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Eating your veggies is easy with these exclusive, small-batch canning and seasonal fermenting recipes.
STORY STEPHANIE THUROW
List of recipes
Three quick pickle recipes
If you’re short on time or just simply don’t want to spend time standing over a boiling hot water bath canner when the temperature outside is in the triple digits, quick pickling is the answer to easy and painless preserving.
It’s especially helpful to learn how to quick pickle if you have small harvests from your garden or if you want to preserve something quickly before it spoils.
There are many delicious quick pickle recipes in the world, but to keep it simple, I stick to one basic brine recipe that I tailor to whatever the main ingredient is that I’m pickling.
Basic Quick Pickle Brine Recipe
This amount of brine will cover a one quart jar packed with vegetables and seasonings.
1 cup water
1 cup 5 percent white distilled vinegar
1 tbsp. canning/pickling salt
3 Quick Pickle Refrigerator Recipes
Here are a few quick pickle recipes for you to try this summer. But remember to be creative and with the basic brine recipe above, you can experiment with any fresh produce and seasonings of your choice.
Quick Pickled Jalapenos
Yield: 1 quart jar
1-2 pounds fresh jalapenos, sliced into ¼” sliced rings
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp. dried dill seed
Quick Pickled Cucumbers
1-2 pounds fresh small pickling cucumbers
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 tsp. dried dill seed or 2 springs of fresh dill
1 tsp. yellow mustard seeds
Note: If you have large pickling cucumbers, you can halve or quarter them lengthwise and fit them into the jar. If you want sliced cucumbers for burgers, it’s recommended to use small pickling cucumbers for the best texture. Also, always only use cucumbers that have been harvested within 48-hours – this will aid in keeping the pickles crunchy.
Quick Pickled Spicy Carrots
1-2 pounds grated or coined carrots
1 jalapeno pepper
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 tsp. coriander seed
How to Quick Pickle
The following quick pickling instructions can be used for all three recipes above.
In a nonreactive pan, bring all the brine ingredients to a simmer and stir until the salt is dissolved.
Ladle the warm brine over the vegetables until they are completely covered with brine by at least a ¼ inch.
Wipe the rim of the jar with a dampened towel to remove any food or brine and add the canning lid and screw on the ring.
Allow the warm jar to cool on your counter until it reaches room temperature. Once cooled, transfer to the refrigerator. Allow the veggies to pickle for at least 48 hours before tasting.
The longer your veggies pickle, the more flavor they will have. They’ll have the best flavor and texture if enjoyed within two months.
Helpful Pickling Notes
Always wash preserving supplies with warm soapy water when preserving food. Also, be sure that your food prep space has also been thoroughly cleaned before beginning.
When it comes to pickling brine, use pickle recipes that note to use at least a ratio of 1:1 vinegar and water. You want at least 50% or more of the brine to be vinegar.
Use vinegars that have at least 5% acidity, this will ensure that your pickle recipe is safe.
Blueberry Jam (canned)
It’s blueberry season once again and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We preserve blueberries in a variety of ways to stretch the season throughout the year. We make preserves such as dehydrated fruit leather, water bath canned jams and sauces of various flavors, and we flash freeze them for later use in baking, smoothie making, or for snacking on by the bowlful – one of my daughter’s favorite treats.
My personal favorite way to preserve blueberries is to make a classic blueberry jam. I enjoy gifting variety packs of jams over the holidays and blueberry jam is always a hit.
There is nothing better than tasting the sweet taste of summer in the dead of winter here in Minnesota (it gives us hope and something to look forward to when it’s 15°F below).
Classic Blueberry Jam
Yield: 4 (8 ounce) jelly jars
Ingredients
2 lbs. fresh blueberries (about 6 cups)
3 cups white granulated sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Instructions:
Wash blueberries, remove stems and any bruised or flawed berries. Add blueberries to a large heavy-bottomed, non-reactive pot and use a potato masher to slightly break them down. Stir in the sugar and lemon juice. Bring the ingredients to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high and simmer for 20 minutes, until the jam begins to thicken. Stir often to avoid burning.
