Jax is crazy for pickled beets. He doesn't get this from either Benjamin (who despises the taste of vinegar in pretty much anything) or myself (who had beets on my list of the very few foods I really have never come to enjoy). My mom likes them on salad, and introduced Jax to them.
It got to the point where he could eat about 1/3 to 1/2 jar of store-bought pickled red beets in one sitting. In case you were wondering, yes this does make for a messy two year old, and very interesting looking diapers a few hours later.
Beets are prolific at our winter farmer's markets, and they are cheap - $5 for two giant bunches which is about 5-6 beets per bunch, plus you get the lovely greens with the root.
Cooking for my family is something I enjoy, and also something is meaningful to me. It is an investment in the tastebud pleasure and lifetime health of my loved ones. It can also be a creative outlet to me, similarly as writing, photography, music, and other hobbies are for me.
Processing food is what we do to eat food. When we cook it, we process it. When we can it or bake it or saute it, we cook it. I prefer to do as much of my own processing as I can. That limits the number of "extra" ingredients in the food that we don't need, or are questionable. It also means there are more nutrients in the food, because the time between processing and consuming is shorter. We still eat many processed foods in our home (considering we buy packaged bread, cheese, mayonnaise, etc., etc.). I certainly don't have the time or desire to make from scratch every single item on our table. I try to make changes where I feel an urge to, or happen to be particularly disgusted with what has happened to the food when it was processed for me.
Canned beets aren't that terrible in the ingredient list. The one ingredient I wasn't too keen about was the high fructose corn syrup. Not a big deal if you eat a beet here or there. But if my two year old was going to consume an entire jar of beets in just a few days, I wanted to see if I could do it myself. Not to mention that I could also make it significantly cheaper (since a small jar of beets is about $2.50), and possibly better tasting, and made from local organic beet root.
I started with a recipe from All Recipes.com (where I go for basic recipes). They called for white vinegar, which I was out of. So I substituted Braggs raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. Oh. My. Word. These beets will convert non-beet lovers, I'm sure of it! It was incredibly easy. And to make more beets later, all you have to do is cook the beets themselves. Keep the pickling"juice" that was in your jar, and reuse it. I've been using my quart-size jar of the pickling juice for months now.
I have tried boiling the beets, and roasting them in the oven. Roasting took forever (like two hours), and they got mushy instead of soft but crisp like they do boiling. I pre-slice them thinly before boiling, and it took about 20 minutes of boiling, give or take.
Here's my recipe:
4-6 farmers market beets (if you use store bought beets, they are 2-3 times the size of locally grown beets, so you would only need one or two)
Slice the beets. Put in a saucepan and just barely cover with water. Boil, covered, until tender, approximately 20 minutes. Retain water from boiling.
In another saucepan, make the pickling juice.
1/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup Braggs unfiltered raw apple cider vinegar (much better taste than the filtered ACV)
1/2 tsp sea salt (can use regular salt, but supposedly sea salt or pickling salt is used for pickling since it is clear once dissolved, making your pickling juice nice and clear instead of cloudy)
1/2 cup lovely nutrient-filled water used to boil your beets
Bring this mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.
Put the beets in glass jars (doesn't have to be quart canning jars, whatever glass jars you have on hand is fine). Pour the brine (pretty red juice stuff you boiled) into the jars to cover the beets.
1 whole red onion, thinly sliced
5-10 whole cloves (not garlic cloves, the fragrant spice clove that reminds one of the holidays)
Add the onion and the cloves to the jars. The recipe I used asked for 2 tsp whole cloves - I used much less because I was nervous it would be too strong. You can use more or adjust to taste.
After 48 hours, these were ready to eat and FANTASTIC.
As I mentioned, we eat the beets and keep the jar of brine afterward - I just keep adding more boiled beets as we get low. I've been using my original brine for about 3-4 months now.
I have also added boiled eggs into the mixture, however, I learned the hard way to put them in a separate jar with separate brine. The eggs will spoil in a couple weeks, whereas the beets and onions will keep a LONG time, so it's best to keep them separated, to keep the eggs from spoiling the beets if you forget to eat them.
We have eaten beets every single day this week at lunch, Jax and I. He loves them so much, after he eats the beets from his little bowl, he literally drinks the brine pooled in the bottom of the bowl, and licks it clean. I haven't seen him do this with any other food, even dessert! Crazy kid!
