I love pickled vegetables. I’ve talked about how I really focus on making sure my meals have both high protein and high fiber foods in them, and doing that means I eat a LOT of vegetables. That’s no hardship – I love almost all vegetables and I enjoy preparing and cooking them. And one of my favorite ways to eat vegetables is to have pickled vegetables.

After lots of different recipes and experiments, I finally found the way to make refrigerator pickled vegetables that I like the best. The way I make them is really simple and no canning is required. I just involves cutting up the vegetables of my choice, making a vinegar brine, pouring the brine over the cut up vegetables in a quart jar or container, and then storing them in the refrigerator.

They are ready to eat within hours, and they would last a few weeks in the refrigerator if I ever went through them slowly enough to allow that amount of time to pass (I don’t). The vinegar brine is one that suits me perfectly – it’s just the right proportion of vinegar, water, salt and pepper to give them a great flavor and still make them easy to eat. If I want to make them spicy, I add a little bit of Aleppo pepper.

So I wanted to share my recipe with you. Nothing beats cooking with and eating fresh foods, and refrigerator pickled vegetables are the best!

REFRIGERATOR PICKLED VEGETABLES

• Cut up any vegetables of your choice in small slices or pieces and put them in a quart jar or other container that has an airtight lid. My favorites are cucumbers, carrots, celery, and red bell peppers. I also do a jar of just green beans sometimes.
• Combine the ingredients for the vinegar brine in a small pan and cook it on the stove until it just starts to boil, and then turn off the heat. 
• If you are going to add Aleppo pepper (or other hot pepper flakes) to make the pickles spicy, add it to the brine now.
• Pour the brine over the cut up vegetables in the jar or container. Make sure the brine covers all the vegetables.
• Let cool and then cover with an airtight lid and store in the refrigerator.
• The pickles will be ready to eat in a few hours and they will last in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

Enjoy!