Hate when blogs fill up 13 paragraphs describing every detail as to how they developed a recipe? Long rambling of things that don't even relate to the kitchen?
Yea, promise we won't do that.
I took a bunch of refrigerator recipes and tweaked them until this became my favorite. Simple story. That's all!
Great way to do something just a wee bit different with all that extra produce coming into the house mid-summer. In fact, I have used cucumber turning yellow and green beans going soft in this recipe just to 'save' them. Delicious. You'd never have known they were close to becoming chicken food.
Makes: 2 quart jars
(easy peasy to scale up!)
Time: 15min + 3-5 days in fridge depending on preference
INGREDIENTS:
Veggies of choice
1 cup white vinegar
6 TBSP salt
2 tea mustard seed
2 tea allspice berries
2 tea black peppercorns
12 cloves garlic (or 2 TBSP garlic powder)
6 TBSP dill
2 tea red pepper flakes
Water (distilled or safe tap water without chlorine)
4 palm-sized new-growth grape leaves***
BASIC DIRECTIONS:
Mix dry ingredients, divided between jars.
Add vinegar, again divided between jars.
Add veggies and grape leaves. Be mindful that cucumber pieces don't stick together if that is the veggie of choice. They should have room for liquid to move between them.
Top off the jars with the water.
Shake well to disperse the ingredients. Place jars in fridge, giving them a shake about twice per day for the 3-5 days.
PERSONALIZE: I used sea salt. I 'cheated' and used a pre-made pickling spice which contained a spattering of other goodies than those listed above. No real wrong way here. Well, unless you use nothing?
I ran out of actual garlic cloves. The garlic powder is what I've used each time, which makes the whole process way faster and less sticky.
Green beans are better than cucumber pickled. Fight me.
Add some onion! Try other veggies! I LOVE dill, but this would be equally as good with slightly less dried dill used if that isn't your thing.
***Please only use the grape leaves if you are confident in identifying them. We grow grape leaves on the homestead and are familiar with both our wild and cultivated types here.
WHY grape leaves? They release tannins which will keep your pickled veggies SO crunchy! I have yet to find any canning-product item that will do as good of a job, but there are multiple market options available if grape leaves are not accessible to you.***
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