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Making Refrigerator pickled beets are surprisingly easy. With their crunchy texture, pickled beets are a great addition to salads, sandwiches and burgers. Here, we’ll show you how to make easy refrigerator pickled beets, using my Grandm’s Pickled Beets Recipe.
Grandma always had countlessjars of homemade canned pickled beets on her pantry shelves that she made over the previous summer. Her Pickled Beets were the perfect wayenjoy her beetharvestyear-round.
But, you don’t have to grow your own beets and fill your canning pantry with jars of pickled beets to enjoy the sweet & sourflavors of my Grandma’s beets with my Easy Refrigerator Pickled Beets!
What are Pickled Beets?
Pickled beets, in the simplest terms, are cooked beets that are marinated in a sweet and tangy brine made up of ingredients such as water, salt, vinegar and sugar. More of a bread and butter style pickle flavor instead of a sour pickle with garlic and dill. AKA we can call these Beet Pickles if you want!
Traditionally pickled beets were actually prepared via fermentation. The bacteria and probiotics are what naturally created a sweet/sour flavor profile. While I love a Fermented food and even have a published cookbook on the topic Fermented Foods at Every Meal – I still prefer the simplicity of refrigerator pickled beets.
You can ALSO, as I mentioned above, make a shelf stable version of pickled beets using the same ingredients and a water bath canning preparation in jars that have been seal for a long shelf life, which I’ve recently added to this post in case you were wondering!!
And I can’t think of a better way to enjoy the delicious flavor of beets than marinating them in a sweet and tangy hot brine with red onions. Pickling and marinating vegetables in a brine with ingredients that are salty, vinegary and sweet is such a great way to incorporate a unique and delicious taste to even veggies you may typically avoid!
Yes, my Easy Refrigerator Pickled Beets arejust that easy, Cook/peel/cut beets and soak them in salt, sugar vinegar and water.
BOOM in just about a week you have Pickled Beets to enjoy and it’s a great way to preserve them for month to come! You can make a small batch or giant batches, depending on how much room you have in your fridge to store the jars.
Grandma’s Pickled Beets Ingredients
To make this old fashioned pickled beets recipe recipe you only need a few, easy to find ingredients:
- Fresh Beets (large and medium beets should be cut into pieces, where as small beets can be left whole) Red beets or golden beets can be used. In a pinch you can also use canned beets too!
- Red Wine Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, white vinegar, etc
- Sugar, honey or sweetener of choice
- Water, filtered
- onion (red, yellow, white, etc)
- Optional spices; pickling spice, whole cloves, bay leaves, peppercorn, cinnamon sticks, red pepper flakes, mustard seed, allspice, etc. Or any funky spices you want to try out!
How to make Quick Refrigerator Pickled Beets
Making refrigerator pickled beets is SO EASY! Here’s how…
To get started, remove your beet greens, with a paring knife leaving about 1 inch of stems remaining. Cook beets as desired. is my suggestion. You can also boil/steam and I include those instructions in the recipe card below along with all the nutrition information for this recipe, No matter if you bake, steam, boil or roast
Once your beets are cooked, peeled and cut, if needed for larger beets but feel free to leave smaller beets whole. I personally prefer to slice beets so that they are salad ready!
Place them into a large jar or other air tight container along with onions and spices, if desired.
Over medium heat, in a small saucepan combine your pickling liquid ingredients and bring to a simmer to melt the sweetener. Allow to cool slightly then pour over top of your jar of cooked beets.
Fill each jar with the brine, and cover with an air tight lid. Allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator.
You can start enjoying your refrigerator pickled beet salad within a few days and they will keep for MONTHS in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.
How to Can Pickled Beets
Canning pickled beets might be new to you but the canning process is very straight forward. You don’t need a pressure cooker or pressure canner, we’ll be using a water bath canner on your stove top.
Start a large pot or kettle filled with cool water on high heat, fitted with a rack in the bottom. The large sauce pot will need to hold the jars and be able to fully submerge them in water, past the tops of the jars. This will be used for a water bath to can your pickled beets.
Using sterilized hot jars, place prepared cooked beets into the jars. Add extra spices, onion, etc as desired.
Bring brine to a hard boil (aka the sugar vinegar mixture) and fill each jar, on top of the beets, with the brine, leaving a half-inch of headspace. This is called hot packing, using a hot brine before canning. Remove any air bubbles from your canning jars.
Clean the top of the jars by wiping the rims of the jars with a clean damp towel to remove any debris and drips from the pickling brine. Then place lid and ring on each jar as you fill them, being careful not to over tighten (this can cause lids to buckle).
Place prepared jars in a water bath, making sure water covers jars by at least one inch. Bring boiling water bath to process pints for 30 minutes. Remove jars from kettle using a jar lifter and let cool completely before touching. Soon the lids should seal with a ping – music to a canner’s ears! Store cooled sealed jars in a dark place until ready to enjoy. They will be shelf stable and safe to eat for 1+ years.
What to eat with Pickled Beets
Now that you have a beautiful and delicious jar of Pickled Beets in your refrigerator, let me inspire you with some serving suggestions for this healthy snack:
- My favorite way to enjoy my Easy Refrigerator Pickled Beets is ontop of a steak salad salad smothered with my homemade ranch dressing – there’s something so addictive about the sweet/tangy beets paired with the creamy ranch!
- They are also a traditional food to be served on Easter Sunday alongside with roast Ham.
- Add them to your charcuterie board, pickled beets are especially delicious paired with feta cheese and goat cheese
- Serve them as a side dish to your favorite sandwiches
- These are also the key to making my beautiful Beet Pickled Eggs (recipe coming soon) which are aperfect addition for yourEaster Dinner!
If you like these Refrigerator Pickled Beets Recipe, try these other refrigerator pickle recipes next:
- Pickled Roasted Red Peppers
- Pickled Maitake Mushrooms {aka Sheep’s Head or Hen of the Woods}
- Homemade Pickled Red Onions
Quick & Easy Refrigerator Pickled Beets
Refrigerator pickled beets are surprisingly easy. With their crunchy texture, pickled beets are a great addition to salads, sandwiches and burgers. Here, we'll show you how to make easy refrigerator pickled beets.
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Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes
pickling: 7 days days
Servings: 8 servings
Equipment
sauce pan
glass liquid measuring cup
measuring cups
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Fresh Beets
- 3/4 cups Red Wine Vinegar
- 1/2 cup Sugar or honey
- 1/2 cup Water, filtered
- 1/2 large Red onion
Instructions
How to Cook Beets:
Trim the top stem to roughly 1 inch and throughly wash your beets.
Place washed beets in a large pot of water and boil for roughly 20 minutes, or until tender. (just like boiling potatoes, the larger beets will take longer to cook)
Strain cooked beets in a colander and cool your beets by running cold water over them.
When your beets are cool enough to safely handle, with your faucet is running with cold water, use your hands to slip the skin off the beets. Trim the remaining stems and root to be flush with the beet bulb.
Cut or slice cooked beets as desired.
To make pickled beets:
Combine vinegar, sugar and water in a small sauce pan. Heat to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and set aside.
In glass jar(s) or container(s) with a tight fitting lid, layer cut up beets and sliced onion.
Pour vinegar/sugar/water over top. Add additional water if needed to fully submerge the beets in the liquid.
Cover with a tight fitting lid and place in the refrigerator for 5-7 days before enjoying. Refrigerator pickled beets will keep for about 2 months.
Nutrition
Calories: 104kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 0.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.03g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.04g | Sodium: 91mg | Potassium: 388mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 38IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg
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