Quick Pickles

This is a bit late in the season for most of these veggies, but I thought I’d share anyway. I think this can be used for fall veggies too like summer/fall quashes if cut thinly. Cucumbers, beets, string beans and even fruits like lemon slices can be used in this recipe.

This recipe makes enough liquid for 2 normal size mason jars (16 oz.)  

The pickling Liquid:

1 c white vinegar

1 Tbs salt

2 tsp sugar

2 c water

Bring the water and vinegar to a boil and stir in the salt and sugar until dissolved

Veggies

Put 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes or other spice or herb such as mustard seed, celery seed, or dill in bottom of 2 pint jars. I like the combo of dill and red pepper flakes for the cucumbers). Add 2-3 smashed garlic cloves to the bottom of the jar. Cram as many thin slices of cucumber or whatever you want to pickle into the jar. A mandolin slicer is a great tool for this kind of slicing. 

Pour the boiling hot pickling liquid over the veggies in the jar, covering all the veggies, nearly to the top. Put a lid on it. I like to agitate the jars a bit to move the spices and veggies around so everything get evenly dispersed and exposed to the hot pickle water. 

Let the jars sit out until they cool off to room temperature and then refrigerate. The vinegar, salt and sugar are all antimicrobials. This method will pickle the veggies, preventing them from going bad, but this is not a real canning/jarring method and won’t store foods for a long time so they should refrigerated and eaten within a couple weeks.