This home-canned marinated cauliflower is lovely on its own, or as part of an antipasto platter.
Make this at the end of summer when cauliflower is at its cheapest, and enjoy later as part of a hors d’oeuvre platter with a winter raclette.
When serving, you can drain and toss with a tablespoon of good quality oil: olive, avocado, etc.
Also nice mixed in with another item such as home canned bean salad.
Drain before serving.
The recipe
Jar size choices: Half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: 4 x half-litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)
Processing time: 10 minutes
White Wine and Lemon Marinated Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 700 g cauliflower ( florets. 1 ½ lbs / 7 to 8 cups )
- 150 g bell peppers (seeded, diced. Any colour you have to have to hand. Can use spicier. 1 cup / 5 oz)
- 500 ml white wine vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 2 cups / 16 oz)
- 500 ml water (2 cups / 16 oz)
- 125 ml lemon juice (bottled. ½ cup / 4 oz. Optional)
- 2 tablespoons pickling salt
- cumin seed
- coriander seed
- fennel seed
- 4 bay leaves (optional)
- Pickle crisp (optional)
Instructions
- Prep the cauliflower and pepper; mix, set aside.
- Mix together the vinegar, water and salt OR salt sub; set on the stove on low heat to gently simmer.
- In each jar put: ¼ teaspoon cumin seed, ½ teaspoon coriander seed, ½ teaspoon fennel seed, a bay leaf (optional) and (optional) ⅛th teaspoon pickle crisp. Pack in the cauliflower and pepper mix; it's okay to press down a bit because this is a raw pack and the vinegar mixture will help to separate the material later.
- Fill each jar with the hot vinegar mixture to within 2 cm (½ inch) of the rim. Debubble, top up with vinegar mixture if needed.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in hot water bath or steam canner.
- Process for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
- Let pickle in the jars for at least 3 weeks 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.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.
Recipe notes
- The lemon juice is not in the original recipe. We added it to brighten the flavour, and make it more Mediterranean-y (in our minds, at least.) Use bottled for assured acidity.
- Don’t try with cauliflower that has previously been frozen; the texture will come out too soft.
- You can use smaller quarter-litre jars (½ pint / 250 ml) jars. The processing time will be the same as for the half- litre (1 US pint) jars. But, you might not fit much into a jar. You can’t use larger 1 litre (1 US quart) jars as the recipe author Linda Ziedrich didn’t develop a tested processing time for that size.
- If you run out of vinegar mixture, you can make more quickly by zapping in microwave a mixture of half vinegar, half water in the same original ratio.
- The salt in this recipe is just here for seasoning, not safety. You can reduce the amount. Or, 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
Ziedrich, Linda. The Joy of Pickling. Boston, Massachusetts: The Harvard Common Press. 2009. Pp 117 – 118.
Modifications made:
- Added option of lemon juice, suggestion of salt sub.
Nutrition information
Regular version
Per ¼ of a jar (½ litre / 1 US pint jar), about 4 to 6 pieces.
- 23 calories, 889 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: Per 4 to 6 pieces : 0 points; 8 to 12 pieces: 1 point.
Salt Free Version
Per ¼ of a jar (½ litre / 1 US pint jar), about 4 to 6 pieces.
- 23 calories, 17 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: Per 4 to 6 pieces : 0 points; 8 to 12 pieces: 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.
* Pickle Crisp ® is a registered trademark of the Jarden Corporation.
Sally
If the bottled lemon juice is optional, and the recipe is safe without it, why can’t fresh juice be used as a flavoring? Unfortunately, I think bottle juice tastes foul, even in recipes. Thanks
Madeline
Are there any safe cauliflower pickle recipes that do not include peppers? Additonally, any that don’t include seeds? (I follow AIP and while seeds are ok in small doses for me, peppers are not.)
Healthy Canning
Leave out the peppers, and any seeds.