Refined Sugar-Free Pickled Red Beet Eggs

I am starting to get back into some of my regular activities and getting to pay attention to some things that I have been putting off for awhile, like my garden for example.  I should have harvested my beets three weeks ago but I was a little busy with my brand new baby then. Excuses, excuses I know but they were still there when I harvested them this week. Me and my little helpers picked and cleaned our stash, we maybe even snacked on one raw. Everything had splashes of purple till we were done but we did finish the job and now had to decide what to do with all these beets.

Not a hard decision for my farming husband, he was craving red beet eggs. Now I am not really a fan of the red beet egg. I always saw them on the salad bar and thought they were there for the older generation who liked that kind of thing. I guess I am married to an old soul. At any rate the whole reason he let me plant most of our garden in red beets is because he wanted some red beet eggs out of the deal, so I figured I may as well make some. Another reason I just never got into the habit of even trying to like red beet eggs is the pickling liquid is usually full of sugar. I try to avoid added sugar in my family's diet as most of the time it is really not necessary.  

So with that in mind I set off to make red beet eggs. I even had these cute little red beets, because I just never have the heart to thin them out after planting, it just feels like such a waste to me. So some of them are on the baby side of small but they are just the right size for mixing with eggs.

Red Beet Eggs

Makes a Dozen or Two Quarts

• 2 wide mouth quart jars 
• 1 dozen eggs
• 3 cups baby red beets
• 1 Cup white vinegar
• 1 Tbs sea salt
• 1/2 Cup honey
• 11 whole cloves
• 1 Tbs whole peppercorns
• Pinch of cumin seeds  
• Pinch of coriander seed

Hard boil your eggs.
I like to just put mine in a pot, cover eggs with water, put heat on high till the water and eggs come to a boil for 2-3 minuets. Turn the heat off cover the pot and let set for 20 minuets, then refrigerate.

*As a note for those of you who may have fresh eggs from your chickens like I do, you can just lightly crack your eggs before boiling and then you will have a much easier time peeling the shell off. I love fresh eggs, but man they are a pain to peel when hard boiled!

Put baby beets in a pot of water and bring water to a boil. I boiled mine for about 1 1/2 hours but it will depend on how little or big the beets are. Just boil till you can pierce easily with a knife.

Save 1 cup of the beet water for later and drain off the rest. Then cover beets with cold water and the skins will just slide off, easy peasy. Set peeled beet aside.

Now put the reserved beet water, vinegar, salt, honey and spices in a sauce pan and heat on medium till the honey dissolves. Set aside.

Layer your red beets and eggs in your quart jars. It will be pretty tight in there so I like to do one layer of beets then a layer of eggs to make sure there is some of both close together.

Pour the vinegar honey liquid over top the eggs and beets. Put the lids on and shake to try and cover evenly. Mine were packed too tight as you can tell, I was greedy and tried to fit 14 eggs in, oh well.

Refrigerate for 3-5 days and then dig in!

I actually am starting to like these now; they make a great addition to any picnic and have beautiful color and flavor too! Making my husband happy makes me happy too it's a win, win situation.

                                                                The Farmer in the Dell