Homemade Mixed Root Vegetable Pickles
These Mixed Root Vegetable Pickles are not only flavourful, they’re actually kind of pretty. A great way to preserve a variety of root veggies for snacking!
Cost: $15
Equipment
- Clean, sterilized canning jars and rings
- New, never-used, sterilized canning lids
- Jar Lifter, Canning Funnel
- LARGE pot to process them in
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs Parsnips
- 1-1.25 lbs Turnips
- 1 lb Carrots
- 1 ½ lb Rutabaga
- 1-2 Onions peeled, sliced, and separated.
Brine:
- 8 cups Vinegar
- 8 cups Hot Water
- 1 cup Pickling Salt
Per pint jar (2x for quart jars):
- ¼ teaspoon Black Peppercorns
- 1-2 cloves Garlic cloves peeled and cut in half
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds optional
- ½ teaspoon Dill Seed optional
Instructions
- Peel all of your vegetables, and slice into sticks. Try to keep the thickness of the vegetable sticks about the same, even if that’s not possible of length. (eg: Turnips will have shorter sticks than carrots are capable of, etc).
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In batches, blanch your root vegetables for about 1.5 minutes, then quickly submerge in cold water to stop the cooking process. Once finished blanching all of your root veggies, drain well and mix with onion slices. Set aside.
- Fill your LARGE pot with at least 6″ of water, put on medium or high heat to bring it to a boil as you prepare your brine.
- In another pot (NOT the canning pot!), combine vinegar, water, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring well to dissolve the salt. As the brine heats up, measure your “per jar” ingredients into your sterilized jars. Arrange your prepared vegetables into the jars, packing them tightly.
- Once brine comes to a boil, use a canning funnel to pour brine into prepared jars, leaving about ½″ head space.
- Wipe off the top edges of the jar with a clean, wet towel, top each with a new, sterilized lid, and carefully screw on a clean lid ring. I like to use a kitchen towel for this, the jars are HOT!
- Carefully place your jars of pickles into the boiling water pot, allow to process for 15 minutes.
- CAREFULLY remove them, allow to cool overnight.
- The next morning, check to make sure that all of the jars achieved a proper seal – try to push down in the middle of each lid. If it “pops”, it did not seal. Any jars that didn’t seal should be put in the fridge and used in the next few weeks.
- Leave the jars alone for at least a few days, to allow the flavors to permeate the pickles. Store in a cool, dark area (ideally) for up to 1 year, chill well before eating.