What to do with the beet stems? That is the question. The beets themselves, easy. Beet greens, no problem. I love to cook and eat them both. But my question has always been, ‘What do I do with the beet stems’? In the past I’ve composted the stems. The chickens wouldn’t eat them, neither would the rabbits, I suppose the pigs would but I don’t raise them every year, so onto the compost pile they went.
Now, just composting the beet stems seems wasteful to me. They’re edible, so by my reasoning I should eat them. Simple as that. The other day as I was perusing my cookbook ‘The Nourished Kitchen‘, great book by the way, I came across a recipe for fermented swiss chard stems. I personally don’t grow swiss chard but I thought well if you can eat the chard stems why not the beet stems. So I altered the recipe a bit for beet greens and voila! A crunchy, pickly, slightly sweet, slighty spicy, crunchy treat. A treat that is also quick to make. My favorite. So here’s the recipe. Enjoy! And if you need something to do with the beet roots and greens you can always make a tasty salad with goat cheese.
A small helper. 
Place the beet stems in a jar. 
Leave some head space at the top.
Pickled Beet Stems
A salty, sweet and spicy treat. For those of you that like things that go crunch.
Ingredients
Sweet and Hot Pickling Spice
- 2 Tbl mustard seeds whole
- 3/4 tsp allspice ground
- 1 Tbl coriander seeds ground
- 2 Tbl whole black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cloves ground
- 1 tsp ginger dry and ground
- 2 cinnamon sticks broken into small pieces
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 Tbl hot pepper flakes
Pickling Brine
- 2 lbs beet stems stripped of leaves and beet root
- 4 cups water
- 4 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup pickling spice
- 1 Tbl salt
Instructions
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Cut the roots and leaves off of the beet stems. Snap off any remnants of the leaves with your fingers or trim with a sharp knife until the stems are clean. Rinse the stems with water if needed.
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Cut the stems to length to fit into a half gallon jar or two quart jars, leaving 1" of head space at the top of the jar. Place the stems upright in the jars.
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Heat the water and water in a saucepan until the temperature reaches approximately 100 degrees F.
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Mix in the salt in the water vinegar solution until dissolved.
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Add the pickling spices to the water mixture.
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Pour the brine solution into the jars of stems until the stems are covered. If the stems are too long, break off the tops so they are submerged or use a clean, sanitized weight or stone to push the stems under the solution.
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Cover the jars with a clean cloth and place a rubber band around the top. The cloth will keep the contents clean.
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Set on a shelf for 3-4 weeks until the solution is pickled and fermented. Refrigerate for up to 6 months and enjoy.
