Dressing, Sauce, or Condiment › Pickled

Pickled Beets

By Amy Flanigan

Published Mar 19, 2025

Read 231 Reviews

Prep 10 minutes mins

Servings 8

By Amy Flanigan

Published Mar 19, 2025

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Stop buying Pickled Beets at the store and make them at home instead, it’s super easy! They last up to 6 weeks in the fridge, so you can always have some available for a side, salad, or healthy snack!

Remember those fantastic pickled beets your grandma used to make? Well, now you can make them too! You simply roast the beets, slice them, make the brine, and poor it over the vegetables, then store in the refrigerator. They last up to 6 weeks, and since they’re so easy to make, you can quickly whip up another batch once you finish them!

Helpful Recipe Tips

• The beets need to be cooked first. Before you pickle the beets, they need to be cooked and sliced. You can boil, steam, or pressure cook the beets, but I prefer my method for roasted beets, which helps preserve all their wonderful flavor and color. Once they’re roasted, making these pickled beets is practically effortless!
• Don’t skip the sugar. You need the sugar to balance out the vinegar or the brine will be way too harsh (see more information below.)
• Keep the beets covered in the brine. Make sure all the beets are completely covered with the brine during the pickling process. This keeps everything safe and edible.
• You can use the brine one more time. When you’ve finished off the beets, the brine can be brought back up to a boil and reused for one more batch. Or do what I do and marinate hard boiled eggs in it to make beet pickled eggs – SO GOOD.
• This pickled beets recipe is for the refrigerator. To be clear, this recipe for quick pickled beets is NOT shelf stable and must be stored in the refrigerator. If you are pickling to can and store, there is an entirely different process. This is for the refrigerator, only.

5 from 231

Pickled Beets Recipe

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Chill: 1 day d

Total: 1 day d 10 minutes mins

Servings: 8

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This Pickled Beets recipe is so easy to make and way better than store bought! Great for a side, salad, or healthy snack!

Step-by-step photos can be seen below the recipe card.

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 4 medium roasted beets, cooled, peeled, and sliced
• ▢ 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• ▢ 1 cup water
• ▢ ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 tsp coarse salt
• ▢ ¼ tsp (dry) ground mustard
• ▢ 5 whole black peppercorns

Instructions 

• You'll need 4 medium beets for this recipe. Make my roasted beets first. Allow them to cool, peel, and slice them.
• In a medium pot, add the apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, coarse salt, and dry ground mustard. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for a few minutes; take off the heat and allow to cool a bit.
• Add peppercorns and the sliced roasted beets to a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid. (This particular recipe fits nicely into a 1-liter sized jar.)
• Pour the brine in, covering all the beets.
• Loosely fasten with the lid and set aside for several hours until the jar reaches room temperature, then tighten the seal and transfer to the refrigerator.
• Use as desired, to snack on or in salads. This particular recipe will keep up to 6 weeks in the fridge. (Canning instructions are included at the end of the article.)

Video

Notes

Any type of beet works. I typically just use table beets (red beets), but golden beets or gorgeous Chioggia would be great, too.

The vinegar. I always use apple cider vinegar for the brine, but regular white vinegar or rice wine vinegar are great substitutes.

Try different spices and herbs. Salt, peppercorns, and ground mustard are my preference, but red pepper flakes, a cinnamon stick, bay leaves, dill, etc. can be used. Onion and garlic can also be added.

Helpful Tips. Recipe tips, information about the sugar, and canning instructions can be found in the article.

Nutrition

Calories: 77kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 360mg | Potassium: 306mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 28IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.

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How To Make Pickled Beets Step By Step

You’ll need 4 medium beets for this recipe. Make my roasted beets first. Allow them to cool, peel, and slice them.

In a medium pot, add 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup water, ⅓ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and ¼ teaspoon dry ground mustard. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for a few minutes; take off the heat and allow to cool a bit.

Add 5 whole peppercorns and the sliced roasted beets to a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid. (This particular recipe fits nicely into a 1-liter sized jar.)

Pour the brine in, covering all the beets.

Can The Amount of Sugar be Reduced?

This recipe calls for a 1/3 cup sugar (and before that shocks you, I’ve seen brines made with 2 whole cups!), so…perspective. The sugar can be reduced, but I really don’t recommend it. The sugar balances out the vinegar and if you cut back too much, the beets will taste too vinegary and harsh. And if you cut back too much on the vinegar, you won’t have a good brine. It’s important to remember that the sugar acts as a marinade and you don’t actually drink it.

How Soon Can Pickled Beets Be Eaten?

After filling the jar with the beets and brine, let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature, then tighten the seal and transfer to the refrigerator. You can eat them right away, but in order to let the flavors deepen I would recommend waiting at least a couple days.

How To Store Refrigerator Pickled Beets

• Fridge. Pickling is a way to preserve food, so luckily pickled beets will last in the fridge quite a long time. This particular recipe will keep up to 6 weeks.
• Canning. For longer shelf life, you can take the additional step of canning these pickled beets. To do this, place filled sealed jars in a canner, covered with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth then label. They’ll last in the pantry for up to a year.

More Beet Recipes

• Baked Beet Chips
• Beet Hummus
• Maple Glazed Roasted Beets
• Pasta with Beet Cream Sauce
• Air Fryer Beets
• Beet and Cucumber Salad
• Heirloom Tomato Beet Salad

I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube!