A Guide to Quick Pickled Vegetables
Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land
Except it’s actually nearing the end of August.
That’s a problem when frosts can come as early as mid-September… Truthfully, I’m not holding my breath that I’ll have the opportunity to can giant batches of tomatoes or cucumbers like last year. (Learn how to safely can anything here) So instead, I’m focusing on the produce that is trickling into my kitchen in small handfuls.
And what doesn’t get eaten as a snack or cooked for supper? Well, it gets turned into quick pickled vegetables.
It’s so simple I don’t know why more folks don’t talk about this. Quick pickling, also known as refrigerated pickles, is an easy way to preserve almost every type of vegetable. In a nutshell: you simply cover fresh veggies in a brine solution and pop ’em in the fridge. The only hard part really is that you have to wait a little while to dive in, just so the brine has time to infuse into the veggies. But then you can snack on them any time, or add them to a cheese board with crackers, cheese, and meat and call it “supper.”
Quick pickled veggies will last for a several months in the fridge, so that summer goodness can make you smile for a good chunk of the fall season.
Quick pickled vegetables don’t develop the same deep flavor as fermented foods (like my fermented pickles recipe), and they don’t stay preserved as long as my canned goods, but quick pickling allows for a lot of freedom. You can…
Fruits or Veggies
Most folks just think of pickling cucumbers, but you can also make quick pickles with green beans, beets, bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower, asparagus, radishes, squash, tomatoes, onions, and more.
You can also quick pickle fruits! Peaches, watermelon, blueberries, and more.
Basically, if it’s an edible fruit or veggie, you can probably pickle it. What can’t you quick pickle? The only produce that shouldn’t be pickled are delicate veggies like leafy greens and lettuces.
Quick Pickle Equipment
Besides the ingredients, you’ll need a cooking pot for making the brine for your quick pickled vegetables (I love these enamel pots) and mason jars to hold your produce. That’s it!
The brine is probably the most important part of the quick pickling process. It not only preserves the veggies or fruits, it also brings the flavor to the recipe.
Quick pickle brine is made up of vinegar, salt, water, and the optional sugar. The most important thing to know about your brine? In order to keep out any harmful bacteria, you need a quick pickling brine with a 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water.
An Overview of Brine Ingredients:
Vinegar: You can use almost any basic vinegar for your pickling brine. This includes distilled white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, and rice vinegar. You can either use them alone or combine them to make creative brine solutions. But avoid using aged or concentrated vinegars like balsamic or malt vinegar. The most commonly used vinegars for quick pickles is apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar.
You can be super creative with your quick pickled vegetables. Seriously, the sky’s the limit!
Here are some ideas for pickling flavors:
This basic recipe makes 2 pint jars of quick pickles.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Notes:
Q: Can I water bath can these pickled veggies?
A: It’s best to stick with proven recipes designed for canning, just to make sure you have the proper acid levels. I explain more about the ins and out of canning here.
Q: What do I do with the finished pickles?
A: Snacking is our favorite way to eat them, but they also make wonderful additions to appetizer platters, charcuterie boards, or salads.
Q: Can I use another container to hold the pickles instead of a mason jar?
A: Sure! Just avoid using metal or plastic, as they can leach unwanted flavors into your pickles.
Listen to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast episode #21 on this topic HERE.
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Glad to hear it is so easy to do quick pickling. I just love how beautiful your produce is and I can’t wait to try it for myself. Pinning now to try soon!
Great idea! I’ve also made curtido a pickles spicy South American slaw with thin slice cabbage carrots pickles Etc and anything else you want to throw in! I will say you sure have a lot of pop-up ads on your blog pretty disconcerting on my cell phone
Interesting, I actually have not seen a recipe for ferments or quick pickles that didn’t have the spices added to the jar!
I just followed a recipe for canning pickles. We put the herbs, garlic and other spices in the jar before we even put the cucumbers in. I remember my mom doing the same thing. So, Amy, unless you are over 70 years old and had came up with that idea before then, I don’t believe you could have came up with that idea. It is had already been out there.
Thank you Jill! I have a small garden this year and it only produces about a handful of veggies at a time. I sit them a side tilll I have more then find that they have shriveled up by the time I want to do something with them. Now I can do a quick pickle with them and not waste them.
I’m so happy that this recipe is helpful for you!
Hi. When I use your link to air removing tool it says page error. Can you please give me name of tool? Thanks
Can you use this quick pickling with spicy peppers?
Yes! 🙂
Amy, congratulations on coming up with that idea on your own. It really IS a good idea.
But please give me your email address so I may send you the pickled vegetable recipes that I have grown up making. In every single one of them, we added the spices to the jar before the vegetables and brine. I am 60+ years old, and learned to make pickles when I was about 12.
In the ingredients you mention a salt that you use. The link takes me to Ball canning jars
Susan, if you go back up in the article, there’s another link that takes you to the salt, which is Redmond’s Real Salt. I had the same thing happen to me, but remembered seeing another link. 😉
If you have brine leftover after you fill the jars can you reuse it for the next batch? If so, do you have to store it in the fridge until you make your next batch of veggies? And, do you reheat or bring back to a boil before using?
Hi Susie! Especially since these are refrigerated pickled veggies, you could store the leftover brine in your fridge for a few days before using it for your next batch!
I love this idea! We live in Cheyenne and, yes, have had a slow trickle of veggies from the garden that I don’t quite know what to do with. Today I put zucchini chunks, jalapeno slices, and tiny onion slices in a jar with a bit of minced garlic. I think my boys will enjoy the spicy pickle chunks!
Wow! That sounds yummy! I hope they’re delicious!
Currently trying various ferments. This is on my list. But I have a question: How much salt is really needed in this? I have an intolerance to sodium and my husband is on a low sodium diet. So reducing or eliminating is extremely important to us!
AMAZING post! Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with the world -everything is perfectly explained and I cannot wait to start quick-pickling myself. Glad I stopped here, your pictures are beautiful and very very helpful content in your site… I LOVITT!
So glad you found this post helpful! 🙂
Hi there, thanks so much for all the great information! Quick (perhaps naive!) question about the instructions for quick pickling. Say, between steps 5 and 6, should we cool the brine mixture at all, before pouring over the veggies? I was just wondering whether it matters whether the brine liquid is hot (or not) when it gets poured over the veggies. I have no previous knowledge about this stuff, so appreciate any clarification you may provide. Thanks very much! 🙂
Yse I do
Fresh organic veggies are limited where I live, have you experimented with using frozen organic veg for pickling?
excited to try this! could I use the chive vinegar I made this spring? thanks for your help!
If wanting to quick pickle beets, can you still boil them first to remove the skins?
Refrigerator dill pickles are the best 🙂 I put a small handful of fresh dill, a garlic clove and the spices right in with the pickles (along with the vinegar) and they come out wonderful every time.
Hi Jill,
I know you’re supposed to use new mason jar lids for regular canning but what about this quick canning recipe? I have a lot of jars with used lids. Can I use those or should I get new lids?
Thanks!
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