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Zapped pickles: Quick and easy

Recipe: Microwave method for last cucumber (or zucchini) of summer

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Making pickles in the microwave is a snap.


These homemade pickles are ready in a snap. The secret? They're zapped! It's a wonderful way to use up the last cucumber or zucchini of summer.

The microwave speeds up the pickling process, allowing the other ingredients to penetrate the vegetables. Instead of several days or weeks, these pickles are ready overnight.

I admit that I was shocked by the idea of microwaving pickles. I tend to think of cucumber pickles as work, submerging dill-size cukes in ice while boiling the jars.

This bread-and-butter method proved super easy. These pickles will keep in the refrigerator at least a month. But they never last that long; they're all gone quickly, too.

Zapped bread and butter pickles
Makes about 1 pint

Ingredients:
1 large (8-to 10-inch) cucumber, washed and sliced
1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher (non-iodized) salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon pickling spice
Instructions:
Scrub cucumber well and slice crosswise about 1/8-inch thick with skin on. Peel and slice onion.
In a large microwave-safe bowl, mix salt, sugar, vinegar and pickling spice. Add cucumber and onion slices. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap, vented on one side.
Microwave on HIGH for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring twice. Cucumbers should be tender and onions soft and translucent.

Sterilize a pint jar (the dishwasher works fine). Transfer the pickle mixture into the jar and seal tightly. Chill in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

Note: For less sweet pickles, reduce sugar to 1/2 cup. Zucchini may be substituted for cucumber.
(Photo by Debbie Arrington)



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Garden Checklist for week of April 20

Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.

* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

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