These pickled zucchini are a little tricky to put into words. They’re not too sweet, not too tangy, and not like anything pickled you’ve ever experienced. If we had to draw comparisons, we’d probably liken them to bread and butter pickles. But don’t take our word for it.
As for how to use these refrigerator zucchini pickles, far be it from us to tell you what to do, though we suggest you start anywhere you’d use a regular cucumber pickle. And of course, there’s this almost obscenely indulgent Bacon Manchego Burger, which was crafted with zucchini pickles in mind.
Oh, and this recipe makes tons of zucchini pickles. Well, not literally tons. But close. Which is perfect if you’ve got a bumper crop of zucchini. Otherwise, consider yourself warned, although you can easily scale the recipe down.–David Leite
Pickled Zucchini FAQs
Asian rice vinegar is the most similar, so is the best substitute. You can also use white wine or sherry vinegars – although they’re a tad more harsh. Red wine or apple cider vinegars can also be substituted, but they’ve both got much heavier and less sweet flavor than champagne vinegar, and they’ll also alter the color of your pickles slightly.
Pickling salt is an excellent place to start but you do have more options beyond that. Kosher salt, like Diamond Kosher, is another great choice. But for pickling, you’ll need to avoid salt that has anything added to it, like table salt. Iodine or anti-caking agents can make your brine cloudy so make sure to read the label before proceeding.
It’s late summer, and you’ve got more zucchini than you know what to do with. It seems like it happens every year. Besides making this fantastic pickled zucchini, here are a few ideas:
– Make a low-carb sheet pan zucchini pizza bake
– Start your day with a bowl of zucchini and eggs
– Roast or pan-fry it as an easy side dish alongside roasted meats
– Make zucchini noodles (zoodles)
– Stir it into your favorite chocolate zucchini cake or walnut bread
Stored in a covered jar in the refrigerator, these quick pickles will last for up to 3 months.
Pickled Zucchini
Equipment
- Mandoline; Mason jars and lids
Ingredients
- 6 cups Champagne vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup salt
- 3 teaspoons celery seeds
- 3 teaspoons turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
- 2 yellow onions, julienned
- 5 pounds zucchini, unpeeled, thinly sliced with a mandoline about 1/4 or 1/8 inch thick
Instructions
- In a large nonreactive (that means not aluminum) pot, bring the vinegar, sugar, salt, celery seeds, turmeric, mustard powder, and onions to a boil. Remove from the heat.
- Toss the zucchini in the pot, making certain every last slice is immersed in the liquid. (If any of the zucchini slices are sticking out of the liquid, use a small plate to weigh them down so they remain submerged.) Let the zucchini rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Place the pot with the zucchini and liquid over medium-high heat, uncovered, and bring to a boil. Boil the zucchini, still uncovered, for exactly 3 minutes—no more and no less. Remove from the heat. Immediately pour the zucchini and brine into a shallow nonreactive (again, not aluminum) pan to cool completely.
- Ladle the cooled zucchini and brine into your favorite glass jars and refrigerate. (There's no need to properly can and seal the pickles, since these are what's known as refrigerator pickles. As the name implies, they're kept in the refrigerator, which means there's no need to properly can them.) The pickled zucchini will be ready to eat in 1 day and will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
A great zucchini pickle.
I scaled down this pickled zucchini recipe to a third of the total amount of pickles. I used 26 ounces of zucchini and this still yielded a bit over 1-quart of pickles. I also used both the thick (1/4 inch) and thin (1/8 inch) slice settings on my mandoline. Both sizes produced great results.
This pickled zucchini recipe was very simple. I only made a small amount and it was easy to cool them in the pan they were boiled in, so I skipped the step to transfer them to a shallow pan before placing them in a glass jar.
The finished product was very good. I’m not sure whether or not you can tell that these are zucchini pickles and not pickles made with cucumbers. The pickles aren’t that fussy.
I made 1/4 of this pickled zucchini recipe, and that made far more than enough pickles. I sliced the zucchini into 1/8 inch-thick slices with a mandoline. When adding the zucchini slices to the brine, I found that you need to gradually submerge the slices into the brine. They won’t all fit in at once.
Any tips on a reasonably priced but still good champagne vinegar? My grocery store has tiny bottles (200 mL) that go for a bit over $10.
Hi Millie, the problem with recommending items such as Champagne vinegar is that what’s available differs so much from place to place. You might find something more reasonable here, but you’ll have to pay for shipping.
Hi Beth….Thank you so much for the advice! I had so many zucchini last year…and got sick of them….so I froze ..but still have not wanted to cook them!…this is giving me a reason to take them out! Will report back!
Wonderful, italianchef.
I have frozen sliced zucchini from last summer….can i pickle these…. If it is possible, do i defrost or leave frozen?
Hi Italianchef, you should be able to pickle these though they won’t be quite as crisp as freshly picked. I would defrost them then continue on with the recipe. Let us know how they turn out.