Pickled vegetables are always on a Lebanese table. Olives, chillies and turnips are most common, and small stuffed eggplants (makdous), cucumbers and cauliflower are also popular. The most distinctive are the pink pickled turnips, traditionally stained bright pink with beetroot. These Lebanese pickled turnips are super easy to make and keep for months in the fridge, so avoid the artificially-coloured commercial ones and make your own beetroot pickled turnips. If turnips are unavailable, use swedes, they’re slightly creamy-coloured rather than pure white, but taste very similar, especially once they’re pickled. My sister’s Lebanese mother-in-law, Teta as we all called her, was a wonderful cook and thrifty housekeeper, she used the liquid leftover from canned beetroot to colour her Lebanese pickled turnips and they were delicious! If you buy a bunch of beets for this recipe, use the rest to make borani laboo, and the greens for beetroot leaf boorani, two delicious Persian dips.
Makes about 2 cups
Pickling Liquid
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