Chef Lesia
Adzhyka po-Ukrainsky (аджика, tomato-pepper relish)
The tomatoes go from garden-red to brick-red while the peppers slump and the garlic waits. By the end, the spoon leaves a path and the whole south fits in one jar.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Kvashenyi Buryak (квашений буряк, fermented whole beets)
Created by
The beets stain the brine first like spilled ink, then slowly turn it sour, ruby-deep, and useful enough to carry a whole winter pot of borshch.
Sauces & Condiments
Ukrainian
Make Ahead
Batch Cooking
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
0 min cook•20 min total
Yield1 large jar, about 2 litres
The first thing the beets do is bleed. Not politely. They turn the water dark as pomegranate skins, stain the garlic pink, creep up the jar in a crimson tide, and then the quiet work begins. A week later the brine clouds, the lid gives a little sigh, and the sharp-sweet smell tells you this is no boiled beet salad. This is kvashenyi buryak, whole beets made alive in salt water.
Fermented beets belong to the same Ukrainian kvashennia tradition as soured tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, and whole watermelons, especially in the garden-heavy south where the litnya kuhnia turned summer and autumn glut into winter food. Beet brine, often called buryakovyi kvas or beet zakwas in neighbouring traditions, became one of the old souring agents for borshch before vinegar made the shortcut easier. Soviet standard recipes pushed many regional souring habits into the margins, but jars like this kept working on pantry shelves.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
small raw beets
Quantity
1 kg
scrubbed well, tails left on
cool non-chlorinated water
Quantity
1.2 litres, or enough to cover
fine sea salt
Quantity
42g, 3.5 percent of the water weight
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
lightly smashed
dill stalks with flowers or seed heads
Quantity
2
horseradish root (optional)
Quantity
1 small piece
peeled
bay leaf
Quantity
1
black peppercorns
Quantity
1 teaspoon
blackcurrant, cherry, or oak leaf (optional)
Quantity
1
for tannin
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small raw beetsscrubbed well, tails left on | 1 kg |
| cool non-chlorinated water | 1.2 litres, or enough to cover |
| fine sea salt | 42g, 3.5 percent of the water weight |
| garlic cloveslightly smashed | 4 |
| dill stalks with flowers or seed heads | 2 |
| horseradish root (optional)peeled | 1 small piece |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| black peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| blackcurrant, cherry, or oak leaf (optional)for tannin | 1 |
Equipment Needed
- •A clean 2-litre glass fermentation jar
- •A fermentation weight or small clean jar
- •A digital scale
- •A plate to catch brine drips
Instructions
- 1
Clean the beets
Scrub the beets under cool water, but don't peel them and don't cut off the tails. Trim only the leafy tops if they are still attached. The skins and tails keep the color and sweetness inside while the brine works its way in slowly.
- 2
Mix the brine
Weigh the water, then weigh the salt at 3.5 percent: 35 grams salt for every litre of water. Stir until the salt disappears completely. This is the one place I want your scale more than your instinct, because the brine is the safety.
- 3
Pack the jar
Put the garlic, dill, bay, peppercorns, horseradish if using, and tannin leaf into a clean 2-litre jar. Pack in the beets firmly but without crushing them, smaller ones low and larger ones high, like stacking stones in a riverbed.
- 4
Cover and weight
Pour in enough brine to cover the beets fully, then set a fermentation weight or a small clean jar on top so nothing rises above the surface. Set the jar on a plate. It may leak, because ferments have no manners once they wake up.
Everything under the brine is where it should be. Anything poking above it can spoil, so push it down or lift it out. - 5
Let it sour
Leave the jar at cool room temperature, out of direct sun. In a few days the brine will turn cloudy and smell sweet, earthy, and sharp at the edges. Open the lid briefly each day if it is tightly sealed, then close it again. Taste after one week; two to three weeks gives a deeper sour and a beet that still has its bite.
- 6
Chill and use
When the brine tastes bright and tangy to you, move the jar to the fridge. Slice the beets into salads with unrefined sunflower oil and dill, grate them into relish, or use the brine to sour borshch instead of vinegar. That is the whole point: sourness with memory in it.
Chef Tips
- •Use small beets if you can. Large ones ferment too, but they take longer to sour through, and sometimes the outside gets ahead of the middle.
- •Don't peel the beets before fermenting. Peeled beets give color fast but lose texture, and the jar turns muddy before the flavor catches up.
- •If your kitchen is very warm, taste earlier and move the jar to the fridge once the brine is lively. Heat makes beet ferments race, and racing is when they get yeasty.
- •A little white film on the surface is usually kahm yeast; skim it off and keep everything submerged. Fuzzy mold, bad rot, or a smell that makes you step back means throw it away and start again.
- •The beets are good sliced with onion, dill, and Ukraine in a bottle of oil, that green unrefined sunflower oil. The brine is the treasure for borshch.
Advance Preparation
- •The beets ferment 1 to 3 weeks at room temperature, depending on their size and your kitchen temperature.
- •Once refrigerated, the beets and brine keep for several months as long as the beets stay submerged.
- •Start a jar before borshch season. In January we don't go looking for summer sourness; we open the pantry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 100g)
Calories
30 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
820 mg
Total Carbohydrates
7 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
1 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Kvashennia, Sauces & Condiments
Browse the full collection
Chef Lesia
Buryakova Zakvaska (бурякова закваска, beet kvas)
A jar of grated beets turns ordinary water into sour red light, the kind that wakes borshch from inside instead of shouting over it.
Chef Lesia
Chasnykovyi Sous (часниковий соус, garlic sauce)
Raw garlic, salt, and green sunflower oil turn into a sauce that announces itself from the doorway, sharp enough for pampushky, potatoes, grilled meat, and any tired Tuesday plate.
Chef Lesia
Hrybna Pidliva (грибна підлива, mushroom gravy)
The gravy should start dark as wet bark, then soften when smetana goes in. Spoon it over buckwheat, potatoes, or mlyntsi and nobody asks where the meat went.