How to Pickle Gherkins – The quick & easy way

You won’t believe how good these are!

This is only my second year growing gherkins, but now having discovered how gorgeous homegrown pickled gherkins are, whilst I’m lucky enough to have a garden, I’ll be growing them!

I’ve always enjoyed bought pickled gherkins on a burger and I also use them to make tartar sauce, but these homegrown ones are in a different league of scrumptiousness!

It helps that they are so easy to grow. The seeds are large, making them easy to handle. They germinate quickly and once they start growing, you’d better make sure you’ve got something for them to grow up, as they romp away.

Little yellow flowers appear within weeks and as long as you keep them well watered and fed, you’ll have baby gherkins in no time at all. They are very prolific!

The hardest part now is remembering to harvest them regularly, as they come thick and fast.

If you want to pickle the small fruits whole, it is a longer winded process, but this quick and easy recipe is for larger fruits that need to be chopped.

The quantities are just for one large jar, but just double up if you have more.

Ingredients:

Gherkins – 2 large

Pickling Vinegar – approximately 200ml

Salt – 1tsp

Fennel seeds – 1/2tsp

Mustard seeds – 1/2tsp

Nigella seeds – 1/2tsp

Peppercorns – 6 whole

Water – boiling

Method:

Pick the gherkins with care as they have small spikes all over.

With a small knife, scrape the spikes off. They come off really easily.

Give the gherkins a quick rinse and pat them dry .

Get all of the ingredients together.

Sterilise the jar or jars depending on how many gherkins you have. I put them into the dishwasher on the hottest setting just before I need them. You can just as easily put them in a pan of boiling water though. Making sure the jars are still hot when you are ready to use them – You don’t want them to crack when you pour the boiling vinegar in!

In a small pan, add the spices, heating them up to release their flavours. Add the salt and pour on the vinegar. Stir until the vinegar boils and the salt is dissolved.