Water bath canning instructions:
Ladle the hot jam into warm prepared jars (jars that have been washed and kept warm prior to filling). Leave ¼” headspace (room from the top of the jam to the rim of the jar). Wipe the rims of the jar clean and place the canning lid on the jar.
Screw the ring on the jar until it’s fingertip tight; just snug on the jar, not fully tightened.
Carefully lower the jars into a hot water bath and cover with the canning pot lid. Turn the heat to high and once the water begins a rolling boil, set the timer and process in the water bath for 10 minutes. Adjust cook time for altitude as needed.
Once water bath processed, carefully remove the jars from the hot pot with canning tongs. Place the jars on a towel-lined surface for 12 hours without touching. After 12 hours, remove the jar rings and test to make sure that the lids have securely sealed onto the jars. Label and date. These preserved jars of food will keep for one year in the cupboard. Refrigerate after breaking the seal.
Refrigerator instructions:
If you prefer to skip the water bath canning process, allow the jam to cool once it thickens. Fill clean jars with jam and tightly screw on the lids. Refrigerate. For best flavor, enjoy the jam within one month.
Notes:
For more information on safe home water bath canning, visit: https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE07_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf
This recipe was shared from Can It & Ferment It with permission from Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Concord Grape Shrub
Summertime is busy. Us Midwesterners seem to pack in as much as humanly possible while the weather allows. Our family keeps so busy that I actually have to block time off to stay home and preserve big batches of food (think half bushels of pickles and tomatoes).
We are blessed to have a friend in Minneapolis that grows and gifts us nearly 200 pounds of concord grapes annually. The vine is a sixty-year-old vine that our friend planted as a little boy and he grows them all right in his backyard.
Needless to say, my family and I spend about a week at the end of August preserving the grapes. We turn most into simple grape juice, and water bath can it up for wintertime enjoyment – it’s quite heavenly when it’s snowy and cold outside. From the juice we make a couple batches of classic grape jelly. But one easy and quick recipe that we always make is grape shrub.
Unlike my other shrub recipes, this is a cooked recipe. The flavor of concord grapes gets so much more grapey after it’s cooked, so I opted to make this quick shrub cooked versus the no-heat shrubs that I normally make.
Concord Grape Shrub
Yield: 3 cups or so of finished shrub
Ingredients:
2.5 cups fresh concord grapes
½ cup white granulated sugar
After syrup is made:
1-2 cups apple cider vinegar (equal part to how much syrup is made)
Instructions:
Wash grapes and discard any damaged grapes and stems. Add grapes to a medium sized saucepan and mash with a potato masher. Mix in sugar, cover, and gently heat to a simmer.
Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the grapes soften and cook, which will result in a gorgeous purple grape juice.
Remove from heat, allow the syrup to cool to room temperature and strain the syrup through a fine mesh sieve. Collect the syrup in a 2-cup measuring cup.
Measure the amount of grape syrup you have strained out and mix with an equal part of vinegar. Example: If you have 1.5 cups of grape syrup, mix with 1.5 cups of vinegar.
Store in a clean, airtight jar and refrigerate. Enjoy your shrub within a few months for the best flavor.
Notes:
For an even clearer shrub, you can run the grape juice through a coffee filter or jelly bag after you’ve strained it through the fine mesh sieve.
In place of white sugar, you can substitute brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup or another sugar alternative.
Try different vinegars for alternate shrub flavors.
To Serve:
Mix about two ounces of grape shrub with water or carbonated water. Serve over ice.
To find other shrub recipes written by Thurow, check out WECK Small-Batch Preserving.
Frozen kale
Many of us home gardeners grow it, it’s a beautiful ornamental addition to the garden and also edible. Unfortunately, it often goes to waste.
Here’s how to use it
Temporarily, kale can be kept fresh in a jar of water on the countertop, like a bouquet of flowers.
