July 03, 2026

Beets, Part 2

Season 6 has four beet-based recipes, the first two I did in March, and the second two I did over the last week.

I first set out to get some Pickled Beets going in the fridge. Like many recipes, I decided I’d halve this one. I began by getting 3 medium beets prepared for roasting.

I had forgotten to grab fresh rosemary, so I used dried. I don’t think that made much difference in the end. While the beets were roasting, I cut up some red onion.

Then prepared the picking liquid.

When the beets were finished roasting, I peeled and sliced them, then stacked them with the onions in a quart mason jar.

I used almost all of the beets, but there was maybe a half beet left over. Also, half of the total pickling liquid didn’t quite cover it all, so I boiled another half cup (quarter cup of vinegar plus quarter cup of water) – no extra sugar – and that got me to the top. I then put the jar into the fridge for the next 7 days.

Meanwhile, since I’d went and bought so many beets, I used the rest of them to prepare some Beet Slaw. Again, I halved this recipe too, because it seemed like it made a lot of slaw.

The recipe says to boil the beets, but that seemed weird to me and Allison steamed them instead, so that’s what I did.

It took about 35 minutes to steam the beets to where they seemed cooked through. Once they were done, peeled, and cooled I put them through the little spiralizer that I’d bought. We’ve had the big contraption ones in the past, but we rarely used it and it took up so much space that it wasn’t worth keeping when we moved. But this little one takes up very little space and is worth to keep around.

I put the beet spirals in a colander (they didn’t really drain all that much) while I sliced the remaining ingredients with a mandolin and put them right on top.

Then I mixed up the dressing.

And finally, put it all together with some goat cheese mixed in.

I made this on Sunday, and let it sit overnight in the fridge. On Monday, we gave it a try. It was definitely beet-y, but we really didn’t enjoy it all that much. I think the word that went around was: pointless. It’s a fine example of a slaw as per the episode but we were not sure what going through all the trouble bought us here. Some spiralized beets with a little vinaigrette would go just as far if not further. The flavor wasn’t bad, it’s just not really something we’d ever want, or would make again.

Come Friday, the pickled beets were ready to try. I popped them open, put some in a bowl and then cut the slices up. We really did want to like these. However, after the initial tang of the pickling, it was a little too strong and just kind of strange tasting. I don’t think I’d make these again.

Unfortunately, both of these beet recipes left us wanting. On a side note, I wish plain old roasted beets were included as a recipe in this season – when I roasted the beets for the slaw, we voraciously ate the leftovers and would have given them a 4 or so. But the two applications of beets this time around just weren’t worth the trouble.

Pickled Beets

• Crowd: 2/5
• Ease: 3/5
• Halved the recipe. Used three medium beets. Almost but not quite was able to get all the beets into the jar.
• Half of the liquid wasn't enough, needed to boil another half cup of water + vinegar to top off the jar.

Beet Slaw

• Crowd: 2/5
• Ease: 3/5
• Halved the recipe -- the full recipe makes _a lot_ of slaw!
• Half recipe used ~2.5 medium sized beets to make 2 cups of spirals