This home-canned pickled okra recipe gives you delicious, crunchy, puckery chunks of okra in a murky, tart, lemony brine.
This USDA recipe makes a lot, so you may wish to cut it in half.
Use small pods 2 to 4 inches (7 to 12 cm) in size. Longer ones often come out stringy and are just not worth pickling, and no, the vinegar won’t make them less stringy.
See also: Other okra recipes for canning.
The recipe
If you wish to adjust batch size, do the math first on paper.
Jar size choices: Half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz) [Ed: for litre / quart sizes, see Ball’s Pickled Okra recipe which uses 100% vinegar.)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: 9 x half-litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: 10 minutes
Pickled okra
Ingredients
- 3 kg okra (small, whole, trimmed. Approx 7 pounds / 30 cups after prep.)
- 6 hot peppers (small)
- 9 cloves garlic (washed, peeled)
- 1 ½ litres vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 6 cups / 48 oz)
- 1 ½ litres water (6 cups / 48oz)
- 4 teaspoons dill seed
- 2 teaspoons mustard seed (optional)
- ⅔ cup pickling salt
Instructions
- Wash and trim the okra without slicing into the pods. Set aside.
- Wash, trim (seed if desired) and slice thinly the hot peppers; set aside.
- In each jar, put a peeled clove of garlic.
- Leaving 2 cm (½ inch) head space, divide the okra out amongst the jars, packing it in firmly. Cut up the okra into large chunks if you have to, to get them to fit.
- Put the vinegar, water, dill seed, mustard seed (optional), salt and hot pepper slices in a microwave-safe jug and zap until boiling. Mind the surge when removing. (Or put in a pot on the stove and bring to the boil.)
- Fill each jar with the vinegar solution, leaving 2 cm (½ inch) head space.
- Debubble, adjust headspace.
- Wipe rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process jars for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
- Best after at least a month of jar time.
Nutrition
Reference information
How to water bath process.
How to steam can.
When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
Recipe notes
- Instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
Recipe Source
Pickled Dilled Okra. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 6-19.
Also referenced:
Okra Pickles. Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 92. (50 / 50 water / vinegar. 15 minutes processing)
Pickled Okra. Ball online. Calls for US Quart jars. (100% vinegar. 10 minutes processing.) Accessed June 2019 at https://www.freshpreserving.com/pickled-okra—ball-recipes-br1469.html (removed from online in 2020).
Modifications made:
- Added mustard seed and Pickle Crisp, which are Ball’s ideas.
- USDA wants 10 minutes processing; Ball wants 15 minutes in its 37th edition. Went with USDA’s 10 minute requirement.
- Added salt sub option.
Nutrition information
Regular version
Per ¼ jar:
- 19 calories, 170 mg sodium
Salt-free version
Per ¼ jar:
- 19 calories, 3 mg sodium.
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 point.
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.
These ones were pickled subbing bottled lemon juice for some of the vinegar.
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