Easy Homemade Pickling Ideas and Inspiration
In this series, we’ve enjoyed bringing you four pickled vegetable medley recipes with a cut-by-cut narrative of our vegetable choices. We have shared how we chose to cut each vegetable and some insight into why a few of them can be peeled or trimmed to improve their looks, tenderness, and overall “edibility”.
In our final post in this series, we are showcasing the two pickling pouches we have yet to use in this series: Sweet and Smoky Habanero and Bloody Mary.
[Here is where you can also view Part 1 (Polish Dill and Spicy Garlic Dill) and Part 2 (Granny’s Bread and Butter and Heatstroke) of this homemade pickled vegetable medley recipe series.]
Recipe 5: Sweet & Smoky Habanero
Any of the recipes for the vegetables we used in our Polish Dill, Spicy Garlic Dill, Granny’s Bread & Butter and Heatstroke pouches, can also be used in these two pouches as well. These vegetable medleys will pair great with any of our range of easy-to-make pickling pouches.
Ingredients (1 of each or roughly a handful of the smaller items, selected to your liking):
- Great Lakes Pickling Company’s Sweet and Smoky Habanero Easy-to-Make Pickling Pouch
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Pearl onions
- Celery root (celeriac)
- Garlic cloves
- Bell peppers
- Hungarian peppers
- Separate your cauliflower florets at their base and gently ease them away from the head itself. Cauliflower can be a scrappy mess of particles unless you separate the florets as described. Below on the left is the cleaner version you will want to aim for; and on the right, the messier side.
- Peel and cut your carrots. We chose a crinkle bias cut for the carrots (shown on middle left of photo), but any cut will do. For more “cutting edge” ideas for your carrots, we have a recent post you can read along with a video.
- Peel your pearl onions. We’ve yet to use pearl onions in our medleys and we thought this could be a good recipe to use them in. Peeling off their skins can be tricky and time consuming; but if you soak them for 30 minutes in hot tap water, then trim off the ends, it’s a much easier task.
- Prep your Celery Root, or Celeriac. This is not a common vegetable in most people’s diet but it makes for an excellent pickled vegetable. Its taste is, as you can imagine, that of celery, but with a bit more starchy, daikon-like texture. The outer “rind” of celery root can be peeled with a vegetable peeler or cut away with a paring knife. From there, it can be cut into nearly any shape you desire. We chose a panel cut of 1” x 2” x ¼” which makes for an easier eating.
- Peel your garlic cloves from their skins. This can be done in the same manner as the pearl onion mentioned earlier.
- Cut your bell peppers (any color of your choice) in half lengthwise. Pull or trim away your bell peppers’ inner pith/pulp away. you cut them into your desired shape. We cut into approximately 1 ¼” x 1 ¼” pieces.
- Cut your Hungarian peppers into ¼” rings on a slight bias but long angular slices would also have been a good choice.
- Now that your vegetables have been cut, follow the directions on the back of your pouch to complete your pickling.
Recipe 6: Bloody Mary
Our last of six pickled vegetable medley recipes features our popular Bloody Mary pouch. We found it appropriate that it has nine different vegetables in it, as so many of the Bloody Mary cocktails nowadays are garnished with everything but the kitchen sink!
Ingredients (1 of each or roughly a handful of the smaller items, selected to your liking):
- Great Lakes Pickling Company’s Bloody Mary Easy-to-Make Pickling Pouch
- Grape tomatoes
- Celery
- Red bell pepper
- Daikon
- Yellow squash
- Garlic cloves
- Sweet corn
- Green beans
- Hungarian peppers
- You can set your grape tomatoes aside as-is OR if you would like more brine to penetrate into the inner flesh of these small tomatoes, you can spear them on both sides with the tip of a paring knife or a fork before placing them into your pouch.
- Peel the outer layer of your celery sticks and chop into pieces. Celery was chosen for this pouch because it is generally a staple garnishment in the traditional cocktail. We recommend peeling off the outer ribbing to make the celery more easily edible and more tender.
- Cut your bell peppers (any color of your choice) in half lengthwise. Pull or trim away your bell peppers’ inner pith/pulp away, then cut into sticks.
- Peel the daikon, similar to a carrot, cut it into ¼” thick disks, then cut the disks in half to make a half moon shape that you see in the photo. Daikon is in the radish family and its kin, horseradish, is also a staple flavoring in the traditional Bloody Mary cocktail mix.
- Cut the yellow squash into 4” long sticks. We only used the outer 3/8” of the yellow squash while cutting it into long panels, then cut those panels into sticks.
- Peel your garlic cloves from their skins. This can be done in the same manner as the pearl onion mentioned earlier.
- Shuck the whole sweet corn ear and cut into 1” thick disks for a fun and unusual look.
- Cut the ends off the green beans. Adding green beans to this medley was also an homage to many typical garnishments in the traditional Blood Mary cocktail.
- Chop the Hungarian peppers into pieces. We chose Hungarian peppers for both the color and to add a bit of spice to this medley.
- Now that your vegetables have been cut, follow the directions on the back of your pouch to complete your pickling.
This 3-part series covering recipes to go with each of our easy-to-make pickling pouches was fun! We hope you are able to bring more variety, flavor, and fun into your pickling journey.
Please share with us on our socials or email how your recipes turn out and what new recipes you’re looking forward to.
Enjoy!
