Texas Pickled Veggies

One of things I've always wanted to learn was how to pickle...I love pickled veggies. During our spring break my husband and I decided to give it a go. We perused through the produce section of our local market and grabbed various veggies to pickle then we got started.

Texas Pickled Veggies
1/2 pound pickling cucumbers
1/4 pound fresh green beans
3 carrots
1 pound of okra
8 cloves of garlic
fresh dill
fresh cilantro
4 Tbsp honey
3/4 quart of white vinegar
6 Mason jars (any size)
pickling spices (coriander seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon, ginger, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, caraway, allspice, black pepper and cloves- most grocery stores should have a mixed pickling spice you can purchase instead of purchasing all of these separately)

First thing you want to do is sterilize your glass jars. Bring water to a boil and let the jars soak in the boiling water to sterilize. Do not handle these jars with your hands after this point, use tongs.

Next, pour your white vinegar into a large sauce pot, add in the honey and pickling spices bring to a boil. Let boil for two minutes. Then remove from heat and let the liquid come to room temperature.

While the pickling liquid is cooling start to chop your veggies and herbs. With the carrots I sliced them into discs, I chopped the ends off the green beans and sliced up some of the cucumbers into discs and some into spears. I roughly chopped my herbs. Then we started to assemble our veggies into their jars.

You can assemble these any way you want, I decided to put smashed garlic in the bottom of each jar, then in one jar I put all green beans, one was all pickle spears and another was all okra; the rest of our jars we put a mix of veggies. I had six jars to fill, you can also use any veggies you want- some use cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, green tomatoes, daikon, etc. 

Once the pickling liquid is cooled to room temperature, add the herbs, stir and gently pour into each jar. Make sure to stuff the pickling spices into each jar, fill to the top and seal the jars together. I put these straight into the fridge, you can leave them in the pickling liquid for 24 hours up to a month or even longer.

Try this awesome recipe out & enjoy! xoxo Lo