Our perennial problem each summer is what to do with the bumper crop of summer squash we harvest from the garden. Most vegetable gardeners invariably grow too much zucchini, and no doubt many of us end up passing along our excesses to unsuspecting friends, and neighbors.
Summer squash is easy to grow, but it’s easy to grow too much!
If, like us, you strive to eat foods that are in season, it’s easy to become completely overwhelmed with the deluge of zucchini at this time of year.
The trouble with summer squash is it doesn’t store very well. We do shred some and freeze it each season for use in baked goods throughout the year, like our Zucchini Orange Bread. Freezing zucchini though tends to alter the texture, rendering it soft, and watery, making it less ideal for use in recipes like our favorite Zucchini Fritters.
Zucchini can be sliced or shredded, and frozen for use in baked goods, but its texture is never as crisp once thawed
Last year, out of sheer desperation, I decided to try something new (for us). Zucchini Pickles! The amazing thing is we were pleasantly surprised to discover these pickles actually get better as they age.
Zucchini pickles are excellent in grilled vegetable sandwiches, paired with roasted pork, or simply eaten straight from the jar!
This is, in my opinion, one of the best methods we’ve found of preserving our summer squash for an extended period, where the squash tastes at least as good as the day it was processed. As such, I see no reason, if like us you’re drowning in squash this summer, why you shouldn’t make a double, or triple batch. Any summer squash will work, zucchini, straight or crookneck, even patty pan squash. Don’t used oversized squash though, as you don’t want the pickle to be excessively seedy. Those squashes, in our garden, usually go to the chickens!
I originally found a recipe for Zucchini Pickles in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and there are similar recipes in The Joy of Pickling too. I generally prefer the refrigerator type pickle recipes though, as water-bath processing can render the pickles less crisp.
I love to make cucumber pickles, but was skeptical that zucchini pickles could be as good. I was concerned they’d be lacking both in flavor, and texture. To my surprise, these pickles are very flavorful, slightly sweet, but brightly acid, and the texture was simply perfect, so this recipe is now in standard rotation in our summer kitchen.
Zucchini Pickles
Yield: 4 Pints
Equipment:
Sharp Chef’s Knife, Mandoline, or V-Slicer
Large shallow mixing bowl
Salad spinner
4 One-Pint canning jars, with lids
Measuring spoons, and measuring cups
Ingredients
2 Pounds fresh summer squash, not too large or seedy
2 Small yellow onions
4 tbsp Kosher salt
1 Cup of ice cubes
4 Cups cider vinegar
2 Cups granulated sugar
3 tsp dry English mustard
3 tsp crushed brown mustard seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
Directions:
Prepare the Brine
Combine the cider vinegar, sugar, dry mustard, mustard seeds, and turmeric in a saucepan set over medium heat.
The brown mustard seeds can be crushed with a mortar and pestle, or briefly pulsed in a spice grinder
Simmer the brine for 3 minutes, and set aside.
The ground turmeric gives these pickles their distinctive color
Allow the brine to cool until just warm to the touch.
Prepare the Zucchini and Onion
While the brine cools, wash the zucchini, and trim the ends.
Slice the Zucchini 1/16th of an inch thick.
Any summer squash, providing it’s not too seedy, will work for this recipe. I prefer the yellow squashes as they complement the color of the turmeric
To ensure even brining, I prefer to use a mandoline to slice the squash. If you don’t use a mandoline, the zucchini can be sliced with a very sharp knife, but it’s important to be consistent with the width of the slices.
Even slices are important for even brining and consistency in flavor
Slice the yellow onion very thinly, and place the onion and zucchini into a large shallow bowl.
Slice the onions very thinly so the flavor of the spices can infuse them
Add the Kosher salt, and toss with the zucchini and onion to distribute the salt evenly. Add the ice cubes to the bowl, and enough cold water to cover, and stir well to dissolve the salt.
Allow the salted zucchini and onion mixture to stand for 1 hour. Drain the squash and onion mixture, and remove any remaining ice cubes.
Place the squash mixture, one handful at a time, into the salad spinner. It’s important to remove the excess moisture from the squash to ensure the flavor of the pickles is not diluted. If you don’t own a salad spinner, the squash and onion can be dried between paper towels.
