In a Pickle? Relish your Dinner!

We've all been there.  The end of dinner and we're stuck with the last half cup of vegetables...served, but uneaten. Most can just be bagged up and put into the freezer "soup store."  After all there's hardly a meat or vegetable soup that wouldn't benefit from some extra corn, green beans, peas or even asparagus.  Some would go nicely in a pureed cream soup--again, asparagus and peas, but also spinach, kale, or brussels sprouts.

But then there are beets!

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we love beets. We frequently buy a dozen or more, trim off the tops and put them in a foil-lined large baking pan. Add about 1/2 cup of water and seal the foil around them.  Depending on the size, an hour or two in a 350 oven and the skins come right off the fully-flavored red or golden globes.

Leftover beets present their own delicious opportunities!

One of our favorites is the Quick No-Salt Pickle.  We've done this pickling technique for years in the summer Mixed Canned Vegetable Salad--you know the one--a can each of corn, peas, French-cut green beans, kidney beans, and any other kind of bean you like. Drain and rinse and then pour over the boiling hot liquid made from equal parts sugar and white vinegar! Let stand until cool. Refrigerate overnight if you want to make ahead. Keeps for a week. Yum!

So the technique is the same

Picked Leftover Vegetable Relish

For each cup of leftover cooked vegetables such as:
Beets
Carrots
Peas
Green Beans
Asparagus
Corn
Brussels Sprouts
maybe even Turnips and Parsnips

1/3 cup white vinegar, you could use cider if you prefer
1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried seasonings such as: cumin, dill seed, dill weed, mustard seed, celery seed
More of fresh seasonings such as dill weed

Rinse the cooked vegetable to remove any butter or other sauce you may have put on them when you served them for dinner. Cut them into uniform small size, if necessary. Put the vegetables into a heat-proof bowl and add seasonings if you wish.  Combine the vinegar and sugar in a small pot and gradually bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this pickle over the vegetables and stir from time to time as they cool.  Store in the refrigerator for three or four days.

So tasty, no one would even think they were leftovers!