Sweet Pickled Beans from Everyday Food Magazine

First let me explain my absence and apologize for it. You know how inside all of our heads we think we’re much younger than our actual age? And how sometimes maybe a lapse of judgment leads us to believe we might be capable of doing something that we really aren’t capable of doing? (Elaine, remember the Christmas decorations in the crawl space?) Yeah. Well anyway, in Bob’s head I think he sometimes thinks he’s 12 years old. And it’s usually when he’s with Brian. On a bicycle. Who knows what Brian’s thinking?

Long story short, Bob was racing Brian and he crashed. Bob that is, not Brian. Results were not pretty. Broken bones, separated shoulder, bruises and contusions … like I said, not pretty. So that pretty much explains what I’ve been doing for the past three weeks. Sorry. I’ve missed my blog.

Now I’m back. Bob’s not completely recovered, but he’s oh so much better! Thank you for asking :-) Now on to business!

I love pickled stuff. I saw a recipe in July/August 2010 Everyday Food magazine that I just had to try. It was for “sweet pickled wax beans”. Since I like green beans way better than wax and the recipe suggests that as one of the swaps, that is what I decided to pickle; along with cauliflower.


It was pretty darn easy. Basically using clean jars, you pack them with your choice of vegetables.


Then you make the brine and bring it to a boil; reduce and simmer. After it cools you pour it into the jar, covering the veggies and leaving headspace.


Seal the jars and refrigerate at least 3 days before serving. We tried them after 3 days and they kind of tasted like new pickles taste. So we resealed them and will wait a little longer. As for the taste, the flavor was really good! But both Bob and I thought that they were way too sour. We expected that sweet pickled taste. So I googled info on Splenda. I wanted to sweeten them up a bit but I also didn’t want to disturb what I’d already done. I added about 1/8 cup Splenda to each jar. We’ll see what they taste like again in a few days.

I have another recipe for awesome pickles that I’ll have to share. Now that I’ve thought of them I am just going to have to make them! They make my knees weak!

Here is the original recipe from Everyday Food. Do you do any pickling? If so, I would love to hear what you do and how you do it.

Sweet Pickled Wax Beans
From Everyday Food magazine
Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 pound wax beans, trimmed
4 sprigs thyme
4 cups white-wine vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Directions:

1. In two quart-size glass jars, arrange beans upright and place 2 sprigs thyme in each. In a small saucepan, bring vinegar, sugar, garlic, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns and water to a boil over medium-high. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

2. Pour cooled brine over beans, leaving a ½ inch space at top of each jar, seal and refrigerate at least 3 days before serving. (Pickled beans keep, refrigerated up to 2 months.)

Swap It:
Green beans, cauliflower, carrots, or beets would also work in this preparation.