Once dried, replace the squash and onion mixture into the mixing bowl, and add cooled brine solution. It’s important that the brine is NOT hot, or the zucchini slices will cook! Stir the brine solution and zucchini mixture to evenly distribute the spices throughout.
Transfer the zucchini pickle mixture to the jars, ensuring the brine solution covers the pickles.
Don’t pack the jars too tightly, you want the brine to infuse the sliced squash and onion from both sides
Cover and refrigerate the jars.
These zucchini pickles really do taste as good as they look!
The pickles should stand in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours, however, I recommend not touching them for at least a week…if you can resist the temptation. They’ll taste great after 24 hours, but the mustard and turmeric will gradually infuse the pickle slices, and the onion, and the flavors will mellow if allowed to stand a little longer. These pickles, if you make enough, will easily keep for a year in the refrigerator, and as their flavor only improves with age, it’s worthwhile to make extra while the summer squash season is in full swing. Enjoy!
I wish I had “too much” zucchini! I’m just about ready to harvest my second fruit. I believe cucumber beetles are the problem here.
We have a few cucumber beetles here, but I’m grateful that I don’t see them too often, and they haven’t been a real problem (yet…knock on wood). There’s still some time left in the growing season, so hopefully your plants will rebound, and still produce a bounty for you this year.
What a clever solution to the excess zucchini problem — so much more constructive than sneaking around in the middle of the night and leaving them on the doorsteps of unsuspecting neighbors 🙂
Isn’t it though! Last year I left jars of these pickles for some neighbors instead. They were much happier to receive those! 😉
Clare, I have been seeing so many zucchini recipes lately that everywhere there must be bumper crops of them.I love to make zucchini orange bread and fritters, but never thought of making pickles from them. Really good idea.
The first time I saw a recipe for these I was quite surprised. The thought simply hadn’t occurred to me before. I really do like these though, and am so glad I tried them! They’re quite a bit less fattening than the fritters too 😛
No bumper crop here but I hope that may shift….if so I am definitely making these as my husband is not a cuke fan
It’s been a challenging year to grow much of anything throughout a lot of the country this year. For us, the scorching hot weather inland has translated into a more normal (although still somewhat below normal temperature) summer for us along the coast. I’m grateful though, after two abysmal summers in a row, it’s gratifying to see the vegetable garden producing again! Hopefully your squash will catch up later in the season.
Sounds scrumptious! I only harvested a few zucchini this year and then the bugs arrived. I ended up pulling out the plants. I’ll keep this recipe for next year.
Oh my, I can’t imagine pulling the plants yet. I always expect that zucchini is such a tough, and robust plant, that it could out-pace most pests. You must have some ravenous beasties in your garden 🙁 Hopefully next year’s harvest will be better. That’s the thing about gardening, no two years are the same!
How interesting! I wish I had an overabundance of zucchini – with the bizarre weather all of my zucchini seemed to have problems this year and I didn’t get any!
I’m starting to feel grateful that ours have been doing so well this year. Crazy weather. Honestly, I’m really not sure what “normal” weather is these days!
I haven’t make zucchini pickles in ages! But now I am inspired to make them again. I have been giving some away to friends, but after awhile people will stop answering their door when they see you coming. LOL
It’s never a good sign when you see friends and neighbors drawing the shutters closed, or turning off the lights, as you walk toward the door 😛 Hand them pickles though, and they seem delighted!
That looks splendid. I wonder if there are non-sweet recipes as well? I’m not a huge sweet pickle fan.
They’re only slightly sweet. The tang of the onion, and the acid from the cider vinegar gives them a little more tartness. They’re certainly not ‘chutney’ or pickle-relish sweet. You can easily halve the recipe to see if you like them. If not, I bet your neighbors would love to take them off your hands while you hunt for a different recipe 😉
That looks delicious, I am determined to master the art of zucchini growing this summer so that I have enough to be able to try your recipe!
I hope your summer squash give good yields. They do seem to benefit from ample fertilizer. Here we leave that up to the chickens 😉 However, depending on yield, my priorities are squash blossoms, baby zucchini, fritters/breads, and then pickles for the extra! I hope you have a few extras to pickle!