perfect pickles

This lovely fusion of earthy sweet beetroot, zesty lemons and piquant capers, with warming hints of fennel, works well with smoked fish, cold poultry or grilled halloumi. It makes a great barbecue relish for just about anything and is a wonderful partner to cheese. 

Beetroot chutney

raw beetroot

lemons,

milliliters/3½fl oz lemon juice (about 2–3 lemons)

150 milliliters/¼ pint cider vinegar

red onion, finely chopped

fennel seeds

sugar

capers

sea salt

black pepper

Chutney is great make ahead gift for Christmas – you can substitute marrows, pumpkin, green tomatoes or other fruit for some or all of the apples and the results will be just as good.

Equipment and preparation: You will need eight 330ml/12fl oz jars.

How to make chutney

apples

onions

garlic

fresh root ginger

grams/3½oz sultanas (or other dried fruit

chilli flakes

500 milliliters/18fl oz distilled malt vinegar

salt

Our simple step-by-step recipe video shows you how to make a quick chutney.

If you haven’t made sauerkraut before, this simple recipe is a great place to start. Once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s easy to double up the quantities. 

Please note, if mould forms on your sauerkraut at any point, discard the batch and start again. 

For this recipe you will need a 750ml/1⅓ pint clip top jar (such as a Kilner jar), a large mixing bowl, a large metal spoon, a small ladle, and a ramekin or small shallow jar.

Sauerkraut 

tsp black peppercorns

½ tsp caraway seeds (optional)

This tomato jam is like a grown up version of tomato ketchup, but so much better! Great for using up a tomato glut and a lovely homemade present too, with some cheese and biscuits.

Tomato and chilli jam

red onions, finely chopped

400 grams/14 ounces ripe cherry tomatoes, halved

plum tomatoes, quartered

mild red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped

fresh root ginger,

star anise

250 milliliters/9fl oz white wine vinegar

300 grams/10½oz soft light brown sugar

fish sauce (substitute soy sauce

Fragrant, strongly flavoured preserved lemons are well worth the wait. You can use a tiny bit each time stirred through mashed potato to serve with fish, mixed into rice for prawn curry, or in a tagine for authentic Moroccan flavour.

Equipment and preparation: You will need 2 x 500g/1lb 2oz sealable Kilner-type jars. 

How to make preserved lemons

lemons

flaky sea salt (depending on the size of the lemons)

cinnamon

red chillies (optional)

bay leaves (optional)

Our step-by-step recipe video for preserved lemons - wonderful in cous cous and tagines.

I love to pickle red cabbage because of the magical way it turns a vivid red when it comes into contact with the vinegar, but you can customise this recipe to the ingredients you have available. You can replace the red cabbage with a hard white Dutch-style cabbage or a spicy Chinese pak choi cabbage. Swap the fennel for caraway, cumin or coriander; the chilli for mustard seeds and the vinegar for wine or rice vinegar.

For this recipe you will need two 500ml/18fl oz sterilised jars. See Recipe Tips for information on sterilising. 

Pickled red cabbage

red cabbage

fennel bulb,

tbsp fine sea salt

300 milliliters/½ pint cider vinegar

50–100 grams/1¾–3½oz sugar (according

½ tsp chilli flakes

juice

Tabasco

Warming spices elevate this tomato chutney to something you'll always want it in your store cupboard. It’s delicious with cheese, sausages, barbecue foods, oily fish, cold meats; in fact most things.
  
Brining (salting) the tomatoes and the onions draws off much of their excess wateriness and reduces the cook time considerably. The addition of a small amount of cornflour at the end of cooking is optional, but it does bring the chutney to an agreeable consistency. 

Top 7 perfect pickles recipes from across the web

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Top Tags

Beetroot chutney

How to make chutney

Sauerkraut

Tomato and chilli jam

How to make preserved lemons

Pickled red cabbage

The best tomato chutney

Top 7 perfect pickles recipes from across the web

The most viewed perfect pickles recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Beetroot chutney

How to make chutney

Sauerkraut

Tomato and chilli jam

How to make preserved lemons

Pickled red cabbage

The best tomato chutney

The most viewed perfect pickles recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine