Purple Pickles!

I LOVE pickles and pickled things! But the problem is, it gets expensive to buy jar after jar. I was eating lunch at my favorite coffee shop and they had pickled onions on the salad. It added something extra that I wanted to put on my packed salads, but the pickle brine would work for both onions and cucumbers, right? So I decided to try making my own pickles and pickled onions in one go. I looked up a few recipes to make sure I had the right idea and then modified a few together with my own favorite spices. Here’s what I came up with.

I started with a clean 24oz pasta sauce jar. I’ve always wanted to try pickled beets, so I cut a large beet to fill about a third of the jar. I filled the rest with equal parts cucumber and onion. When I cut all my veggies, I wanted them to be small bite sized pieces so I could fit quite a bit in one jar. If you like bigger snack size pieces, you’ll probably need a bigger jar.

Now for the brine! I had some dill pickle juice from an old jar in the fridge, so I poured enough to cover about a quarter of the vegetables in my jar. I covered the rest in red wine vinegar. Next, I added about a quarter cup of sugar, 3 Tablespoons of salt, about a Tablespoon of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of dill weed, a Tablespoon of minced garlic, and a couple shakes of black pepper. I closed the jar, gave it a good shake to make sure everything was dissolved, and put it in the fridge for a couple days.

As I’ve been eating them, I’ll add a couple veggies here and there. I learned that white onions are still too strong for me so red onions are best and that pickled carrots aren’t as good as fresh carrots. That I like fresh cucumbers soaked in the brine more than boiled cucumbers, and that pickled beets are SO good on salads!! I love the little spicey kick that these have and that I can keep the brine going by adding vinegar and spices as needed.

From what I’ve read, anything that is pickled is good for a few months and your brine should be good to be reused as long as it’s not turning milky or cloudy. Also, if you do what I did, all of your pickled items will be bright pink which adds a little color to your salad… but if you don’t want everything to be pink, just do the beets separately. Play around and let me know what your favorite spices are! I’d love to try out someone else’s pickle variations 😊 As always, if you take any fun pictures or videos, tag me on Instagram @SmileMakePeopleWonder and use the hashtag #DandelionSmiles. Don’t forget to subscribe so you won’t miss out on the next exciting idea.