as a sandwich condiment, but ½ cup chopped or sliced is stellar as part of a salad.
- Storage: Store pickled beets in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. Canned beets can be stored for up to 1 year in a cool, dark place (see instructions in the next section).
- Flavors: Tweak your spice blend with a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, onion, allspice, bay leaves, or mustard seed. You can also change the white vinegar to apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar.
- Beet Salad: Make an easy Beet Salad loaded with goat cheese, almonds, and a delicious lemon vinaigrette. Save time with store-bought roasted beets or roast the beets yourself.
- Vegan Cobb Salad: Fill your belly with a hearty Vegan Cobb Salad inspired by the Cheesecake Factory: use lettuce, grilled asparagus, avocado, roasted beets, blanched green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, cooked quinoa, cooked farro, toasted almonds, toasted pepitas, and your favorite vinaigrette (I love Red Wine Vinaigrette on this salad).
- Canning: To process the pickled beets for long-term shelf-stable storage:
- Divide hot beets and pickling liquid among sterilized pint jars, leaving ½ inch headspace at the top. The beets should be fully submerged in liquid.
- Stir the contents to release any air bubbles, wipe the rim of each jar clean, and add the lids and screw bands until finger-tight (do not completely tighten them or air cannot escape).
- Process in a water bath canner (covered by at least 1 inch of water, and start the clock when the water is rapidly boiling) according to your elevation: 30 minutes for up to 1,000 feet, 35 minutes for 1,001 to 3,000 feet, 40 minutes for 3,001 to 6,000 feet, and 45 minutes for over 6,000 feet.
- Cool on a wire rack for 24 hours (the lids should pop as they cool and seal). Store in cool, dark place for up to 1 year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Select beets that are firm and hard, not squishy. Avoid any beets that have soft spots or are wrinkled. If available, seek out beets that have their greens still attached.
Trim the beet greens off about 2 inches above the root. If you get too close, the beets will bleed. If you leave too much, the stem will continue to pull moisture out of the beets. To wash beets, scrub them vigorously under running water to remove any dirt.
You can eat beet greens raw or cooked. Use beet greens in place of Swiss chard or spinach in soups or salads, try a handful to replace some of the basil in pesto, or blend into your next green smoothie. Aim to use beet greens within 1 to 2 days.
Keep raw, unwashed beets in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Store loose in your crisper drawer or in a plastic bag with holes cut in it for humidity circulation.
Add leftover beet juice to your next Beet Smoothie for extra color and minerals.
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Pickled Beet Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 pounds beets trimmed, scrubbed, and unpeeled (see note 1)
- 2 cups white vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger peeled and cut into 1/4-inch rounds (see note 2)
- 1 pod star anise
- 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub beets well under cold water and pat dry. Place in a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish and cover with parchment paper. Bake until tender when pierced with a skewer, about 45 to 60 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove beets to another dish, and immediately cover with plastic wrap. Allow beets to steam for 15 to 20 minutes, to loosen skins.
- Rub off skins with fingertips or paper towels. Slice into 1/4-inch thin rounds or crinkle-cut on a mandoline.
- In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, combine vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. In a piece of cheesecloth, bundle together the ginger, star anise, and peppercorns. Secure with a piece of kitchen twine, and add to vinegar mixture. Bring mixture to a boil, and add beets. Return to a boil. Remove from heat and discard sachet.
- With a slotted spoon, transfer sliced beets to jars with tight-fitting lids. Carefully spoon or pour hot brine over beets, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 week. Pickles can be refrigerated up to 6 weeks.
Notes
- Beets: This pickling method works with any kind of beet (red, golden, or candy cane-striped beets). I like golden beets because they don’t stain surfaces and hands the way red beets do. If you are pickling different kinds of beets at the same time, roast them in separate pans and brine them separately. Otherwise, the juices from the red beets will bleed into the golden beets and change the color.
- Ginger, anise, and peppercorns: We preferred the taste of 1 tablespoon each of ginger, anise, and peppercorns to flavor the beets. But, it’s fine to substitute 3 tablespoons of store-bought pickling spice.
- Yield: My homemade Pickled Beet recipe makes eight 1/2-cup servings. You’ll use more like 1/4-cup as a sandwich condiment, but ½ cup chopped or sliced is stellar as part of a salad.
- Storage: Store pickled beets in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks. Canned beets can be stored for up to 1 year in a cool, dark place (see instructions in the next section).
- Canning: To process the pickled beets for long-term storage:
- Divide hot beets and pickling liquid among sterilized pint jars, leaving ½ inch headspace at the top. The beets should be fully submerged in liquid.
- Stir the contents to release any air bubbles, wipe the rim of each jar clean, and add the lids and screw bands until finger-tight (do not completely tighten them or air cannot escape).
- Process in boiling water (covered by at least 1 inch of water, and start the clock when the water is rapidly boiling) according to your elevation: 30 minutes for up to 1,000 feet, 35 minutes for 1,001 to 3,000 feet, 40 minutes for 3,001 to 6,000 feet, and 45 minutes for over 6,000 feet.
- Cool on a wire rack for 24 hours (the lids should pop as they cool and seal). Store in cool, dark place for up to 1 year.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Pickled Beets. Three pounds is not 454g its 1.4 kg (rounded). Pickled Beets were a staple in UK in 1950s & 60s but vanished as Chefs developed other ways of using beets. I’m looking forward to try this.
Best wishes from Thailand.
Paul