A tangy, spicy, crispy home-canned pickle that is great as part of a winter antipasto spread. Also good as part of a summer salad selection table.
This is a lab-tested recipe from Canadian Living.
The recipe
Jar size choices: half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz) OR 1 litre (US quart / 32 oz)
Processing method: Water bath or steam canning
Yield: 4 x 1 litre (US quart) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: Either size jar 15 minutes
Sweet and Sour Cauliflower Pickle
Ingredients
- 300 g pearl onions (10 oz)
- 150 g banana peppers (5 oz. Weight measurements before prep. About 4 peppers about 10 cm / 4 inches each in length before prep.)
- 400 g red peppers (sweet, such as Bell. 14 oz. Weight measurements before prep. That's 2 medium bell peppers before prep.)
- 1.25 kg cauliflower (2.5 to 3 lbs. Weight measurements before prep. About 12 cups of small florets after prep.)
- 2 tablespoons coriander seed (⅓ oz / 10 g)
- 500 ml water (2 cups / 16 oz)
- 1.25 litre cider vinegar (5% or higher. 5 cups / 40 oz)
- 4 tablespoons salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
- 300 g sugar (white. 1 ⅓ cups / 10 oz) OR 1 ½ teaspoons liquid stevia
- 4 tablespoons mustard seed (1.25 oz / 40 g)
- bay leaves
- cloves (whole)
- garlic (peeled cloves)
- Pickle Crisp (optional)
Instructions
- Peel the onions, put in a very large mixing bowl.
- Wash, stem and seed the banana peppers. cut into thick rings 2 to 3 cm (1 inch) wide. Add to bowl.
- Wash, stem and seed the sweet peppers. Cut into chunks. Add to bowl.
- Wash the cauliflower. Cut off leaves and stalk. Cut into small florets; wash again. Drain well, add to bowl.
- Set bowl aside.
- Get a large pot and put on the stove top. Add the coriander seed, and toast it for a few minutes until it just starts to darken and release a bit of scent.
- Add everything from the water down to and including the mustard seed. Stir well, then bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and let simmer for 3 minutes.
- Turn heat off.
- Pack veg into the jars you are using to within 3 cm (1 inch) of the top of the jar. That will tell you how many jars you are using.
- In each 1 litre (US quart) jar put 2 bay leaves, 2 cloves, 2 cloves garlic, and ¼ teaspoon pickle crisp (optional.) (Half that for the half-litre / US pint jars.)
- Using a ladle, divvy the pickling solution out amongst the jars to within 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
- If you are short of solution, zap some additional cider vinegar in microwave for 2 minutes to heat it, then use that to top up.
- Don't worry about all the seed ending up on top; as you debubble, they will get pushed down.
- Debubble.
- Process either size jar for 15 minutes.
- Let stand at least a week before opening.
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.
For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used.
For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
Reference notes
- To be clear, you don’t blanch any of the veg.
- Don’t try with cauliflower that has previously been frozen; the texture will come out too soft.
- Instead of pearl onion, you can use an equivalent amount of chunks of regular onion, or the bulbs of green (aka spring) onions.
- Instead of banana peppers, you can use another not-so-hot chile pepper. Banana peppers are known for being more sweet and tangy, than hot.
- Instead of sweet peppers that are red, you can use any colour that is convenient.
- Be prepared with another 250 ml (1 cup / 8 oz) of cider vinegar that you can quickly zap for 2 minutes in microwave, if needed to top up jars. If you have gone to more than 4 jars, you will surely need it.
- No, the mustard seed is not too much. Somehow in this recipe is is all very mild and just right.
Recipe source
Sweet and Sour Cauliflower Pickle. In: Canadian Living Test Kitchen. The Complete Preserving Book. Montreal, Canada: Transcontinental Books. 2012. Page 154.
Note: The recipe says you will get 3 x 1 litre (US quart) jars, but we found you will get 4 to 5 such jars. It will really just depend how large your head of cauliflower was, as well as how big your florets and pepper chunks etc, are.
Modifications made:
- Suggested pearl onion alternative;
- Suggested salt and sugar subs.
Safety Check
This Sweet and Sour Cauliflower has a pH of 3.76, tested using 25 g solids, 50 ml distilled water. Well below upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH. (Note the white storage caps from Ball / Bernardin splitting!)
Nutrition information
Regular version
Per ½ cup (100 g / 3 oz):
- 63 calories, 126 mg sodium
Sugar and salt-free version
Per ½ cup (100 g / 3 oz):
- 45 calories, 18 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.
* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.
* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.
Natashia
Do we have to put other vegetables into the mix will it affect the flavoring? I would really like to be able to do this with just cauliflower and onion if possible.
Healthy Canning
It would be okay to leave out the other vegetables. You might also just want to consider this recipe, over on the National Center site: Pickled Cauliflower
Michael Jacobsen
Perfect recipe. I’ve pickled a thousand things a thousand different ways. I love making up and playing with different recipes. I followed this recipe exactly. And I think any alterations would only take away from how perfect it already is. Thanks for sharing