A simple pickle recipe that's great for pickling broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, onions, cucumbers, and more!
I love cookbooks and I hoard them pretty obsessively. Although, I’ll admit, I have a hard time following recipes from start to finish. Which is why I love the premise of Kate Payne’s new book, The Hip Girls Guide to the Kitchen. It’s a “hit the ground running approach, seeing as you need to eat three times daily whether you’ve mastered your kitchen or not.”
It’s full of, really, everything you need to know to be pretty successful in your kitchen – from how to set up your pantry to how to put meals together intuitively and economically. (Also she’s gluten free, so she includes tons of dietary options). She offers suggestions for what to buy in bulk, (and what not to), tips for buying kitchen tools from second hand stores, plus tons of clever “hip tricks” along the way. (For example: did you know you can buy a refurbished Vitamix blender for a fraction of the cost? …me neither).
She’s truly your friend in the kitchen and her writing is charming, witty, and just fun to read. Some of my favorite sections are:
Equip your Ship: Setting up your kitchen without winning the lottery
Methodology & Madd Skills: Learning how to cook without books or your laptop
Kitchen Kick-Ass: Tapping into your inner depression-era granny
Using Stuff Up: Preserving projects any beginner can handle
Since I’m clearly a beginner at preserving projects, I instantly gravitated to her recipe for Any Vegetable Vinegar Pickles. Any recipe that has “any vegetable” in the title, is my kind of recipe. I chose cauliflower, broccoli, red onions, radishes, and cucumbers along with a few various spices. Her brine recipe was quick and easy to make. The hardest part is the waiting – she suggest stashing them in the back of your fridge and not touching them for at least a week, although she says 2-3 is the best. (We’ll see if I can hold out that long!)
Click here to go buy her book!
Also, be sure to check out Kate’s blog, as well as these fine fellow bloggers who have also written posts about the book: Food in Jars, Healthy Green Kitchen, Local Kitchen Blog, Autumn Makes and Does, Punk Domestics, Spinach Tiger, and Local Savour.
the giveaway is now closed, a winner has been notified
any vegetable vinegar pickles
- any vegetables you like (I used cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and radishes)
- fresh or dried spices (I used peppercorns, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, & caraway)
- 1 cup any kind of vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
- 1 cup filtered water
- 1 tablespoon kosher or any non-iodized salt
- optional: 1 teaspoon sugar
- Wash and cut up your vegetables and pack them into a clean jar.
- Add between ¼ - ½ teaspoon of whole dried spices.
- Combine vinegar, filtered water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Put your just boiled brine over the vegetables in the jar.
- Wipe any vinegar spills from the rim with a clean towel and put on the lid.
- Hide the jar in the back of the friedge for at least a week. Two weeks is better, three is best.
- Keep them in the fridge for up to 6 months.
I used these Ball jars (and also the smaller version).
recipe published with permission from Harper Collins.
On the weekends I make healthy lunches and freeze them – things like stir fry chicken and veggies with rice.
Never leave your fresh ground spices in plastic, especially if they’re next to other bagged spice. They will lose their flavor and all start to taste (and smell) the same. The same tip goes for tea!
Mmmm …. one veggie is better than the other! Hard to choose. In my younger days canning was very fun for me. The simplicity of your blog is really nice. Always a great read. Recipes are marvelous. I have over 500 cookbooks. They’ve been good friends to me for countless years. Interested? One day (oldie here!) will part with them.
Clean up as you go along!
no good tips which is why i need to win the book!
this is so awesome and so portlandia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYey8ntlK_E&feature=kp
I could honestly eat pickled red onion all day. It’s so good on burgers, flatbreads, pizza, and straight out the jar!
ALWAYS start with a clean kitchen. While you are cooking, keep a sink full of clean soapy dishwater to keep up with dishes as you go!
My grandmother used to make pickles out of any vegetable and they were always delicious. Some of my favorites were her green bean pickles. You just took a spear out of the jar and yum!
I like using Roquefort cheese on salads; but sometimes it gets clumped together when tossing the salad. So now I’ll put the wedge of roquefort in the freezer for at least 30 minutes and then use a vegetable peeler to “peel” thin shards of the cheese onto the salad. It’s a really beautiful presentation. Toss salad, plate salad and then top with the peeled cheese. Beautiful.
I love to make DIY iced teas and chai lattes! It feels like a luxury to have them stashed in the fridge but its SO much cheaper than buying individual bottles at the store.
For the iced tea I just make regular hot tea in 5 or 6 mason jars (any flavors we have – fruity or mint or black) and sometimes add a squeeze of honey.
For the chai lattes, I make a big jar of strong chai tea – 3 or 4 tea bags in a large glass jar (I use an extra large Adams Peanut Butter jar) and let it chill. In a smaller mason jar, I mix equal parts tea and almond milk with a splash of half & half for richness, some ice cubes, and shake! If I feel like a slightly sweet latte, I add a drizzle of honey or a teaspoon of sugar.
A pastry cutter is the best tool in my kitchen for mashing things– guacamole, mashed potatoes– best made with a pastry cutter.
Did you know that radish greens, beet greens, kohlrabi greens and turnip greens are all edible? They’re delicious when sauteed with a bit of garlic, chili flakes, and a dash of salt. It makes me cry to see so many people throwing away such a great part of the vegetables at the market!
the book looks absolutely charming and I’m ready for red onion pickles on tuna sandwich
At night I put diced fruit, greens and protein powder in a ziplock bag in the freezer. In the morning I throw it in my food processor with water, almond milk or yogurt and I have a delicious, filling and healthy smoothie in seconds. I put it in a mason jar and head out the door to work.
Love this blog! My kitchen tip (that I only recently learned) is to store your greens (salad, kale, herbs) with a paper towel after washing them-they last SO much longer this way!
My favorite tip is to use all-purpose flour + cornstarch instead of cake flour (I never have it in the house..)
Can’t wait to get my 24 year old daughter this cookbook. My newest tip is to make pesto from any green, nut and hard cheese. Don’t waste any greens-spinach, pistachios, and Manchengo was great. Kale, walnuts and parmesan was tasty. Cheaper than basil and pine nuts and lasts in refrigerator!
Love your blog-my very favorite and share with friends!
That cookbook looks marvellous! 🙂 My best kitchen tip: if you make a soup too spicy, a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar will cool it down. This is helpful, because I tend to be a little careless with the spices…
I’ve just recently found your site and I’m loving it!!! I love to snip the ends of my fresh herbs and put them in short pretty vases. They stay fresh longer and look great, plus I remember what I have left over and less goes to waste. Just make sure you change the water daily!
Presoak pasta for a quicker cooking time or steelcut oats to eat raw or for a shorter cooking time.