Pickled Beets

Saw some nice golden beets for relatively cheap at the Joe the other day. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab some. Here's what I did:

Cut them all in half lengthwise and steamed them for about 20 minutes. Once steamed, a tea-towel pulls the dirty, tough skins right off. Then the nice, clean steamed beets can be sliced into glowing golden rainbows, about 3/16 of an inch thick.

Next, I mixed half-and-half apple cider vinegar and honey - heating in the microwave to help dissolution. That's a lot of honey, I know, but it is worth it.

I poured the warm sugar/vinegar mixture over the beet slices and put them in the fridge for a few hours. Doing this for, I don't know, four to six hours creates a light pickling. When the time has passed, the pickling fluid has taken on an amazing yellow color, plus an earthy goodness from the beets. Pour it off and save it to use for vinaigrettes.

The par-pickled beets are now ready to eat. They're delicious when served with toasted walnuts and maybe a bit of crumbly dry feta or blue cheese. Also, add a bit of chopped parsley for grassiness and color contrast.

I think next time I'll get red beets in a ratio of maybe 1:8 for an additional point of visual interest.