Picnic-Pick Pickled Vegetable Slaw with Mustard Seeds

July 2013

SmartCooks here.

I overbought at the Farmer's Market last weekend.  No surprise there.

It meant of course that before setting off for another week in Charlottetown, I was faced with the choice of either 
a) bringing a plastic bag of fresh vegetables and a freezer pack in my carry-on luggage; or 
b) making pickled vegetables that last up to a month in the refrigerator.

I chose b) and made 3 batches of vegey slaw earlier in the week.  

Smart choice.  

Upon my return from C'Town Friday night, delightfully crunchy fresh pickled vegetables awaited me, making it super simple to pull together a light dinner of zesty lime chicken sliders (with a dash of vegetable slaw) and a watermelon and cumber salad.  Excellent... fast... low fat.

What inspired me was a Smitten Kitchen posting where Deb vows that doing this was fast, easy, and crunchy without the mess and bother of canning and sterilizing.  Sold.

Plus, you could use any combo of vegetable on hand to make the slaw.  Particularly crunchy are radishes, bell peppers (of any colour), carrots, sugar snap peas, kirby cucumbers, cabbage, parsnips, zucchini, red onion.  she warns against adding red radish because the red colour bleeds into the other vegetables. I ignored this advice and went with red radishes and so far, all is good.

The only potential hassle with this recipe is cutting up all the vegetables.  I saved time and used a mandoline with a julienne blade.  I have a julienne peeler but in the interest of time went with the fast route.  A knife works just as well. Just get 'em all into skinny matchstick size. 

The vegetables will be lightly pickled within an hour, and done in a day. They will last for weeks in the refrigerator as long as they stay immersed in the brine.  

The slaw is coming with me this weekend as we head out into the (finally!) July type weather for a bike ride/picnic/farmer's market visit.  Definitely my pick for fav picnic-friendly fare!   Enjoy! 

Picnic-Pick Pickled Vegetable Slaw with Mustard Seeds
(Inspired by Smitten Kitchen) 

Pickling mixture1 cup distilled white vinegar

4 T sugar
2 T Kosher salt
2 T yellow mustard seeds
1 cup cold water

Vegetable Slaw mixture

4-5 cups mixed julienned firm, raw vegetables (from list above)
Jalapeno or Bird's eye chili slivers (optional)

Directions:

Bring vinegar, sugar, salt and mustard seeds to a simmer in a small pot over medium heat, stirring only until sugar and salt dissolve. 

Stir in water and let cool to lukewarm.  Divide vegetables between jars. (I used 3 jars).  Pour vinegar mixture over vegetables and refrigerate.