A versatile, yummy, quick pickled vegetables recipe that you can make with any vegetable and spice it up with flavors you love, instantly!
Indians and their pickle making abilities are well know. As delicious and as easy as they maybe to make , I really don’t have the skills for it. Truth be told, my mum never made them herself, as well. She is a working woman so she never really had the time for it. Nonetheless, we love having pickles with our parathas, dal chawal etc. While the easily available, store bought ones are our rescue, our homemade ones are these instant and quick pickled vegetables. The beauty of these instant pickles is not only that, they are so easy to put together but you can make them with any vegetable! Absolutely any firm vegetable that you have lying in your fridge, you can use it for these pickles. I have made pickled cucumber and dill, pickled onions and chilis and carrots and garlic.
However, you could use any veggie you love and would enjoy having them pickled. Some other options are radishes, cauliflower florets, spring onion whites etc. Also the water and vinegar solution that I have made to preserve these pickles can be flavored with spices of your choice. The vinegar solution is called the brine solution. And since we like it more savory than sweet, I season my brine with salt more than sugar. As far as flavoring it goes, this time I have used some mixed peppercorns and star anise. But here again the options are limitless. You could add bay leaves, a pinch of turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds etc. So you see, how versatile my quick pickled vegetables recipe is. You are your own boss when it comes to flavoring these delicious vegetables.
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Refrigerator pickles
While you will need under 30 minutes to make your quick pickled vegetables, you will need to wait for about a day to enjoy them. This is so that the flavors in your pickle jar make friends with each other and taste wonderful! The resting time gives the veggies in the brine mix to absorb in all the flavors and taste incredible. Furthermore, once you’ve doused the veggies with the hot brine solution in the jars, you will need to let them cool down. Thereafter, you will need to rest and store them in your refrigerator. Hence, you could even call these your refrigerator pickles. 🙂
Serving suggestions
I don’t really need to tell you where you can use these yummy pickles because you can add them absolutely to anything! Pair these with your Indian food, with barbecues, in your sandwiches, tacos, in your salads etc. These easy briny pickles will stay good for about two months refrigerated. But these don’t generally last that long! You will keep making these delicious summer pickle recipe again and again. Moreover since these are so easy to put together, you wouldn’t mind at all. Also, did I tell you these delicious pickled vegetables in cute mason jars make for fabulous gifts? You could take it with you to your next barbecue party with friends and enjoy!
So I hope you are going to try this recipe soon and if you do, I’d love to hear back from you. You can share your food pictures with me on Instagram. Alternately, you could also share them with me in the comment section below.
Eat hearty!
Quick pickled vegetables
Equipment
- Sauce pan
- Glass jars (500 ml)
Ingredients
- 1 medium English cucumber cut in ½ inch thick roundels
- 2-3 carrots cut in ½ inch thick roundels
- 1 large red onion sliced
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 2-3 mild chillis halved
- 3-4 sprigs thyme
- 2-3 sprigs dill
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp peppercorns
- 1 star anise
- 1½ cups white vinegar
- 1½ cups water
Instructions
- Wash the jar well and dry them out completely. Fill one with cucumbers and dill leaves, another with carrots and garlic and the third with onions and chilis*. Keep these aside until needed
- Fill your sauce pan with the water and vinegar (this is the brine solution). Add the salt, sugar, peppercorn and star anise to it, mix and set to to boil. Once done, taste a teaspoon of this solution to check if you need to adjust any flavors
- Carefully, pour the spiced brine solution over the vegetables in the jar until the jars are full. Leave them on your kitchen counter, to let them come to room temperature
- When completely cooled, put the lids on them and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before eating. Always keep these pickles refrigerated
- Enjoy your quick pickled vegetables with sandwiches, Indian food, tacos, salads etc. They make for lovely gifts for friends and family too!
Notes
- *Fill the jars with the vegetable up to the brim. They will shrink in size once the hot brine is poured on them
- These pickles will stay up to two months in the fridge
- Make sure to use fresh vegetables to make the pickles. In case using cucumbers, use the varieties that are seedless or have less seeds
- You can use any firm vegetable of your choice. For instance cauliflower, spring onion whites, beans, cheery tomatoes etc. Don't use lettuce, spinach etc
- You can flavor the brine solution with spices of choice, for example cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, turmeric powder, chilli powder etc
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp - tablespoon
- ml - millilitres
- tsp - teaspoon
