Click here to go directly to recipe and instructions!
Mom came to visit…and I put her to work. Yes, you read that right. I’m a horrible daughter making my Mom work during her visit.
For those of you who don’t know, I live very far away from Mom. If I hopped in a car and drove straight to her place, without stopping to sleep, it would take me approximately 20 to 24 hours to get there, depending on which route I took. So, needless to say, we don’t see each other very often.
Once a year, in the fall, my Mom and Stepdad will make the drive from there to here (but they do stop for the night!) to visit with me and my sister and also his children in a neighboring city.
This year, just before their visit, I picked up a couple of ten pound bags of beets for $2 each. If you read my post “How to Freeze Veggies in 3 Easy Steps” then you would know that I get really excited when I see deals like this. Anyway…when I mentioned to Mom that I got these beets, she said she would help me preserve them when she got here. Yes! My Mom is the greatest!
I figured that when she arrived, we would go out shopping to pick up whatever I needed to get these beets preserved. But to my surprise, Mom and Stepdad packed the car with enough jars and lids that I didn’t need to buy any. Mom said she wasn’t using them anymore, so I might as well. All I needed to pick up was the extra ingredients. (Which I already had because I she told me beforehand on the phone what ingredients were needed.)
Well, they arrived mid-afternoon and got settled in. The next thing I know, Mom is saying “let’s get those beets started”. I figured she would be too tired from travelling, but really…Stepdad does all the real driving…Mom just does the backseat driving.
Preparing the beets
So the first thing we did was dump all the beets into the sink and start to wash them off. I find that scrubbing them gently with a potato or vegetable brush will get any loose dirt off. (Keep in mind that when I say “we” over the next few paragraphs, I really should be saying “Mom”….cuz she did most of the work! I took the pictures though. Hahaha!)
Once the beets were cleaned, we cut the tops off where the leafy stems were and also the cut off the roots. Mom is a pro at this, so she snipped them off quite quickly while holding the beet in her hand. I needed to set it on a cutting board to do this, or I would have ended up using a great many band-aids.
(Important fact: DO NOT PEEL THE BEETS. Peeling will happen much later.)
Let’s cook those beets!
The washed and trimmed beets were now ready to go into the pot. Because I went overboard and bought so many beets, I had to break out the biggest pot I owned, my Le Cruset 16 Qt Stock Pot that I usually use for making vast amounts of soup. And even then, it wasn’t quite big enough to fit all the beets in.
After filling the pot with the beets, we added enough water to cover them and turned it on high. Once it started to boil, we reduced the heat just enough to keep it to a slow rolling boil. If you cook the normal amount of beets (not 20 lbs like I decided to do), it should take anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the beets. It actually took us several hours to cook that huge pot full! You will know they are ready when a knife pierces them easily.
This is important…DO NOT DRAIN THE WATER from the beets! We scooped the beets out with a slotted spoon and placed them in a large bowl (you can use a metal colander). Once the beets were cool enough to handle, we peeled them. We were able to slide most of the skin off, but had to use a paring knife in a few spots.
I had to run out for a short time, so Mom started to slice the beets into pieces that would fit nicely into the jars. By the time I got back, she was ready to start putting everything together. But first, we had to prepare the beet juice!
I scooped the correct amount of the reserved liquid from the pot we set aside and added it to a smaller sauce pan. I added the sugar and the vinegar and set the heat to medium high. For this part, Mom said I had to stand there and watch the liquid. It should come to a full steam, but I couldn’t let it boil.
While I was doing that, Mom added her slices to the prepared (sterilized) jars. She made sure that they stopped 3/4 of an inch below the lip of the jars. As soon as the beet juice was ready, I poured enough into all the jars to just cover the beets.
Now, I was told that this next step is pretty important. We filled a large roaster with really hot water and placed the jars into this hot bath. We left the jars uncovered until the beets were thoroughly heated through.
At this point, we placed the lids and rings (the covers) loosely on the jars and removed them from the hot water. I used a tea towel to lift them out…but I am going to invest in correct tongs for next time. (Yes, there will be a next time because I caught the preserving bug!) So then, we tightened the covers and let the jars sit until the inside caps popped (seriously….I actually heard them go POP!) which means they are now sealed and can be stored for a long period of time.
Now that I have all these beets preserved, here’s some thoughts on what I can do with them.
10 Ways to Use Leftover Beets
- Sandwiches. Slice rounds of cooked beets and sandwich them on slider rolls with goat cheese or horseradish crème fraîche.
- Risotto. Get a lovely shade of red risotto by adding shredded beets soon before serving.
- Soup. Make a hearty roasted carrot and beet soup.
- Gnocchi. Puree beets to use in these deliciously colorful gnocchi.
- Salads. Add cooked beets and feta as a topping on a leafy salad.
- Kebabs. Add your cooked beets to kebab and finish them off on the grill so they get nice and smoky.
- Dip. For a lower-calorie hummus, use cooked beets in place of chickpeas. Or puree beets with sour cream and onion to make a dip and serve with crunchy white or light vegetables such as celery stalks, hearts of romaine, icicle radishes, cucumber spears, and blanched cauliflower florets and white asparagus.
- Salsa. A new twist on salsa. Beet salsa and a bowl of nacho chips or tortilla strips will round out any party.
- Red velvet cake. Beets will provide a vivid hue to colour your red velvet cake.
- Berry and Beet Smoothie. This berry & beet smoothie contains your 5 fruit & veg a day in one glass, the beet gives a stunning purple, which proves that green smoothies do not need to be green in colour! Green just means that the smoothie contains some greens!