It also does well clipped and refrigerated, which can keep kale fresh for weeks. To refrigerate, just wash the leaves, dry and store them in a plastic bag, such as a gallon sized freezer bag. Add a couple paper towels to the bag for moisture. If you have a crisper drawer in your refrigerator, even better, store the kale there.
If you have a use for it fresh, freeze it. Frozen kale is convenient and has many uses. We like to add kale to our smoothies, pasta, quiche, and soups.
How to Freeze Kale
Harvest and wash leaves, discarding any wilted or bug-eaten leaves. Spiders and other bugs can hide in the wavy pockets of the leaves, so be thorough.
Kale is best blanched. Using a pot large enough to fit the amount of kale you’re freezing, fill the pot with water and bring it to a boil.
Remove the kale leaves from the stems. Blanch the leaves for 2 minutes in the boiling pot of water.
After blanching, use a slotted spoon to transfer the kale to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process, allow the blanched leaves to cool completely. Strain the leaves from the ice water and dry.
Freeze the kale in plastic freezer bags or other container suitable for freezing in, such as a glass mason jar.
To use the frozen kale, just pull what you need from the freezer bag and add it directly to your soup, smoothie or frying pan – no need to thaw first. However, if you prefer to thaw it, you can place the freezer bag into a cold bowl of water or defrost slowly in the refrigerator.
Notes:
Measure out kale before freezing and note and date on container for quick reference.
Marinated kale
There is a beautiful city about two hours northeast of Minneapolis named Duluth and it sits right on Lake Superior, on the westernmost point of the lake. Our family tries to get up to Duluth at least once a year because there is always so much to do and see, the lake is awe inspiring throughout all seasons and because one of our very favorite restaurants resides there – Duluth Grill.
One thing I frequently order at the restaurant is called Bi Bim Bap, which is a rice bowl with seasoned pork and beef, pickled peppers, pickled onions, kimchi, veggies, an egg, marinated kale, and more. We often try to recreate various versions of this meal at home as I almost always have pickled onions, pickled peppers, and kimchi (top three of my favorite preserves) on hand. But the reason for the back story here is because of the marinated kale. The first time I ever tasted kale marinated was there and it stuck out because it’s such a genius way to enjoy kale.
I always grow kale in our gardens at home. I harvest so much throughout the season that I’m always thinking of ways to use it up. My kiddo loves kale chips, so we make those quite often, and I use kale in soups and sautés, and we freeze plenty. Though, marinating it opens up a door to a whole new way of enjoying it.
As I said, we make our own variations of rice bowl meals for dinner quite often and marinating kale in various ways is a unique and delicious way to get some extra fresh greens incorporated into our meal. However, marinated kale doesn’t have to be reserved for rice bowls, it’s also delicious turned into a salad or eaten as a side dish.
Duluth Grill Marinated Kale – Copy-Cat Recipe
I don’t exactly measure this recipe, as I harvest as much as I think is enough for our family of three. However, it’s about a cup per person. Adjust the ingredients to your preference.
Ingredients:
Fresh kale, ribbed and cut to bite-sized pieces
Marinade
Olive oil, drizzle until kale is saturated (2 tbsp or so)
1 tbsp or so fresh ginger root, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp coconut aminos
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. sesame oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Wash kale and remove ribs. Cut into bite sized pieces.
In a bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients.
You can make this recipe in a bowl, but I use a gallon sized Ziplock bag since I find it really easy to mix the ingredients together well and massage the kale with the marinade through the bag so that it gets evenly coated. Also, because I make this recipe one day ahead so once mixed together, it’s easy to pop in the refrigerator for storage.
Combine the marinade with the prepped kale and mix together well. This can be eaten the same day or made ahead a day or two.
Notes:
Add and omit ingredients as you’d like to create different flavored marinades to match your dining needs.
Stephanie Thurow is the author of Can It & Ferment It, WECK Small-Batch Preserving, WECK Home Preserving and co-author of Small-Scale Homesteading.
Stephanie is a certified master food preserver, master gardener, writer and traditional living skills instructor. Find her online: @minnesotafromscratch
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