How to Make Colorful Vegetable PicklesMellowed with White Wine

Pickles are a preserving classic, tangy and crunchy. This time we made homemade pickles with colorful vegetables.

Just steep your favorite vegetables in the brine. They’re ready to eat the next day.

When to make	All year
Ready	From the next day
Storage	About 2 weeks in the fridge

Ingredients and tools

Use whatever vegetables you like. The jar is Muji’s 1000 ml soda glass sealed jar.

Vegetables

• ¼ daikon radish
• ½ carrot
• 5 mini cucumbers
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• ½ stalk celery
• 4 stalks Swiss chard (stems only)
• ½ bell pepper (red or yellow)

Pickling brine

• 300 ml (1¼ cups) white wine
• 300 ml (1¼ cups) vinegar
• 5 tbsp kibi sugar (raw cane sugar)
• ⅔ tsp salt
• 1 clove garlic, sliced lengthwise
• 1 dried red chili, seeds removed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1½ tsp whole peppercorns

How to make the pickles

Sterilize the jar in boiling water beforehand.

Sterilize the jar

Sterilize the jar in boiling water. (Remove rubber seals and metal clips first.) Be careful not to burn yourself.

1. Put the jar in a large pot with enough water to cover it and heat.
2. When it boils, keep it at a gentle boil for 10 minutes.
3. Stand the jar upside down on a clean cloth and let it dry completely.

Make the brine

1. Put the white wine in a stainless steel or enamel pot and bring to a boil over high heat to cook off the alcohol. (Be careful; the alcohol can catch fire as it boils.)
2. Slice the garlic lengthwise and remove the stem and seeds from the chili. Add them to the pot with the rest of the brine ingredients, bring to a boil over medium heat, then let cool.

Cut the vegetables

Wash the vegetables well and pat them dry with paper towels. Cutting everything to the same length, 5–7 cm (2–2¾ in), looks neat.

• Trim the ends of the cucumbers.
• Peel the daikon and carrot and cut into sticks.
• Remove the strings from the celery and chard stems, and cut into 1 cm (⅜ in) wide pieces.
• Remove the stem and seeds from the bell pepper and cut into 1 cm (⅜ in) strips.

Fill the jar

Pack the vegetables into the jar and gently pour in the brine until they’re covered. Close the lid and keep in the fridge. That’s it.

If you don’t have a jar, you can make them in a zip-top bag. Half the recipe fits in one medium zip-top bag.

Done

The next day. The vegetables have wrinkled a little, and the brine has soaked in well. Your homemade pickles are done!

The white wine softens the sharpness of the vinegar. The garlic adds depth and the spices a fresh note. Delicious.

Storage

Keep in the fridge and eat within about 2 weeks. Use clean chopsticks or tongs to take them out.