Refrigerated Pickled Veggies

Now that summer is in full swing there is an abundance of fabulous fresh veggies.  So many in fact, it can be hard to eat them all before they go bad.  We got some luscious little white and green pickling cucumbers in the last few CSA boxes, so I decided pickling them along with a few other veggies could be a good way to preserve them a bit longer.  

Now I know absolutely nothing about canning and it seems a bit intimidating, so I did a bit of research and found tons of recipes for refrigerator pickles.  A much easier process, that will will keep your veggies for up to 2 months. That's the ticket!  

One thing that many of the research recipes had in common was an incredible amount of sugar.  It's something I always try to cut back on in recipes, so my recipes uses much less than others, working on the savory side side rather than the sweet side.

You can put these in pretty picking jars, but since I don't own anything like that I just used a nice airtight container. Also these are just the veggies I had on hand, use whatever you have.  Most veggies can be used raw, but harder veggies like beets and carrots will need to be cooked a bit first to soften them so they will absorb the flavor better. This recipe includes jalapeno peppers which gives the mix a nice kick, if you don't want it spicy, just leave them out.

Refrigerated Pickled Veggies

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

kosher salt and pepper

6 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

2 cups cider vinegar

2 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

few sprigs fresh dill

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 sweet onion, sliced

1 summer squash, sliced

6-8 pickling cucumbers, sliced

2 jalapenos, sliced

4 beets, roasted then peeled and sliced

Wash and scrub the beets, removing the tops and tails.  Place them on a piece of foil large enough to create a tent for baking.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tent the foil, sealing the edges well and roast the beets in a in 375 degree oven for 50 minutes. Remove them from the oven and open the foil allowing the beets to cool. Once the beets are cool, peel and slice them. 

In the meantime in a large sauce pan add the vinegar, water, kosher salt, sugar and garlic cloves to the pan. Heat over medium heat stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt.

Put the crushed red pepper, celery seeds, fresh dill, mustard seeds, black peppercorns in the bottom of an airtight container, or divide them among your containers if using more than one.  Pull the garlic out of the vinegar mixture and them to the container. Then pack the veggies into the container(s) really tight. Make sure the vinegar mixture is at a boil then pour it over the veggies, leaving just a bit of room at the top. Tap the container on the counter a few times to remove all the air bubbles and then seal.  Let the container sit on your counter until completely cool and then refrigerate.  You can eat these the next day, but the longer the sit (for up to 2 months), the better they will taste.