When Life Hands You Cucumbers...Make Pickles!

A few weeks ago the boyfriend and I went up to see his parents for Father's Day. His mother is a wonderful cook, and she always makes sure I have plenty of vegan dishes to eat when we go up for a visit. I enjoy her style of cooking in general, but even more so love learning things passed down from her mother and grandmother in Poland. The boyfriend was born in Poland, as well, but they moved here to the United States when he was still a boy. I've been quite hopeless in learning the language, but that last visit I did learn how she makes her fermented pickles!

I've been a lifelong pickle-lover, but hers are pretty darn delicious. I don't think I realized until recently why hers were so different than any I had made before--she ferments them. We've gotten quite adept at making quick pickles using vinegar and spices, but fermenting adds a whole different dimension to the resulting flavor. Not to mention all of the beneficial probiotics that the process of fermenting creates. He was actually the one to ask her how to make them, but I was happy to watch and take mental notes.

Like most ferments, you start with a sterilized glass jar. She re-uses old large jars from the store, while I used a half gallon mason jar that I had bought for sauerkraut (another fermented item I was inspired to make from her). The other items you need are (of course) pickling cucumbers, pickling spices (usually a combination of bay leaves, pepper, mustard seed, coriander seed, and possibly a few other items), sea salt, fresh garlic, dill and filtered water.

Cutting off the ends of the cucumbers and the bay leaf in the spice mixture are two things that help keep your pickles from getting too mushy. Oh, she also said the garlic will help keep them crispy, as well. I just love garlic anyway, so it's a must in any pickle recipe! Dill always seems to go to seed quickly when we grow it in the garden, but luckily you can use any part of the plant to impart that delicious dill flavor to your ferment. As with many lifelong cooks, she doesn't use specific measurements. A sprinkle of spice, a few garlic cloves, a big spoonful of salt, water to fill the jar...leave for a few days...and boom, pickles!

Finished product!

I'll try to get a little more specific for how I did my first batch. For the pickles you just prepare as many as can fit in the jar and still stay covered by the brine. It will just depend on how big your pickles are how many you can fit. Slice the ends then pack them in there snugly. From there I added 4-5 peeled cloves of garlic, a heaping teaspoon of pickling spice, and 3-4 sprigs of fresh dill. I used about a tablespoon of pure sea salt per every two cups of water, my jar needing just shy of 4 cups to fill. That seems to be the general consensus for salt to water ratio to facilitate the good bacteria growing in your ferment and not the bad. There are some experts that actually prefer to do an exact percentage of salinity, so of course do some research if you want more exact measurements. After you pour the brine over the cucumbers, close the lid and let it sit for 2-3 days covered on the counter or somewhere else away from the sun. Some people ferment for longer periods, but I let mine go for three days and they were perfect when we opened them up. Any longer and I think they'd start getting really mushy. Though it is really warm here right now, so they might take longer in cooler conditions.

Since we have an overabundance of cucumbers coming off the vine from the garden right now, I thought I would also try pickling our lemon cukes. We are enjoying them fresh, but it is tough to keep up with the amount I pull off each day! I had plenty to fill another half gallon jar, especially since we're quickly making our way through my first batch of pickles.

I used the same method as above, so we will see in a few days how these ones turn out. I have plenty more coming along to use in other ways, too. However, the boyfriend and I are always happy to have plenty of pickles in the house. They're great as a snack or to add flavor to so many dishes. I just used some as a garnish for my beet soup at lunch. Perfection!

I am enjoying experimenting with more ferments. There really is so much research going on about the health benefits--everything from gut health to immune system benefits to easing symptoms of depression and anxiety. I know when I first switched to a plant-based diet all of the fiber gave me a bit of a problem initially with bloating. Once I added in apple cider vinegar (with the Mother, a wonderful product of fermentation) daily my digestive tract finally adapted and now I have no problem eat glorious amounts and varieties of fibrous foods. I just needed a few more gut bugs to proliferate to break down all that goodness, haha.

Now fermented food can have high amounts of sodium as you need the salt to create the right environment for the fermentation process, so people with high blood pressure or other contraindications may need to be careful consuming too high of a quantity. A few of my nutrition gurus are big on no salt, but many others are big proponents that the benefits of fermented foods outweigh any possible cons of the salt content for the average healthy individual. My take is that I try not to eat much processed food or add much sodium to my homemade meals otherwise, so a pickle here and sauerkraut there will most likely not break the bank on my sodium intake for any given day. I'll trust my "gut" to let me know if I need to scale back, but while the short summer season is here--I'm all about the homemade pickles!

Thanks to the boyfriend's mama for introducing me to this method and all of it's delicious flavor and benefits. One of these days perhaps I'll finally tackle veganized gołąbki or pierogi...😉