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This Pickled Golden Beetroot is crisp and vinegary with a hint of sweetness from honey. An essential addition to your cheese or charcuterie board.

This post has been re-posted from 2013 as I've updated the photos and the recipe to make the instructions clearer. Reading back it seems a simpler time without a toddler thrown into the mix, before I started selling my preserves and when we had a study and not a nursery. Also, I still cut my beetroot into chunks rather than slice them - ever awkward.

‘Tis the season to be pickling, jarring, canning, jamming. A wonderfully therapeutic pastime, certainly not made more challenging with a bouncing eight-week-old puppy swirling around your feet as you are carrying searing hot jars out of the scalding water of their water bath. No siree, easy peasy pudding and… holy mother of hot water. Don’t worry only the cook was harmed in the canning of this beetroot. Turns out puppies don’t make good sous chefs, this one will have to be trained by Wesley who was very helpful in preparing the beetroot.

My shelves are laden with goodies for the coming winter, for if the apocalypse should rain down upon us I am safe in the knowledge that I can feed two cats, a puppy and a husband with chutneys, jellies and marmalades for a good few months. A rainbow of colours has been cast on my cheap thrown together bookshelves which certainly doesn’t get me in trouble every time I balance a further few kilos of canned goods amongst the books. The study is slowly morphing into the pantry and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

peeled beetroot sitting on top of a wooden table

I found these gleaming chaps buried under an inch of soil at the farmers market, their inner beauty only truly shining through after they had been boiled and peeled. They truly are a beautiful vegetable. I can’t wait until Christmas when they will be adorning buffet tables and being included in late night cheddar cheese sandwiches with crusty bread.

It was only afterwards that comments were made upon my decision to quarter the beetroot rather than slice it as apparently it makes for rather awkward cheese and beetroot sandwiches. Ah, screw ‘em.

Just a word to the wise, although I won’t hammer home the point like some of the recipes I read which made canning beetroot sound terribly frightening, the acidity in this particular vegetable is very low so vinegar quantities cannot be messed with unless you want to kill off your whole family on Boxing Day with botulism. For my water bath I use a huge preserving pan that I bought for a few pounds from Ikea many years ago and it has been of invaluable use, being sufficiently deep and wide for this purpose. I would recommend though, that if you haven’t used a water bath for canning before, then do read up on it thoroughly before you go so you have all the right information.

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Pickled Golden Beetroot

Georgina Hartley

This Pickled Golden Beetroot is crisp and vinegary with a hint of sweetness from honey. An essential addition to your autumn cheeseboard.

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Prep Time 40

Cook Time 1 20

Total Time 2

Course Condiment

Cuisine British

Servings 190g jars

Calories 93 kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

Wash the beetroot thoroughly then cook it whole submerged in boiling water for about half an hour.
Drain them and dunk them in a bowl of icy water, then remove and rub off their skins.
Cut the beetroot into large pieces.
Meanwhile prepare the water bath. Place a tea towel or wire trivet in the bottom of your pan so your jars do not touch the bottom of the pan and fill with water and 2 teaspoons of vinegar*. Bring to the boil, it should be at a rolling boil for a good 15 minutes before you add your jars. This is also a good time to sterilise your jars and lids.**
In a saucepan add the vinegar, honey, salt, cinnamon, peppercorns and water and bring to a boil. As soon as it is boiling add your beetroot then bring it back up to a boil. When it reaches a simmer then turn off.
Quickly divide the beetroot and liquid between your jars leaving a bit of headspace in the neck of the jar. Remove the air bubbles with a chopstick and place the lids on, adjusting so that it is just finger tight.
Submerge your jars into the water bath so that they are covered by an inch of water and sitting upright on the tea towel or trivet. Pop the lid on and boil full blast for 30 minutes.
Remove the jars with a jar lifter and leave them undisturbed in a safe place until they have cooled down completely. Test the lids to make sure they have been sealed and don’t pop up when pressed.
These can be stored for about a year and eaten whenever you want in between.

Notes

*The vinegar is added to ensure the jars stay lovely and clean when in the waterbath, otherwise the boiling water can give them an unattractive film.
**To sterilise the jars place the very clean jars you would like to use in an oven pre-heated to 140°C for 20 minutes. Sterilise the lids by dropping them into a saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes with a splash of vinegar. I don’t sterilise my lids in the oven as they tend to ruin.