Fermented Beets
Oh Lardy! is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
It is no mystery that Oh Lardy loves fermented foods. In fact, I have shared many times that my kids really enjoy the dilly carrots. They seem to disappear from the jar faster than I put them in there!
Either, I just really love beets or I needed to ferment something new. Whatever it was resulted in fermented beets. It’s true. I do love beets. I will eat them cold in a salad, and roasted with dinner. I will even drink them in kvass! My daughter enjoys them, too, so I knew I had at least one person to share them with!
Fermenting beets is just as easy as fermenting other foods. There was only one additional step – roasting. Roast the beets before you ferment them! I followed the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, mostly. That recipe suggests peeling the beets after they are roasted. What a pain. Next time I will peel them first. I suspect that will be much easier!
Does the topic of fermenting baffle you? We created a Fermenting eCourse just for you and when you sign up, we will send you a Quick Start Guide! Grab the eCourse and the guide here!
Have you had the chance to enjoy fermented beets? What are you waiting for?
Fermented Beets
Ingredients
- 12 medium beets
- 1 Tablespoon sea salt
- 2 Tablespoons whey or ½ teaspoon culture starter
- Filtered water
Instructions
- Peel the beets, prick with a fork, place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 300 F degrees until soft (about 3 hours).
- Slice your beets into ¼ inch slices and place into a quart sized mason jar. Feel free to smash them down in there so that they fit.
- Add the salt and whey (or culture starter).
- Add filtered water to cover leaving an inch of headspace.
- Cover with the lid and allow to ferment at room temperature for 3 days or so.
- Pop them in the fridge if you haven’t eaten them already!
Notes
What is your favorite thing to do with fermented beets?
I was just curious if you could add some “pickely” things to this with the beets, just to give it a little more flavor. Like garlic and dill…my kids will drink it with pickle juice added but I’m almost out!
For sure! Give it a try and let us know how your family likes it!
Ok, so I tried this with my last batch, I used garlic, dill and mustard seed and it came out pretty good! Definitely has a pickled flavor. Now to just try it with the kiddos…
A quick and easy way to peel roasted beets. Make sure you wear gloves. When the beets are cool enough to handle, but still warm, grab the beet (in gloved hand) and use a paper towel to slough off the skins. It will slide right off…really slick. I repeat the use of gloves on both hand unless you want beet red hands, literally.
Awesome tip, thank you!!!
why do you have to roast/cook the beets before you ferment them. Seems like the raw nutrients would be better for you
Could you roast some carrots to, to ferment with this, I thought that once you cooked the food you killed the beneficial bacterias off that needed for them to ferment properly.
I’m super duper new to fermenting and have a question as experience is something that you guys seem to have a lot of. I’m currently doing a lacto-fermented golden beet batch now, not using any starter or whey and am getting a bit of bubbling, overflow and a clear viscious slime on top. Is this from the residual sugar in the beets? I’ve removed a bit of the slime and topped off with more 2% brine solution. Any thoughts?
Is there a dairy free version of this recipe?
I accidentally left mine in the pantry for 5 days (house temp has been at 67). Are they still ok to eat?
Should be fine! Open, smell, taste and see!