Ayurvedic picked beets recipe
ingredients
1 1/2 cup Fermented apple cider vinegar
3c Beets
1 tbsp cloves
1 tsp organic natural salt
1 cup of diced fresh ginger
1tsp of cumin seeds
preparation
1. Place beets in a large pot. Add enough water to just cover beets. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender (about 30 minutes). Remove, cool and peel the beets, reserving 1c beet water. The skin should come off easily after cooking. Slice if needed
2. Sterilize jars and lids by submerging in boiling water for at least 10 minutes. Immediately fill each jar with beets and several cloves.
3. Combine the vinegar, 1c beet water, ginger, cumin seeds and salt in a large saucepan. Pickling salt is recommended but not required. Bring to a boil. Pour the brine over the beets, filling each jar, and seal the lids.
4. Fill the large pot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Carefully place the jars into the pot, leaving a 2 inch space between jars. Use a rack if you have one to avoid cracking the glass jars. Add water if necessary to raise the water level one inch above the jars. Cover and bring the water to a full boil for at least ten minutes.
ayurvedic perspective
Beets are naturally sweet and Kapha provoking. Sugar beets, a cultivated variety of the beet we normally find in our grocery store, accounts for half of the world's refined sugar production.
Raw beets provoke Pitta but cooked beets are Pitta pacifying. Cooked beets transform the starches into sweeter sugars that are cooling. Beets cleanse and cool the blood, nourish the liver, and improve the eyesight. Beets are good for anemia. Beet juice increases stamina and was used as an aphrodisiac in Roman times.
Beets are high in flavonoids, known as 'nature's biological response modifiers'. Generally, bioflavonoids show anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-cancer activity. The body tries to get rid of bio-flavonoids soon after they are eaten. To eliminate them the body activates phase II enzymes that also help eliminate mutagens and carcinogens.