3 cups water - 1/3 cup Kosher salt - 2 bay leaves - 1 cup white vinegar - 2 pounds turnips , peeled and cut into ½ inch thick batons - 1 small beet, cut into ½ inch thick batons - 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
In a medium sized pot, add water, coarse salt, and bay leaves. Heat on medium heat, stirring until salt is completely dissolved, 3 mins. Let cool completely, then add the vinegar. In a large container with a tight fitting lid, add your turnips and beets. Add the garlic (this can be a very rough chop, you don’t eat the garlic, it is only for seasoning so it doesn’t need to look pretty). Let sit for 5 days. Before serving, they are best refrigerated. The pickles are usually good for about a month.
As I had intended to make the shalgam suyu today, I conveniently decided to pickle the leftover turnips and beets! These, along with pickled spicy peppers, feta, and olives (like above) are beloved in my family, accompanying any kebab or roasted lamb main dishes. 😋 Although a vermillion red in the photo, it is a lot more of deep, bright fuchsia in person thanks to the beets - just stunning to look at!
This will be a very simple recipe, I’m just briefly sharing the steps. I will note that I did not boil the vinegar brine—it is absolutely fine to do so, I just preferred to keep some of the beneficial bacteria and yeast in raw, apple cider vinegar, which would otherwise be lost to boiling. Enjoy!
1 kilo of turnips and half a kilo of beets will yield roughly four jars. I ended up filling only 3 Mason jars with only what I had in the above picture. You will need spices of choice (bay leaves, peppercorns), handful garlic for flavor, and of course turnips and a one beet per two turnip ratio (the beet is mostly to impart that lovely pink color).
Wash and peel all vegetables. Smash your garlic. Cut your turnips and beets into long, slightly thick wedges.
Begin packing your jars with the bay leaves, peppercorns and handful garlic first, then the beets and turnips. Set aside.
In a large measuring cup, pour 3 cups of clean, filtered or mineral water per 1 cup raw, organic apple cider vinegar. Stir in about a third cup of salt and keep stirring until the salt is well dissolved.
Pour the vinegar brine into your jar. Place clean glass weights on top. Tightly seal the lids and gently turn over and shake a few times to incorporate well.
Allow to sit in a dark, cool environment for 10 days. Refrigerate and enjoy when ready!
My jars presented above before they go into their cave. The leftmost jar was prepared first so it had half an hour advance over its friends to release the beautiful pigments from the beets! It will deepen in color and thoroughly penetrate the turnips by the tenth day.
After 10 days, below are the three very same jars. The taste is perfection!
tarragon pickled turnip+thing in a swiss chard leaf
stuff into the jar:
• small white ontario turnip- i had 3
• small lump of beet i salvaged from a giant moldy one on the windowsill to turn them pink because that is just what is expected of you.
• pickled garlic at the bottom of last year’s dill pickles because i didnt have any fresh garlic. you should use fresh garlic. also dont use moldy beets.
• dried tarragon (a tbsp ish) then i remembered i have some fresh in my dumb garden so stuffed a handful of that in
pour over the pickling liquid:
• water (1 litre ish that is the size of the jar duh..consider some will evaporate though.)
• white vinegar (maybe 2c...i like my pickles extra sour)
• salt (lots of it)
• sugar (not very much of it)
oh. bring that all to a boil so the salt and sugar is dissolved. pour over turnip and stuff, seal jar. when you hear it pop that means it has sealed. ideally you leave it for a long time (I’M TALKING WEEKS, MONTHS!) .....but i left it for about an hour.
they are honestly so goddamn fucking tasty i wanted to have sex with them. i didnt and ate them in a wrap instead.
that turd worm (red chard) is filled with the turnip of course, falafel-like patties, zucchini tzatziki (say that three times fast and then kill yourself), extra parsley, random hotsauce.
