These Refrigerator Pickled Beets are really quick and easy to make. They are delicious and have a great sweet and tangy flavour. Perfect to add to a charcuterie platter, salads, or sandwiches.
This post contains amazon affiliate links which means if you make a purchase after clicking one of those links, I will receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Pickles are a staple in Russia. Not just cucumber pickles that are most common in North America but all kinds of other pickles as well. From common vegetables ones to more unique fruit and berry pickles.
Russian grocery stores in Canada boast shelves upon shelves of various pickles and marinades: cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic shoots, peppers, pattypan squash. Then there are buckets of pickles that you get by weight in bulk: wedges of cabbage, fish, apples, watermelon.
In my family we preferred just a few kinds of pickles, they were always simple and always in the fridge. My grandpa made pickled apples and I still miss them as I haven’t had them in years. My grandma made sauerkraut and Quick Dill Pickles.
Most pickles that I ate growing up were made by lacto fermentation which basically means only salt, spices and water were used. Vinegar pickles weren’t part of our dinner table and even now my mom doesn’t eat those kinds of pickles.
I, on the other hand, like all kinds of pickles with their acidic and tangy bite and sharp refreshing flavour. They are a great accompaniment to sandwiches, salads, or even rice and potato dishes.
These Pickled Beets are super easy to make and they don’t require any special equipment or canning techniques. Perfect recipe for a novice or experienced cook. Delicious, tangy, and slightly sweet. They can be flavoured in many different ways to suite your taste.
Ingredients to make Refrigerator Pickled Beets
- Water
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Sugar
- Cooked beets
- Shallot
- Garlic cloves
- Chili pepper
- Bay leaf
- Mustard seeds
How to make Quick Pickled Beets
These Pickled Beets are super easy to make and they require no special techniques or equipment. You make a pickling marinade, then combine everything together and keep in the fridge for a day or two before the vegetables pickle.
- Heat up the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar in a small pot until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Cool to room temperature.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to a clean 1-cup jar, pour the cooled pickling liquid over them.
- Keep in the fridge for 1-2 days before eating.
Note: the beets will keep getting more and more pickled as they steep in the pickling liquid.
Easy-peasy!
How to cook beets?
There are many ways that beets can be cooked.
- Boiled whole. That method takes a very long time, a few hours perhaps.
- Roasted whole, wrapped in foil. Also a few hours long.
- Cooked in Instant Pot whole.
- Or, my favourite method, Instant Pot Beets where they are peeled and diced first.
- Alternatively, you could use store-bought cooked beets, I love this brand.
How to store and keep Refrigerator Pickled Beets
This kind of pickles are not canned, it’s just pickling liquid poured over the beets. The pickling liquid also doesn’t have as much vinegar, salt, and sugar that would help preserve produce for a long time.
As such, these pickled beets shouldn’t be kept for too long. Keep in the fridge for up to 10 days at most.
Questions and answers about making Pickled Beets
Can you double the recipe?
Sure, you can definitely double or triple the recipe. Just make sure that you don’t keep it in the fridge for longer than 10 days.
Can you change up the flavourings?
Of course! Feel free to use different flavours for the beets.
You can use:
- omit or use more or use fresh chili pepper
- omit or add more bay leaves
- omit or add more mustard seeds
- add cinnamon stick
- add star anise
- add cloves
- add peppercorns
- add a strip of lemon rind or orange rind
- add more sugar
How big or small to cut up beets?
The smaller the beets are cut the quicker they will get pickled and more pickled they will get as they keep in the fridge.
So, for quicker pickles, cut up the beets into smaller pieces. If you’d like the beets to be less pickled, then keep them in larger pieces.
How to use Pickled Beets
Just as any other pickles, there are many different ways how pickled beets can be used.
- Add to salads
- Add to sandwiches or burgers instead of cucumber pickles
- Add to charcuterie platters
- Add to rice bowls
- Eat with hard boiled eggs – seriously delicious!
More quick pickle recipes:
- Russian Dill Pickles (Quick and Low-Salted) from Imagelicious
- Spicy Quick Pickled Radishes from Killing Thyme
- Zucchini Refrigerator Pickles from Delicious Table
More Beet Recipes:
- Instant Pot Beet Soup with Goat Cheese
- Instant Pot Borscht (vegan and gluten-free)
- (Sneaky) Beet Butterscotch Fudge
- Instant Pot Beet Risotto Recipe
- Pink easy and elegant Cinnamon Beet Pancakes
- Savoury Chocolate Ravioli with Ricotta-Beet Filling
Pickled Beets
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 pound cooked beets (diced)
- 1 shallot
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 chili pepper (fresh or dried, optional)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
Instructions
- Heat up the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small pot until the salt and sugar fully dissolve. Let the mixture cool until room temperature.
- Slice the shallot into thin strips.
- Cut each garlic clove into 4-6 long pieces.
- Layer the cooked, diced beets, sliced shallot, and cut up garlic into a clean 1-cup jar. alternating the layers.
- Add the chili pepper, if using.
- Tuck a bay leaf inside.
- Add the mustard seeds to the jar.
- Pour the cooled pickling liquid over the beets until the jar is full. You will not use all the liquid most likely. Discard whatever is left.
- Cover the jar tightly with a lid and place in the fridge for 1-2 days.
- After 1-2 days in the fridge the Pickled Beets are ready to be eaten.
Video
Nutrition
Mention or tag @Imagelicious
Leave a Reply