Refrigerator Pickled Salad (Bread and Butter Style)
Sweet and sour like a classic bread and butter pickle, but with lovely thin strips of pickled vegetables and a little kick of spice, these are simply wonderful. Bonus: no canning required and they're ready to eat in 3 days! Serve this simple pickled salad with grilled meats, on sandwiches, on tacos, with cream cheese in tortilla wraps, over cottage cheese for an afternoon pick-me-up, or just on their own. Recipe very gently adapted from and used with the permission of the wonderful Meseidy of The Noshery.
Ingredients
- 2 seedless English cucumbers also known as English Cucumbers
- 1 large red onion
- 2 pounds baby multi-colour sweet bell peppers or the equivalent poundage of red, yellow and orange bell peppers.
- 8 large or 10 medium cloves of garlic
- 3 cups cider vinegar
- 1 1/3 cups raw or granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup ice cubes
- 2 ounces 1/3 cup by volume whole yellow mustard seeds
Instructions
- Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir until the sugar and salt are fully dissolved, remove the pan from the burner and set aside to cool while you prepare your vegetables.
- Cut the English cucumbers into three pieces each, then cut each piece in half. Thinly slice each of those halves. Transfer the sliced cucumbers to a large mixing bowl.
- Cut the blossom and stem end off of the red onion, peel it and cut in half. Slice each of those halves paper thin. Add the onions to the cucumbers in the mixing bowl.
- Remove the stem and seeds from the bell peppers and thinly slice them lengthwise and transfer to the mixing bowl.
- Peel and slice the garlic cloves as thinly as possible. Add those into the mixing bowl along with the mustard seeds and toss to distribute everything evenly. Pack into a glass gallon jar (or into 3-4 glass quart jars.)
- Add the ice cubes to the partially cooled brine, stir until the ice is melted, then pour the brine over the vegetables in the jar(s). Tightly lid the jars and store in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before eating. Lasts for at least a month when refrigerated.
Notes
You can reuse the brine for a second batch of pickled salad by pouring the leftover brine over a freshly sliced batch of veggies in the mixing bowl, toss to distribute the mustard seeds, then use tongs to transfer the veggies to clean jars and pour the remaining brine over them. Again, refrigerate for 3 days before eating.
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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