One of my guilty pleasures are pickled items. Cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, radishes.. You name it and I’ve probably tried to pickle it at least once. Thankfully, I have a super easy recipe to share with you that will have you making your own homemade pickles in no time! It requires very few ingredients and no cooking.

What you will need :

• A couple of glass jars with lids
• A large bowl to mix all the ingredients in
• Veggies of your choice – cucumbers and cabbage are two of my favorites, but choose whatever you would prefer.
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar (remember to look for vegan sugar!)
• 2 teaspoons salt (I prefer kosher salt, but it’s up to you)
• 1-3 teaspoons spices if desired (I use peppercorns, red pepper flakes, mustard seed and bay leaves)
• 3 cloves of fresh garlic minced garlic, if desired
• Other fresh herbs if desired

Got everything together? Great! Now for the easiest process possible:

1. In the bowl, mix together the water, vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix until all the salt and sugar has dissolved.
2. Add in your spices, garlic and herbs if you wish. These are totally optional, but a great way to add flavor and customize your pickles. Sometimes I just add garlic. For the ones above, I added the spice mixture and fresh garlic for some super flavorful pickles.
3. Slice your veggies into whatever size you would like. I like to do a mix of rounds and spears with cucumbers, rounds with radishes, and shreds for cabbage. It’s completely up to you!
4. Add veggies to each jar, about 3/4 full. Then slowly add the brine. Make sure that you’re getting spices in each jar as well.
5. Close up those babies and let them sit for at least one night in the refrigerator.

The longer you let them sit, the tastier they will get! Though it’s typically ideal to eat them within a week or two. This is why I like to use smaller jars and make smaller batches. The number of jars that this recipe will produce is dependent on the type of jars that you have. Once you’ve made this recipe once, you’ll get an idea of if you should double or triple it to get the results you desire.

Enjoy!