Name: Quick Pickled Vegetables
Prep time: 24 h
Total time: 24 h
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 quart mason jars with lids; 2 Kirby cucumbers; 5 carrots; 1/2 small head of cauliflower; 12 small sweet peppers (or several small bell peppers); 2 Serrano peppers (optional); 6 cloves garlic; 16 sprigs fresh dill; 1 tablespoon coriander seeds; 2 tablespoons peppercorns; 2 tablespoons sugar; 3 tablespoons kosher salt; 1 ⅓ cup white vinegar; 2 cups water

This recipe for refrigerator quick mixed pickled vegetables uses carrots, peppers, cauliflower, and cucumber. You can use any veggie you have on hand!

It’s pickling season! If you love pickled vegetables but don’t want to worry about hardcore canning, these mixed vegetable quick pickles are for you. These are refrigerator pickles, which are simple to make and don’t require a canning machine or any fancy sterilization techniques. While you can’t store them on your cupboard shelf, they last for up to 1 month in the refrigerator…which is much longer than they ever make it at our house! We gobble them up too fast.

This recipe is an adaptation of our Dill Pickles recipe, but this time we’re making mixed pickles! This tasty jar includes cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, and peppers. You can use any vegetables you’d like, and can likely find a good variety at your local farmer’s market. These two jars disappeared very quickly at our house. Ready to get started?

What is quick pickling?

Quick pickles are any blend of vegetables that have been pickled in a mixture of vinegar, salt, sugar, and water. They’re usually lighter in flavor than regular pickles and need a few days in the fridge to pickle. According to The Kitchn, quick pickling works best with fresh veggies, not ones that are bruised or going bad. It doesn’t matter what shape you cut the vegetables into before pickling them. But some veggies are best pickled whole: like cherry tomatoes and okra.

Want more with preserving? Try our easy DIY: How to Make Sauerkraut.

Pickled vegetables ingredients

Many of the ingredients for these mixed pickles are spices and other pantry staples. For these quick pickled vegetables, you’ll need:

Kirby cucumbers
Carrots
Cauliflower
Sweet peppers
Serrano peppers (optional)
Garlic
Fresh dill
Coriander seeds
Peppercorns
Sugar & salt
White vinegar

Related: More Pickle Recipes

How to make quick pickled vegetables

Making these mixed vegetable quick pickles requires no fancy equipment. You’ll need two quart-sized mason jars for this refrigerator pickle recipe, and that’s really it! Here are the basic steps (or go to the full recipe below):

Wash the jars thoroughly and air-dry them.
Cut the vegetables however you like. We prefer carrots and cucumbers to be sliced length-wise, but you can make them any shape you want.
Put the mixed vegetables into mason jars. It’ll take some elbow grease to get everything into the jars, but you want the veggies to be snugly packed in along with the herbs and spices.
Make the brine. Heat the ingredients over the stove to allow the kosher salt and sugar to dissolve fully. Once the brine starts to boil, remove it from the heat and carefully pour it over the veggies. Close the jars and refrigerate!

That’s it! The quick pickled vegetables will need to sit in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before tasting them. They might need a few more days to properly pickle.

Ways to eat pickles!

Thanks to their classic pickle flavor, these pickled mixed vegetables can easily be used in place of regular pickles. A few of our favorite ways to use these pickles are:

This pickled vegetables recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and vegan.