Pickled Food Recipes & Ideas

When life gives you cabbage...

It tastes good with everything.

They take about 10 minutes to assemble and last for weeks in the refrigerator.

Can you slice vegetables and boil brine? Then you can make refrigerator pickles.

I didn’t grow up eating pickled shrimp, which is surprising considering my mom’s coastal upbringing. Her family spans from the Atlantic beaches of Florida, all the way to the bayous of Louisiana. Seafood made regular appearances at our family gatherings, but usually in the form of spicy Cajun gumbos and jambalayas. It wasn’t until I attended an annual Christmas Day cocktail party a few years back that I discovered the wonder that is Sea Island Shrimp.

We love the stuffed cherry peppers we find in gourmet shops, though at upwards of $10 a jar, they can be a bit pricey. But peppers from the farmers’ market come cheap, and with a simple brine, you can get the same results for much less. All you need is buy some fresh peppers, poke the tops, and make the brine – a mix of white vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. I first discovered pickled cherry peppers at the Ruby Tuesday salad bar.

If you're looking for a quick way to preserve a bunch of cherry tomatoes, pickling is a unique way to put them to good use.

They’re also pretty to look at.

I love Korean food, and I love kimchi. I’ve never attempted to make it on my own, I always thought it was this huge, complicated thing and that it’s probably best to just buy premade kimchi at the store. Plus, since I didn’t understand fermentation, it scared me. Some kimchi recipes call for raw oysters and raw squid. How would these stay fresh for weeks and months, I wondered? Would I get sick? So, making kimchi was just one of those things I avoided. It intimidated me.

Tangy, creamy deviled eggs for your holiday get-together.

Pretty pink ginger (and the color is all-natural)!

No fussy canning required.

"This is super easy to make, but it does require some planning ahead since the lemons take six months to pickle," the "Top Chef" host shared on Instagram.

Your burgers and hot dogs will thank you.

It's a great way to enjoy a taste of summer any time of year.

They're good on just about anything.

It's the internet's new favorite snack.

Basically, it's all the things.

Even the potatoes are boiled in pickle juice.

It's the best thing you can do this weekend.

And they make a great Bloody Mary stirrer, too.

If it’s not already, fermented salsa should be on your radar for next-level summer eats. It has a distinct, tangy flavor and faint effervescence that sets it apart from a fresh chopped pico de gallo or cooked salsa. It’s also not so loud that it tastes overly sour — that is, unless you like it that way! As with any fermented item you make at home, the control is in your hands.

This weekend we were treated to a special dirty martini from our favorite pickle joint in town, Rick’s Picks. Just in time. In an effort to get you ready for summer, we’re going to kick off a week of original cocktail recipes, and we begin with a bang: it’s Pickletini time.This weekend we held a little book party here in the office for the launch of Maxwell’s new book.

It’s summer and it’s time for pickles! While I’m a big fan of canning, sometimes the thought of standing over a stove in the dead-heat of summer is just too much. Enter the refrigerator pickle, a quick and delicious way to get your pickle fix without heat stroke.This is an old-fashioned recipe, very sweet/sour, almost like a relish. It’s from my mom who got it from my Aunt Lorraine way back in the 60s.

There’s a new drink combo that’s been springing up on bar menus across the country: The Pickleback. Yes, that’s right – a shot of whiskey accompanied by a “back” of pickle juice. This week, with side-by-side measures of skepticism and curiosity, I gave this unlikely pairing a shot.A Little BackgroundOver the past few months, the Pickleback’s generated a lot of Internet buzz.

These radishes started out bright red on the outside, and snow white on the inside — but quickly turned a lovely shade of pink after a few hours in their pickling solution. So pretty and delicious and easy to make! Read on for the recipe.These are Japanese-style pickles, with a well-balanced sweet/sour flavor and a satisfying crunch. While red radishes aren’t traditional, they are similar in taste and texture to the daikon radish and the turnip, which are more classic choices.

This recipe is a great way to use up cucumbers. Pickled cucumbers are traditionally served as an accompaniment with rice or sushi, but feel free to serve any way you like.

