Pink pickled turnips (lifit)
The neon-pink pickle without which a shawarma wrap is simply incomplete. Turnips, a single slice of beetroot for colour, and a plain brine — three days on the counter does the rest.
Instructions
- 1
Sterilise a 1.5 litre jar and its lid with boiling water, and let it dry completely.
- 2
Cut the peeled turnips into batons roughly 1 cm thick and 6 cm long, so they fit the jar standing upright.
- 3
Warm the water, vinegar and salt in a pan, stirring only until the salt dissolves. Do not boil it. Let the brine cool to room temperature.
- 4
Pack the turnip batons upright into the jar with the garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns tucked between them, and slide the beetroot slices down the sides.
- 5
Pour the cooled brine in until the vegetables are fully submerged, leaving 2 cm of headspace. Anything above the brine line will spoil.
- 6
Seal and leave at cool room temperature, out of direct sun, for 3 to 5 days. You will see the pink creep through the jar day by day.
- 7
Taste after day three: when the turnips are sharp, salty and still crunchy, move the jar to the fridge.
- 8
Keep refrigerated and use within two months. Always lift them out with a clean fork.
Notes
One or two slices of beetroot is plenty — more and the pickle turns earthy and dull red instead of neon pink. Use non-iodised salt; iodine clouds the brine and can soften the turnips. A little cloudiness and fizz in the first days is normal fermentation.
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