My daughter loves sugar snap peas so we always plant them in the spring. She prefers to tug them right off plant and eat them fresh, but sometimes we have so many ready to harvest at the same time that I have enough to pickle.
I have a water bath canned and fermented pickle recipe for sugar snap peas in my cookbook Can It & Ferment It. But it’s going to be humid and in the 90s here in Minnesota all week, so I’m skipping the canner and quick pickling this batch.
This recipe is a quick-pickle adaptation of my canned recipe. It’s a very simple recipe, as most of mine are. It makes a very crisp and refreshing pickle that can be made with spicy peppers or without.
Yield: 1 pint jar
Ingredients
Main
- 1/2 to 3/4 lb. sugar snap peas (fresh)
- 1/2 carrot, peeled (coined or julienned)
- 1 jalapeño pepper, sliced (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
Brine
- 1 cup (5 percent acidity) distilled white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp. canning salt
Read more: Quick-pickled dilly beans are a tasty summer treat!
Directions
Wash pea pods, trim the ends and remove the strings. Cut the peas into halves or thirds to make bite-sized pieces. Mix with the prepped carrots, jalapeños and garlic.
In a small nonreactive saucepan, bring the brine ingredients to a boil and simmer until the salt has dissolved.
Pack a clean pint-sized canning jar with the vegetables. Gently push the vegetables into the jar so you can fit more in and don’t end up with a jar of brine and few vegetables. Once packed well, carefully pour the hot brine into the jar, leaving half an inch of headspace.
Wipe the rim of the jar with a dampened, lint-free towel to remove any spillage. Place the canning jar lid on and twist the ring on tightly. Allow the jar to cool on the countertop until it reaches room temperature.
Once cooled, date and label, and transfer it to the refrigerator. Because this recipe doesn’t require water bath canning, it is not shelf-stable (regardless if the lid seals from the heat or not).
Once refrigerated, allow the flavors to meld for at least one week, or two if you can wait that long. The longer you wait, the more flavor the pickles will have and the spicier they’ll become.
Your pickled sugar snap peas are best enjoyed within six months.
Notes
Regular-mouth canning jars are recommended for this recipe, as the shoulders on the jar help keep the produce submerged under the pickling brine.
Add a sprig of fresh dill or two to your pickled sugar snap peas to give them a dill-pickle flavor.
If you don’t want to add carrots or hot peppers, omit them, and add in additional snap peas.
