So you have one or two zucchini vines. How many zukes can you cook into pasta and bread before your interest starts to fade? What if there was a way to bring a new dimension to your home-grown veggies, and create delicious additions to your sandwiches or salads? You’d like that?? Try this recipe on for size.

This is #4 from my post 4 Recipes For Fall And Winter. In an earlier post I suggested a local restaurant featured a zucchini pickle with a slight nuttiness. I know from this recipe that zucchini does not lose its characteristic flavor when pickled, proving that what I had was simply a delicious pickle recipe I had never tasted before. One of its ingredients was a spice, maybe nutmeg.

In the recipe below you’ll notice a strong resemblance to the refrigerator pickles I’ve made time and again. These spices are the base for many pickling recipes. I found this one highlights the zucchini’s natural flavor. Make it, and please share your experience!

What you’ll need

1 quart (32 oz) pickling jar. This will come with a special two-part metal lid. Keep it. But buy white plastic lids as well, because the metal lid will start to rust in the fridge over time. Rust does not make for tasty pickles.

1 teaspoon measuring spoon

1 tablespoon

1 one-cup measuring cup

1 cutting board

1 sharp knife

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 pounds yellow squash and zucchini (I used zucchini alone) sliced into thin rounds

1 and 1/4 cups apple cider or rice vinegar

1 and 1/4 cup water (use filtered!)

1/3 cup thinly sliced sweet onion

3 teaspoons mixed peppercorns (I used all black one time, and never went back)

3 large cloves garlic

2 teaspoons kosher salt (use pickling salt in my opinion, it ends up less cloudy)

2 and 1/2 tablespoons honey

3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flake

Optional stuff:

9 sprigs fresh cilantro

1 and 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds (I read that cumin is a good substitute)

Let’s begin!

 

Step One

Add these to your clean jar:

1/3 cup thinly sliced sweet onion

1 teaspoon red pepper flake

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

3 cloves garlic, de-papered and sliced in half

Step Two

Cut all your zucchini and pack it into into the jar.

I like to layer them to make it look nice and also so I can eat my way through different layers instead of all the big ones first or vice versa.

Step Three

Add to your cookpot:

Water 1 and 1/4 cups

Vinegar 1 and 1/4 cups

Honey 1 and 1/2 cups

Now set this mixture on medium high heat until it boils. Then let it boil for 5 minutes. I call this dish Hot-Honey-And-Vinegar-Water ^TM.

After the 5 minutes is up, pour the mixture over the vegetables to cover, then screw on your metal lid. Let sit until the mixture reaches room temperature. Replace metal lid with plastic, and refrigerate. Try not to shake the jar, or tip, unless your plastic lid has a rubber seal.

Enjoy!