When Alena from our product team told us her cucumber plant was growing out of control we instantly knew it was time for a summer pickle! If you know how to make a simple brine, you can literally throw in any veggies to make a delicious pickle to add to salads and sandwiches.
Pickling is a great way to reduce your food waste. Whether you buy too many veggies and know you won’t eat them in time, or if you’re growing your own and you have too many to eat at once! Pickle them with this recipe and give yourself an extra week to eat them up.
What you’ll need:
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup vinegar (white or apple cider depending on your preference)
- 1 - 2 teaspoons of salt
- 2 x tablespoons of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
- 2 star anise
- Your choice of veggies! We added cucumber and red onion to ours but you can try capsicums, carrots, radishes, beetroot, asparagus or green beans!
If you’re planning to eat your pickled veg the same or next day you can get away with popping all the ingredients straight in a serving bowl. If you want them to last a little longer it’s best to grab a jar (and find the matching lid!) and sterilise with boiling water first.
Mix all the ingredients together, taste your brine and adjust to your liking! You want to make sure your veggies are covered so if you need more brine, double up the ingredients. The sugar is an optional sweetener but we prefer it!
Rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The veggies will lose their crispness after time but if you’re like us, they’ll only last a day and you’ll be making more.
The best thing is you can reuse your brine once or twice so once the veggies have been eaten just add in some more.
Tag us in your creations! We are certainly hoping Alena’s cucumber plant keeps growing like this for a while to come.
