Beet It!

These two recipes go together.  I'm a firm believer in using up everything while canning!  When working with beets I chop and cook the greens and freeze them for use in dip later on.  You can use beet greens in place of spinach for dip and it comes out amazing!  A little pink... but amazing.

Beet jelly is made using the beet water drained off of boiling beets for pickled beets.  The jelly is one of our favorites!  Peeling the beets before boiling them is a little bit of a pain, but it makes for a better tasting jelly.

Beet Jelly

4 c. beet water 

1/2 c. lemon juice 

1 package dry pectin 

6 c. sugar 

Mix 4 cups of beet juice, lemon juice and pectin in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in sugar all at once and return to a full, rolling boil.  Boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and ladle into clean hot jars leaving 1/4" headspace.  Process jelly for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

Pickled Beets

2 c. sugar 

1 c. water 

1 c. vinegar 

beets, washed & peeled

Boil beets in water until tender. Reserve water for jelly.  If beets are small, leave whole, otherwise quarter, half, slice or dice as desired. Place beets in clean pint jars. Bring brine ingredients to a boil and pour over beets in half-pint jars leaving 1/2" headspace.  Process 30 minutes in a water bath canner.