Sometimes, I'm just not in the mood for a dill pickle. While I normally love the sour or a half sour pickles, there are times when my sweet tooth is blaring and all I want is something sweet and tangy. That's where a good sweet pickle recipe comes in handy. You see, it's not just about preserving your vegetables - it's also about creating a flavorful experience.
That's what I love about the sweet pickle. It's like a blank canvas to become anything I want it to be. Sometimes, that means adding a little spice to your sweet pickles. Other times, you'll need to choose your base vegetable carefully to get just the right crunch and texture. We wanted to simplify things for you this summer by giving you access to a sweet pickle recipe to fit every mood. We're sure that one of these recipes will be the only sweet pickle recipe you'll ever need!
1. Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe
It doesn't get easier than a quick pickle - one that you don't have to bother bother with canning in a boiling water bath (much less the dreaded pressure canner!).
This easy recipe for a sliced cucumbers sweet pickles just requires a little bit of time in the refrigerator to let those pickling spices infuse. Before you know it, it'll be crunchy, sweet, and perfect for your next hamburger.
2. Quick Sweet Pickles Recipe
You don't need to cook up anything to make pickling cucumbers taste delicious in this recipe. Between the mild rice vinegar, the sugar, cloves, and allspice berries, you'll end up with a mildly sweet and slightly tangy pickle. Add in some savory coriander seeds and mustard seeds to balance everything out and I call that a recipe for success!
3. Old Fashioned Sweet Nine Day Pickles Recipe
You'll need a little patience for these old-fashioned pickles because it takes nine days for the cucumber slices to turn into pickles. They're worth the wait, though, if you can sit back and allow the canning jars to let stand for a few days. In the end, these pickles taste fantastic! They get their characteristic bread-and-butter pickle color from the addition of turmeric.
4. Easy Summertime Sweet Pickles
The apple cider vinegar really does its job in this pickle recipe. It's a mild vinegar that has a ton of tang, but it's also naturally sweet, too. That means you don't need to add too much sugar to balance out the pickling salt. The celery seed adds a nice savory kick to these pickles, too!
5. Sweet Pickled Beets
All you need is a little bit of maple sugar to coax out the naturally-sweet flavors of roasted beets. Then, pack them into quart jars or pint jars and preserve them in apple cider vinegar. You'll enjoy this sweet pickle all year long! In the winter time, this sweet pickle recipe makes a great substitute for tomatoes.
6. Hot and Sweet Pickled Vegetables
If you're looking for one sweet pickle recipe that can capture all the goodness from the garden (or, your CSA share or farmer's market bounty), this is the one. It's a simple recipe using white vinegar and sugar, but the addition of fennel seed makes it super savory. Add in some red pepper flakes to kick up the heat and you have a winner!
7. Sweet-and-Tart Pickled Vegetables
These slightly-sweet slightly tart vegetables are the perfect mixture when you don't know which kind you want. They have all the sweetness of a good sweet pickle recipe, but they don't have a ton of sugar which means they're nice and vinegary. They're the perfect topping for a flatbread or on a sandwich!
8. Pickled Mushrooms with Brown Sugar
If you don't think that sweet-pickled mushrooms would be any good, then you have to drop everything and try this recipe. They're really a very unique item - perfect for a charcuterie board. After trimming the mushrooms, you simmer them with onions, red wine vinegar, water, and lots of brown sugar. Add some tarragon to give them a burst of herbaceous flavor and off you go!
9. Pickled Red Grapes
Grapes are pretty sweet on their own, so they don't need much coaxing to turn into a sweet pickle. As it turns out, though, they really grow a beautiful depth of flavor once they hit that vinegar! Add in some sweet spices like vanilla, cinnamon, and cloves (alongside some traditional ones like black peppercorns and mustard seeds) and you will be amazed at the results.
10. Pickled Watermelon Rind
Everyone's beloved Southern favorite totally fits in this category - pickled watermelon rind is sweet and it's delicious! It's also a great way to reduce your waste by repurposing your peels, and these pickles taste great on almost anything. Toss 'em on a salad or put some on a sandwich. No matter what you do, you won't be sorry you did it.
11. Pickled Cherries
Have some fun pickling fruit this summer. This might be the perfect way to preserve the season, and you can pickle almost any fruit you can think of. These pickled cherries are a great way to get started before you branch out on peaches, plums, and blueberries. Follow the same basic guidelines - you're going for sweet and sour with these pickles.
12. Kool-Aid Pickles Recipe
For the ultimate sweet treat, pickle your vegetables with Kool-Aid! Seriously, all you need is a package of unsweetened Kool-Aid, a bit of sugar, and a jar of dill pickles. Combine them together and you have the quickest, easiest, most beautiful pickles around. They'll really be a show stopper!
