My garden is convinced it’s the end of June.
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.
A Guide to Quick Pickled Vegetables
What is Quick Pickling?
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.
Why Quick Pickle Your Veggies?
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…
- Enjoy Small Batches: Quick pickling doesn’t require a huge bushel of vegetables. Just toss together a small batch of whatever veggies you have.
- Very Little Equipment: You don’t need canning supplies or special ingredients for quick pickling. You probably have exactly what you need in your pantry right now.
- Save Every Garden Veggie: I hate it when a small handful of beans gets old in the fridge as I wait for enough to make a meal. But I can make a pint of random pickled veggies any time. Problem solved.
- Mix and Match: I love this part about quick pickling! You can fill a pint jar with bits and pieces of whatever spare items you walk in from the garden with! If you have one carrot, a small pepper, and only one cucumber, that’s okay. You have the makings for a gorgeous, tasty jar of pickled veggie treats.
- Avoid the Heat: No need to stand in a hot kitchen preserving anything. Nice bonus, right?
- Make ’em Fast: They’re called “quick” for a reason. And they’re perfect for busy folks like you and I.
- Be Creative: Swap vinegars and spices and veggie choices. Honestly, there may be an infinite combination of quick pickled veggies.
What You’ll Need for Quick Pickling:
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 and some sort of jars to hold them. Naturally, I use mason jars, but you can use other jars, too.
Quick Pickling Brine Tips:
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.
The Basic Brine Formula:
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Quick Pickling Flavor Options:
You can be super creative with your quick pickled vegetables. Seriously, the sky’s the limit!
Here are some ideas for pickling flavors:
- Fresh or Dried Herbs–including dill, thyme, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, bay leaf, etc.
- Whole Spices–black peppercorns, coriander, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, etc.
- Ground Spices–turmeric, paprika, pickling spice mix, spice blends, etc.
- Misc items–garlic, onion, shallots, fresh ginger, dried chili peppers, fresh hot peppers, horseradish, etc.
How to Make Quick Pickled Vegetables
This basic recipe makes 2 pint jars of quick pickles.
Ingredients:
- Vegetables of choice (approx. 1 pound)
- Fresh or dried herbs, spices, or flavors of choice
- 1 cup vinegar of choice (see notes above)
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp. salt (I use this salt)
- 1 tbsp. sugar (optional, see notes above)
Directions:
- Clean your mason jars and set aside.
- Prepare your vegetables. Wash and dry, and then figure out if you want them whole or thinly sliced, cut into spears, peeled, etc.
- Put your preferred flavors, spices, and herbs in the bottom of the mason jars.
- Pack vegetables into the jars. Leave 1/2 inch of headspace. Pack them in tightly without smushing them up.
- Make your brine: Put your brine ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally to dissolve the salt and (optional) sugar.
- Pour the brine over the produce in the jars. Leave 1/2 inch of headspace.
- Remove any air bubbles (this tool comes in handy) and put the lids on the jars.
- Let the jars cool to room temperature on your kitchen counter, then refrigerate.
- Wait at least 48 hour before eating the pickled veggies to let the flavors meld together.
Notes:
- Quick pickled produce can be stored in your fridge for up to 2 months.
Pickled Veggie FAQs:
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.
More Tips on Preserving Food:
- Learn How to Can Everything
- How to Preserve Herbs in Oil
- Canning Meat: A Tutorial
- The Easy to for Canning Pumpkin
- Pickled Green Beans Recipe
- 5 Expert Tips for Crunchy Pickles
Listen to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast episode #21 on this topic HERE.
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 I reuse the vinegar after we have eaten all the veggies? We do red onions all the time but eat them up in about a week. I feel like we could reheat them vinegar water and reuse it once or twice depending on how long it’s been in the fridge maybe?
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.
Hi Joyce. Thanks for your kindness in sharing. Would you care to share your brine pickles recipe with me too.
Thank you so much
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!
Did you try it? How did it go?
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!
I infuse a lot of different vinegars for marinades/dressings etc, could I use infused vinegars for quick pickled veggies?
Looking for a good company to buy seeds from to start garden with?!
Thanks
How do you make quick refrigerator sour garlic pickles?????