Lebanese Pickles Recipe (Middle Eastern Pink Pickled Turnips for Shawarma!)
Learn to make Lebanese pickles with this easy shawarma pickles recipe. These Middle Eastern pickles are pink pickled turnips and beets!
Ingredients
- 10 ounces peeled turnips (283 grams)
- 3 ounces peeled beets (85 grams)
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- 2 cups water
- ⅔ cup white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons pickling salt or finely ground sea salt (not iodized salt)
Instructions
- Important! Please read the post accompanying this recipe before you begin. It contains essential equipment information that you do not want to miss.
- Peel the beets and turnips and slice them into very thin batons (matchsticks). I recommend cutting them small enough where they practically look shredded. Smash a clove of garlic.
- Set the veggies aside while you prepare the brine.
- Put the water, white vinegar, and sea salt in a small saucepan on the stovetop. Dissolve the salt over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Allow the brine to cool for a few minutes.
- Pack the prepared veggies (including the garlic) into a clean wide-mouth quart jar. The veggies should be below the shoulders of the jar. If they don’t fit, they weren’t cut small enough.
- Pour the liquid over the veggies in the jar and place the jar weight in the jar. You may not use all of the brine- this is fine.
- Press the jar weight down if needed to submerge the veggies. The veggies should be completely below the level of the liquid. Both the liquid and the jar weight should be below the lip of the jar.
- Put the airlock lid on the jar. You may need to add water to the lid, depending on the type of lid you have.
- Leave the jar at room temperature (approximately 70°F/21°C) to pickle for 3 days. After that, put the regular lid on the jar and place it in the fridge.
- Lebanese pickles mellow out and becomes better with age after a few days in the fridge. The pickles will last in the fridge for 1-2 months, and they just get better and better, IMVHO. Make sure the veggies stay beneath the level of the liquid.
Notes
This is a level 1 recipe (may help support fat loss). Think of low and moderate-carb veggies as your BFF if your goal is weight loss. These pickles are a nice way to add some extra zing to meals and you get more veggies and prebiotic fiber in.
As mentioned above, we prefer the flavor of shawarma pickles after several days in the fridge. They're also great on a salad, grain bowl, or as a burger topping!
Since we are using a lot of salt, this recipe is not appropriate for those on low-sodium diets. You will consume less salt than is used in the recipe if you drain the brine from the veggies prior to eating.
Rinsing the pickles decreases the sodium level even more. Unfortunately, you’ll also lose some flavor. If you’ve naturally fermented the beets and turnips (with just salt), you’ll lose some of the beneficial probiotics as well.
Nutrition information is for 1/12 of the vegetables in the jar, without the brine.
Nutrition
Calories: 8kcalCarbohydrates: 1.8gProtein: 0.3gPotassium: 54.3mgFiber: 0.5gVitamin C: 8.6% DVCalcium: 1.2% DVIron: 0.5% DV
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