Quick Pickled Peppers

I’ve been really enjoying my time in Ohio among all the backyard gardeners in my family and in our neighborhood. Needless to say, I have been overwhelmed with the amount of produce people have gifted us, but found that pickling was the answer to enjoy the sweet and the hot peppers from my aunt’s garden.

In general, the pickling process is incredibly easy and quick and uses very few ingredients. No wonder people have been pickling the over-abundance of produce for centuries- it’s such a great way of preserving the summer harvest well into winter.

I didn’t have many jars on hand and certainly wasn’t planning for winter with just a few pounds of peppers, so this is my quick version of pickling for consumption in the near future, insha’allah.

I particularly like pickled peppers because it softens the heat of hot peppers such as jalapeños and makes them a great addition to stews and all types of Mexican food like tacos, beans and pozoles (soups) or even in Italian dishes as a sort of gardiniera.

Quick Pickled Peppers

Ingredients

• 4 cups apple cider vinegar, preferably raw and organic
• 1 cup water
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons sea salt or kosher salt
• 4 cups large sweet or hot Hungarian wax peppers (or any type of peppers)
• 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon all spice (whole)

Directions

1. Clean and dry the peppers. Using a knife, make a small slit lengthwise on each one. This helps the vinegar mixture to penetrate the peppers.
2. To a saucepan, add the apple cider vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil.
3. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat.
4. Add the peppers, thyme and allspice to the jar you are using.
5. Pour vinegar mixture into the jar and close tightly.
6. Allow jar to cool completely then refrigerate.
7. In a few days, pull out a few peppers to see how nicely they’ve pickled and be sure to consume them within about two weeks.

To preserve these items longer than just a couple weeks, you’ll need to go through the entire process of sealing the lids on sterilized jars. Check out this great resource.