Earlier today we showed you the latest book from Williams-Sonoma, an all-star guidebook to preservingPickled BeetsPickled beets charm in salad preparations, lending color, texture, and their signature flavor. Try them layered with fresh mozzarella and a drizzle of olive oil, or eat them straight from the jar. Any beet variety, from red to gold to red-and-white-striped Chioggias, can be used.

At the beginning of the summer, when we were still picking out plants and herbs for our container garden and dreaming of August’s tomatoes, we thought some pepper plants might be a fun change of pace from the usual choices — who wouldn’t love fresh pico de gallo or sliced fresh banana peppers at the height of summer’s heat?

At first, pickled grapes seemed like an unlikely delicacy to me. But then I remembered how fantastic other fruits like watermelon rind and peaches taste when pickled, so I decided to give them a try last weekend. Wow. If you’re a fan of crunchy, tart, refreshing, spiced-and-spicy things then this recipe is for you. It’s a quick one, too! This recipe is based on one from Duskie Estes from Bovolo restaurant in Sonoma, CA.

Summer means fresh garden produce, and fresh garden produced needs preserving as much as possible. So we turned to Tigress for a brief summer series on quick and easy pickling, which is just one way to preserve the bounty of summer a little longer. Pickling is surprisingly easy — take a look at this first post to see just how simple it can be.Oh snap! Summer is here and you want something snappy to ward off the heat?

Summer means fresh garden produce, and fresh garden produced needs preserving as much as possible. So we turned to Tigress for a summer series on quick and easy pickling, which is just one way to preserve the bounty of summer a little longer. Last week she showed us quick pickled roots — this week, it’s pickled mushrooms!Welcome to the second installment of my quick pickling guest post series!

Summer means fresh garden produce, and fresh garden produced needs preserving as much as possible. So we turned to Tigress for a summer series on quick and easy pickling, which is just one way to preserve the bounty of summer a little longer. She has showed us quick picked mushrooms and quick pickled roots — and today, in her last installment, it’s pickled berries!

Southerners love to pickle just about anything: pickled okra, pickled green beans, even pickled peaches. I’ve always had an aversion to true pickles (made with cucumbers), which kept me from trying the other kinds until later in life. Good thing I made the leap! Now I’ll devour just about anything covered in vinegar. Down South, it’s made with apple cider. In Asia, it’s rice. I’ll take ’em both.

No matter how many times I have cooked with the watermelon radish, slicing into one is always a magical experience. Although the pale greenish-white root is rather unassuming at first glance, inside lies the most brilliant fuchsia core. Heating it dulls the color, so my favorite way to serve this mild radish is raw or lightly pickled. In a salad, it really adds a vivid pop.

I had a wonderful meal at the restaurant Bar Tartine in San Francisco a while back. One of the many highlights was the first thing on the table: a delightful array of brine-pickled vegetables served up in jars gathered on a rough wooden tray. Read on for three recipes from this repertoire and a few hints on how to create a pickle platter at home. Each pickle had a distinct taste, from the spicy but earthy carrots in turmeric to the bright, dilly (and also spicy) green cherry tomatoes.

I believe in the power of a good pickle. Toss baby greens with a bit of crumbled cheese and a slices of pickled beet and call it dinner. Drizzle olive oil over pickled cauliflower and it becomes a quick appetizer for guests. Nuzzle a couple of dilly beans alongside your hot dog instead of relish for a crunchy pucker. Truly, there isn’t much that a pickle can’t do to jazz up or round out a meal. Here in the US, pickles are inextricably linked to cucumbers.

In college, I occasionally worked at a small café tucked inside a local art museum. It was a ladies-who-lunch scene, and the food was brought in by a local caterer. The menu was what one might expect for that crowd—chilled soups, tea sandwiches, and dainty salads. Accompanying every entreé was a pile of tangy yellow squash laced with diced red bell peppers; it was our signature side.

