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Pickled Vegetables

4.6

(10)

This image may contain Relish Food Pickle and Plant

These vegetables pick up a little spice and sourness from the pickling, but they stay crisp and retain their individual flavors.

Cooks' notes:

•Stainless steel, glass, and enameled cast iron are nonreactive; avoid pure aluminum and uncoated iron, which can impart an unpleasant taste to recipes with acidic ingredients.
•Pickled vegetables keep, covered and chilled, 1 week.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    1 day

  • Yield

    Makes about 10 cups

Ingredients

For pickling liquid

2 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
3 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes

For vegetables

1 head cauliflower (2 lb), trimmed and broken into 1- to 1 1/2-inch florets (6 cups)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices (2 cups)
4 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch-thick slices (3 cups)
1 cup drained bottled whole peperoncini (4 oz)
1 cup large brine-cured green olives (preferably Sicilian; 6 oz)
1/2 cup oil-cured black olives (6 oz)

Preparation

  1. Make pickling liquid:

    Step 1

    Bring pickling-liquid ingredients to a boil in a 3-quart nonreactive saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a 4-quart nonreactive bowl and cool about 30 minutes.

  2. Cook vegetables:

    Step 2

    Bring about 6 quarts unsalted water to a boil in an 8-quart pot. Have ready a large bowl of ice and cold water. Add cauliflower to pot and boil until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes, then transfer with a slotted spoon to ice bath to stop cooking. Cook remaining vegetables separately in same manner, allowing 4 minutes each for bell peppers and carrots and 2 minutes for celery. Drain vegetables in a colander and spread out on 2 large kitchen towels to dry.

    Step 3

    Add cooked vegetables, peperoncini, and olives to pickling liquid. Weight vegetables with a plate to keep them submerged, then chill, covered, at least 1 day.

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