Pickled Turnips substitute

Best substitute

Pickled Daikon or Pickled Radish

Use the same amount cut into batons as the pickled turnips you are replacing

Best for falafel wraps

Different taste

The closest swaps are pickled daikon or pickled radish, which go in 1:1 and match the crunch and tang almost exactly, or plain dill pickle spears at 1:1, which are in every fridge and do the same acid-and-crunch job even though the dill and garlic read as American rather than Lebanese. Thinly sliced pickled beetroot gives you the colour and an earthy sweetness but much less bite. If you have turnips and a day to wait, make your own: batons, a wedge of raw beet, water, vinegar and salt, and they are ready in about 24 hours. In a falafel or shawarma wrap this pickle is doing an acid job, cutting through fat and fried food, so acidity is what you must not lose.

Other pickled turnips substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Dill Pickle Spears or Cornichons
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount drained and cut into batons
Kosher dill spears, cut lengthwise into narrower batons, or whole cornichons drained and used as they are.
What changes
Best for
falafel wraps, shawarma, sandwiches, mezze plates, grilled meats
The most available option by a distance and honestly a good one, because a falafel wrap mainly needs something sharp and crunchy to cut the fried chickpea and the tahini. What gives it away is aroma: dill and pickling spice are very obviously not the clean garlic-and-brine profile of torshi. Cucumber is also softer and wetter than turnip, so blot the batons dry or the bread will go soggy. Use them and do not apologise.
3Homemade Pink Pickled Turnips (Ready in 24 Hours)
Close match
1 lb turnips, 1 small raw beet wedge, 1 ½ cups water, ½ cup white vinegar, 1 ½ Tbsp salt, 2 garlic cloves
Peel and cut the turnips into finger-sized batons.
What changes
Pack into a jar with the garlic and one thin slice of raw beetroot. Stir the salt into the water and vinegar until dissolved, pour over to cover, and refrigerate.
Best for
falafel wraps, shawarma, mezze plates, grilled meats, rice dishes
This is the real answer if you can get turnips, because it is the actual thing rather than an approximation, and it takes ten minutes of work. They are edible and pink after a day, properly good after three, and indistinguishable from a jar after a week. Made this way they are a vinegar refrigerator pickle rather than a slow lacto-ferment, so they taste a little sharper and cleaner and lack the faint fizzy funk of the traditional salt-brined version.
4Pickled Beetroot, Sliced Thin
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount sliced thin and drained
Jarred pickled beetroot, drained well and cut into small strips or half-moons.
What changes
Best for
mezze plates, salads, wraps, grain bowls
The one substitute that gets the colour exactly right, and it brings earthiness and acidity too. The gaps are texture and sugar. Cooked beetroot is tender and yielding rather than crunchy, so the wrap loses its snap, and most jarred pickled beet is sweetened, so the plate reads sweet where torshi reads sharp and salty. Drain it very well, because beet juice bleeds into everything. Best on a mezze plate, weakest in a sandwich.
5Pickled Cauliflower or Mixed Torshi Vegetables
Different texture
Use the same amount drained and broken into small pieces
Cauliflower florets, carrots and peppers from a jar of Middle Eastern mixed pickles or Italian giardiniera, drained and chopped to bite size.
What changes
Best for
mezze plates, falafel plates, sandwiches, antipasto, grilled meats
Usually pickled in an almost identical brine, so the flavour is nearly right and the acidity is exactly right. Cauliflower has a knobbly, more fragmented crunch rather than the clean snap of a turnip baton, and the mixed jars often carry chilli, celery or oregano, which pull the flavour Italian rather than Levantine. If the jar is Middle Eastern, this is a very close substitute indeed.
6Quick Pickled Red Onion
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, made 30 minutes ahead
Thinly slice a red onion, cover with equal parts vinegar and hot water plus a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar, and leave thirty minutes.
What changes
Best for
shawarma, falafel wraps, grain bowls, grilled meats, sandwiches
Genuinely excellent in a wrap and it is pink, which is half the visual job. Thirty minutes of vinegar takes the harsh raw edge off onion and leaves it sharp, faintly sweet and pleasantly slippery. What it does not give you is a crunch you can hear; sliced onion goes soft and silky rather than snapping. Use a little less than you would turnip, since onion aroma is more assertive.
7Sauerkraut, Drained
Taste and texture differ
Half the volume, drained and squeezed
Plain sauerkraut, drained hard and squeezed, scattered through the wrap rather than laid in batons.
What changes
Best for
falafel wraps, shawarma in an emergency, grain bowls
The honest least-bad option when there is nothing else, and it works because the acid is right and acid is the main job. Everything else is wrong. Sauerkraut is shredded and limp rather than crunchy, it is sourer than a turnip pickle, and its distinctive cabbage aroma sits oddly with tahini and cumin. Use half as much, squeeze it dry, and consider adding a squeeze of lemon instead if the sauerkraut is strongly caraway-scented.

What is Pickled Turnips?

Pickled Turnips is Pickled turnips, known as torshi lift, kabis or lift makbouss across the Levant, are batons of white turnip cured in a salt brine with garlic and a single slice of raw beetroot, which stains the whole jar a startling neon pink.

Cooking tips

The job pickled turnips do in a falafel or shawarma wrap is almost entirely acid and crunch, with salt behind it. They are the counterweight to fried chickpeas, fatty grilled meat and rich tahini, and without something sharp the whole thing tastes heavy. When you choose a substitute, rank acidity first, crunch second, and treat the pink colour as a bonus you can lose without hurting the food.
Use small young white turnips, not large ones. Big turnips turn woody at the centre and develop a bitter, sulphurous edge that pickling concentrates rather than hides. Look for turnips no bigger than a golf ball or two, firm and unblemished, and peel them properly since the skin is where most of the bitterness lives.
One thin slice of raw beetroot per quart jar is genuinely enough. Beetroot is a ferociously strong dye and two or three slices will take the turnips from bright pink to muddy purple and give them an earthy, sweet beet flavour that competes with the clean turnip taste. Add the beet raw, not cooked.
Keep everything under the brine. Any baton sticking above the liquid will discolour and can grow mould, which spoils the whole jar. A small folded piece of baking parchment or a clean glass weight pressed on top solves it, and topping up with a little extra brine works too.
Cut batons rather than rounds. Long thick fingers keep their crunch far longer than thin coins, and they are much easier to lay along the inside of a wrap. A quarter-inch is too thin; aim for something close to the thickness of your little finger.
If you want shelf-stable jars rather than refrigerator pickles, use a tested canning recipe exactly as written and do not reduce the vinegar or salt or add extra vegetables to the jar, because the safety of the process depends on those proportions. The National Center for Home Food Preservation publishes tested pickle recipes. Refrigerator pickles are the simpler and safer route for home cooks.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave pickled turnips out of a falafel wrap?

You can, but you will notice, because they are the only sharp thing in a sandwich full of fried chickpea, bread and sesame paste. If you skip them, put the acid back another way: a hard squeeze of lemon over the filling, a couple of chopped dill pickles, or a spoonful of quick pickled onion. Any of those keeps the wrap from tasting flat and heavy.

Are pickled turnips fermented or just pickled in vinegar?

Both versions are traditional. The older Levantine method is a plain salt brine left at room temperature for several days to a week, which is a genuine lacto-ferment and tastes slightly fizzy and complex. The quick version uses vinegar in the brine and goes straight into the refrigerator, ready in a day, and tastes cleaner and sharper. Recipes rarely distinguish between them, and either works in a wrap.

Why are pickled turnips pink?

A single slice of raw beetroot in the jar. Turnips are white and beetroot dye is powerful, so one slice tints an entire quart over a day or two. It is decorative rather than functional, and the flavour contribution is minimal at that quantity. If you leave the beet out you get pale ivory pickles that taste identical, and if you add too much you get purple pickles that taste of beetroot.

How long do homemade pickled turnips last?

In the refrigerator, submerged in their brine in a clean sealed jar, about a month while staying crunchy, and longer than that while gradually going softer and sourer. Always use a clean dry utensil, since a wet or used spoon introduces the bacteria and yeast that cause a jar to go cloudy or mouldy. Discard the jar if it smells rotten rather than sharply sour, or if anything fuzzy appears.

Can I use rutabaga or swede instead of turnip?

Yes, and it pickles well. Rutabaga is denser and sweeter than white turnip, so the pickles are firmer, a little more sugary and a slightly yellow-orange colour before the beetroot gets to them. Cut the batons a bit thinner since rutabaga takes longer for the brine to penetrate, and give it an extra day. Kohlrabi also works beautifully and is arguably crunchier than either.

Related substitutes

More fermented substitutes

Pickled Turnips substitute

Other pickled turnips substitutes

2Dill Pickle Spears or Cornichons

3Homemade Pink Pickled Turnips (Ready in 24 Hours)

4Pickled Beetroot, Sliced Thin

5Pickled Cauliflower or Mixed Torshi Vegetables

6Quick Pickled Red Onion

7Sauerkraut, Drained