If you’re looking for a great way to utilize and preserve vegetables and to add an extra level of delicious flare to your cooking, look no further than making homemade refrigerator pickles, also known as quick pickles. They add a bright and refreshing pop to any dish and are incredibly easy to make. If you have excess vegetables in your crisper that you aren’t sure what to do with, pickling them will give them a delicious new lease on life.
Refrigerator pickling is also terrific for extending the life of fresh produce by allowing you to buy the beautiful vegetables of spring and summer in bulk and pickling them at the peak of freshness so that you have incredible fresh produce available all year round.
How to Make Refrigerator Pickles
The process to make refrigerator pickles is quick and easy. Simply wash and prepare your vegetables, put them in a container, bring a solution of vinegar, sugar, salt and seasonings to a boil to make the pickle brine. Then, pour the hot brine over the vegetables and allow it to cool for at least an hour. After that, put a lid on the container and the pickles are ready to go into the fridge.
Depending on the size of the vegetables, it could take anywhere from 2 hours to overnight to fully pickle the item. The whole process could not be easier!
Refrigerator Pickles vs. Canning
One of the biggest benefits of making quick pickles is that it’s a great way to preserve vegetables without canning them. Canning pickles requires a lengthy and precise process of sterilizing glass jars in boiling water before filling them, sealing them and boiling them again.
This process can be a little finicky and potentially dangerous, as sometimes the seal doesn’t take, in which case you’d have to discard the jar immediately for food safety reasons. Luckily, in making refrigerator pickles, the acid in the pickle brine and the cold of the refrigerator kill any dangerous foodborne bacteria.
What Can You Pickle?
You can pickle almost any vegetable with amazing results. Cucumbers, onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, cauliflower, asparagus, radishes and tomatoes are just a few examples of items that pickle well.
Regardless of what you choose to pickle, the procedure is always the same. When choosing an item to pickle, keep in mind the texture. One of the biggest appeals of quick pickles is their crunch. So, try to avoid pickling vegetables that have begun to go soft, they are better used for soups or purees.
Preparing Items for Pickling
Before you start pickling vegetables, you need to decide how you want those pickles to look and think about how they’ll hold up best in an acidic brine. For most vegetables, thinly slicing them is the best way to prepare them for pickling, but even thinly slicing isn’t necessarily a straightforward decision.
Pickled onions can either be julienned in long strips or cut into thin rings. For some vegetables like carrots or zucchini, using a vegetable peeler to cut long, thin strips can create attractive and whimsical ribbons of pickled vegetables.
Other vegetables look best when pickled in small chunks, such as pickled florets of broccoli or cauliflower. Some items pickle better when they aren’t cut at all, such as okra or cherry tomatoes whose seeds and pulp would leech into the brine and make it slimy. Baby vegetables like baby carrots, baby radishes, or pearl onions you can pickle as a whole.
Making the Pickle Brine
Generally, a good ratio for a pickle brine is a 3:1 ratio of vinegar to sugar, with some salt added. For example, for one pound of pickled vegetables, 2 cups of vinegar, 2/3 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt is a great place to start. Simply bring everything to a boil and stir to ensure all the salt and sugar is dissolved, add whatever flavorings you might like and pour over the vegetables.
While this formula is a great base for a pickle brine, you can definitely tweak it depending on what you’re pickling, how you want it to taste and how you’ll use the pickles.
What Type of Vinegar to Use?
The first thing you need to figure out is what kind of vinegar you want to use, which will depend on what you’re pickling. Apple cider vinegar has a distinct fruity flavor, distilled white vinegar is mild in taste yet very acidic, white wine and rice vinegar are slightly mild and delicate, while red wine vinegar has a bolder, more tannic taste.
For more mild-tasting vegetables like cucumber, a flavorful vinegar like apple cider works well, whereas more flavorful vegetables like carrots may benefit from a mild white wine vinegar.
If in doubt, cider vinegar is usually a good option for most vegetables. Consider the color of the pickles as well, for pickled red onions or radishes, a red wine vinegar will reinforce their natural pigments and make attractive, deep purple pickles. Avoid using aged and powerfully flavored vinegar like malt and balsamic.
Flavoring the Brine
When it comes to flavoring pickle brines, the possibilities are endless. Always think about the natural flavor of the item you want to pickle and the dishes you might use the pickles on. For example, for pickling spicier items such as jalapeno rings, add a little extra sugar to brine to counteract the heat.
If you’re making pickled onions to put on tacos, a squirt of lime juice and some cilantro stems in the brine would work wonders. If you fancy pickles on the spicier side, add split chili pepper to the brine and pickles
you want to put on Asian food you lift with the flavor of a fresh knob of ginger.
Other aromatics such as mustard seeds, celery seeds, thyme, cumin, coriander, peppercorns and other herbs and spices can all give incredible flavor to quick pickles. Spices can also give pickles fun and interesting colors, such as adding turmeric powder to brine to make bright yellow pickled cauliflower.
Uses for Refrigerator Pickles
Refrigerator pickles are amazingly versatile, they work so well in so many applications. Anywhere you use pickled vegetables they lend an appealing crisp texture, a vivid splash of color and a tangy, acidic punch.
Pickled vegetables cut through any foods that are particularly rich, fatty or sweet to make for more balanced, well-rounded dishes. They add delicious vibrancy to salads, sandwiches, veggie burgers, tacos, soups, and many other dishes.
Try chopping up pickled onions and cucumbers and folding them into mayo for amazing homemade remoulade sauce. Serve your homemade pickles with cheeses, crackers and jams to add some elegance to your snack boards. Finally, homemade pickles are delightful to just pop out of the fridge and eat as a snack.
Storing Refrigerator Pickles
When stored in proper refrigeration in an air-tight container, refrigerator pickles will last for up to six
months. If you see any signs of mold, discard the pickles immediately.
Featured image: Janadjana; Photo 1: Biefreepik