Delicious, fresh-tasting home-canned pickles that you can make at any time of year with zucchini (aka courgette) from your local green grocer — zucchini is usually affordable year round.

This recipe is from Ball.

The recipe

Jar size choice: Half-litre (1 US pint / 16 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 5 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 10 minutes

Zucchini bread and butter pickles

Yield: 5 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Course Pickles

Cuisine American

Keyword Zucchini

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 20

Total Time 1 5

Servings 5 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Calories 35kcal

Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

2 kg zucchini (small, sliced. About 14 to 16 small zucchini, 4 lbs)
1 kg onions (peeled and sliced thinly. 2 lbs. About 8 small onion)
350 g green bell pepper (chopped. ¾ lb. Measured after seeding and chopping. 2 medium green.)
125 g pickling salt (⅓ cup / 4 oz)
ice cubes (few handfuls)
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon peppercorns
400 g sugar (white. 2 cups / 14 oz)
750 ml vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 3 cups / 24 oz)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Prep the zucchini, onion and bell pepper. Put in a large bowl.
Add the salt OR 3 tablespoons of salt sub, toss gently.
Add the ice cubes, toss gently.
Let stand for 1 ½ hours, tossing gently occasionally.
Drain the vegetables well and let them sit in a sieve while you do the next step.
Combine all the remaining ingredients, from the mustard seed down to the vinegar. Bring to a boil.
Add the well-drained veg to the pickling mixture, and simmer on low for 10 minutes.
Pack hot into half-litre (1 US pint) jars.
Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
Add ¼ teaspoon Pickle Crisp ® (optional) to each jar, then top up each jar with the pickling mixture leaving 2 cm (½ inch) headspace.
Debubble, adjust headspace with pickling mixture.
Wipe jar rims.
Put lids on.
Process in a water bath or steam canner.
Process 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

You can use white vinegar or cider vinegar (5% or higher for both). Cider gives a bit of a sweeter taste but your pickling mixture will be a bit murkier.
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.
You can reduce the sugar, or use the same volume amount of granulated Splenda®, or use 3 teaspoons of liquid stevia. For stevia, we’d recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia .
If you have a mandolin, you can make groovy waved cut zucchini slices.

Recipe source

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. Daleville, Indiana: Hearthmark LLC. Edition 36. 2013. Page 87.

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 7 pickles / 50 g

35 calories, 609 mg sodium
Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 7 pickles: 1 point

Sugar and Salt Free Version

Per 7 pickles / 50 g

14 calories, 4 mg sodium
Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 7 pickles: 0 points; 14 to 28 pickles: 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.