Beet and Horseradish Relish
A lively tasting condiment that goes great with charcuterie, roast pork, or cheese and crackers.
Servings: 5 pints
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 medium fresh beets
- 2 cups shredded green cabbage
- 1 cup shredded raw onion
- 1 1/3 cups apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup prepared horseradish
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons pickling spice in a tea ball, or tied in a piece of cheesecloth, optional [see notes]
Instructions
Prepare the beets
- Remove the leaves from the beets, leaving an inch or two of stems. They should be well scrubbed to remove any dirt. Leave whole.
- Bring salted water to a boil in a 5 quart stock pot. Add beets and cook for around 20 minutes.
- Remove one of the beets from the water, and using a paper towel, Push gently on the skin to see if it will "slip", or peel away from the beet. If it does, remove all of the beets to a sink or bowl of cool water until they are cooled off enough to handle. If not, return the beet to the pan and boil another 5 to 10 minutes until it is done enough for the skins to come off.
- Once the beets are cooled enough to handle, gently squeeze each beet in your hand and "slip' the skins off. Return the peeled beets to the cool water to rinse off. [see notes]
- Using a box grater, or a food processor with a grater blade, grate all of the beets.
Make the relish
- Place all of the ingredients back in the rinsed out 5 quart stock pot, and bring up to a simmer, and cook for about 30 minutes. Remove the pickling spices, if used.
- At this point, you can pack the relish into refrigerator containers and chill completely before serving.
- OR, you may can this relish for longer storage. Pints need to be waterbath processed for 20 minutes. See notes for a link to canning instructions.
Notes
This is quite spicy, but you can reduce the amount of horseradish and or ginger if you prefer.
I would not mix the pickling spice into this relish, because you don't want to be biting into an allspice berry or peppercorn. A mesh tea ball works very well, or place the spices in a small pice of cheesecloth and tie into a bundle.
For detailed canning instructions, see my Blueberry Preserves post. This relish should process for 20 minutes in pints, 25 for quarts.
This will keep, uncanned, in the refrigerator for quite awhile - a few months at least. Obviously if it doesn't look or smell good after a couple months, don't eat it.
This is a pretty safe thing to can, if you're a beginner at canning - the amount of vinegar will keep it from spoiling very readily.