Do you love picked ginger but aren’t so interested in the red dye and white sugar many commercial brands use to sweeten and color the pickles? Or maybe you’re curious about how to switch things up if you used a different vinegar/sweetener combination? Breakaway chef Eric Gower has been experimenting with pickled ginger for years, and he’s found that you can step way out of the box with this delicious, palate cleansing condiment. How Does Pickled Ginger Become Pink?

We’ve all encountered, and possibly even served, a boring crudité platter. As a vegetarian and gluten-free guest and host, I’ve had my fair share of raw broccoli and carrot sticks while other party guests indulged in more interesting hors d’oeuvres. But these pickled baby carrots? These ones with the zingy bite that will be ready in just a couple of hours? You might want to double the recipe.

There are lots of ways to heat up your drinks, from fresh cracked peppercorns to wasabi and my personal fave — freshly grated horseradish. Add the endless array of fresh peppers (habañeros, serranos, thai bird chilies, etc.) and the even wider variety of hot sauces out there, and you’re choices are endless. Flavored and infused spirits are in the spice game, too, from vodka to tequila.

To the uninitiated, lacto-fermentation often sounds at best confusing and at worst frightening. Before I got elbow-deep into the world of kimchi, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods, I had vague notions of lacto-fermentation involving milk, bacteria, and jars of mysterious contents bubbling away in dark cupboards. Some of this is true, some of it isn’t, and I’ll get to that in a minute.

This time of year there’s a quiet bounce that’s heard throughout gardens and groceries — it’s the soft thunder of zucchini rolling off vines by the dozen. Zucchini bread and zucchini noodles can only take you so far. It’s time to push your squash savvy to new heights, and we have five fresh recipes this week to help take you there. Let’s start by going the happy route, all the way to pickles.

This fresh and tangy meal takes its cue from the powerhouse couple that transforms tacos and makes burgers better. Stuffed inside a warm baked potato, creamy guacamole and tangy pickled red onions go from finishing touch to star of the plate. Before you can stuff your potato with this glorious filling, you’ve got to cook it. There are options aplenty, so choose what works best for you. How To Bake a Potato in the Microwave: If you’re in a hurry, take to the microwave.

This roasted delicata squash salad is a superfood extravaganza! I’ve tossed it together with walnuts, apple, cabbage, and quick-pickled red onion dressing. (Yeah, I’m a total rebel and made the dressing in the microwave.) After all the holidays, parties, lack of sleep, dozens of cocktail-sized meatballs on toothpicks, and one-too-many Champagne toasts, I often get a little wacked out and start craving beet juice and kombucha in an attempt to get myself back on track.

When friends ask how to ferment deli-style pickles, I recommend that they start by practicing with asparagus spears. By practicing with asparagus you’ll learn all you need to know by the time cucumber season arrives. Thankfully this isn’t all about learning; asparagus makes for great pickles and is a welcome accompaniment to spring grilling. Preserving has taught me to look at ingredients differently than I used to; each part of a fruit or vegetable can be prepared in different ways.

Here's what to do with those underripe avocados!

Meet the spicy pickled carrots that are about to forever change your Taco Tuesday or even just your snack-dinner Wednesday. These crunchy, spicy, tangy pickles are made for serving with (or on top of) Mexican staples like tacos and enchiladas, or even just alongside a cold beer. And because these carrot pickles are made just like our favorite quick refrigerator pickles, they are as easy to make as they are to eat.

Maybe your only knowledge of pickled beets are the ones grandma served, but we’re here to tell you quick-pickling thick wedges of sweet beets could not be simpler — or more delicious. These easy refrigerator pickles are as vibrantly flavored as they are colored, seasoned with freshly squeezed orange juice and a hint of bitterness from citrus rind. Here’s how to pull them off and use them on everything from salads to sandwiches.

It’s a cruel joke that canning homemade pickles comes right in the middle of summer, when the last thing you want to do is stand over the stove. That’s why smart pickle-lovers take a shortcut and start with a jar of dill pickles — no steam bath required. Thanks to a cup of sugar and fiery heat from jalapeños, the simple pickles transform into a sweet-and-spicy Texas-style snack.

They're tangy, salty, and crispy all at once.