How to Quick-Pickle Vegetables & Onions
Steps to Make Quick-Pickled Vegetables
- Chop your onions, or chop and blanch your vegetables. (See tips below for sizing).
- Combine water, vinegar, sugar and salt in a nonreactive saucepan, with a stainless-steel or tin finish, to prevent discoloration on your cookware.
- Heat on the stove until the sugar and salt dissolve so that you have a brine.
- Remove the brine from the heat and begin to fill clean glass jars with spices and aromatics. Here, we use garlic cloves, peppercorns, chili flakes, mustard seeds and dill.
- After covering the bottom of the jar with spices, loosely pack the jar with the vegetable of your choice. The vegetables must be blanched with space left at the top so you can cover them with the brine. (Note: If pickling onions, they should be raw).
- Cover the vegetables with the brine and refrigerate overnight with a tight-fitting lid.
Tips to Quick-Pickle Vegetables
- Quick-pickled vegetables are best enjoyed within a week and need to be refrigerated.
- Pickling spices are vast and varied. Also try the following: cloves, turmeric, ginger, bay leaf, fresh chilis, rosemary, tarragon, fennel seed, caraway seed, and cumin in any combination. You can also experiment with different types of vinegar, including white, apple, or red wine.
- Pickled onions are the perfect topping for sandwiches or burgers. They also go great on salad, or atop bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
- Remember when you cut your vegetables that pickles can be a finger food or a topping. Also, consider the type of jar you have on hand. Cut vegetables to fit.
