Each year we have a pretty prolific
garden, and making pickles is one of my favorite pastimes when we have
an abundance of cucumbers. This year however, at the beginning of the
spring gardening season, our homestead was struck by a tornado, which
not only destroyed our home, but pretty much left us without a spring
vegetable garden for the first time in about 10 years. Fortunately,
my friend Steven Coyne, author of the 'I Grow Vegetables' blog has
quite the huge garden, and he has more cucumbers than he and his wife
can eat, so we were fortunate enough to share in his bounty.
So last week we stopped over for the
day and got into the kitchen to make a couple batches of pickles
primarily dills, and some refrigerator pickles. Steven has a great
refrigerator pickle recipe and you can read all about it on his blog
'I Grow Vegetables: Refrigerator Pickles'. We made refrigerator pickles last year as well,
but that was before my wife and I embarked on a LCHF / Ketogenic way
of eating (WOE). Steve's original recipe called for sugar, but I
substituted liquid sucralose (25% concentration). Therefore, all of
the carbohydrates in this recipe come from the vegetables, which is
where the majority of your carbohydrates should come from when you
eating LCHF.
So in this article, I will be teaching
you how to make delicious LCHF / Ketogenic refrigerator pickles that
everyone in your family will enjoy. The best part is that they will
be ready to eat in a week, and you do not have to have any fancy
canning equipment to make them.
The Recipe
As I mentioned, this recipe originally
came from my friend Steve, but I made some small changes in order to
suit not only my personal tastes, but to make it keto friendly. The
biggest change is of course the substitution of liquid sucralose for
the granulated sugar. I also changed some of the quantities of the
spices in the pickling brine. To find put more about liquid sucralose, check out my article 'Liquid Sucralose: A Great LCHF Sweetener'.
8 cups of sliced cucumbers (about 3
large)
1 ½ cups onion, sliced thin
¼ cup red bell peppers, sliced thin
¼ cup green bell peppers, sliced thin
1 recipe pickling liquid (see below)
Chef's Note: Personally, I
also like a bit more bell pepper, not only for color, but because I
like their flavor when they are pickled. If you grow them or can get
them on sale, zucchini makes a good substitution for the cucumbers
and as a bonus 1 cup of zucchini only contains 2.4 net carbs, whereas
1 cup of cucumbers contains 3.2 net carbs.
Pickling Liquid (The Brine)
3 cups of white vinegar (5% acidity)
4 teaspoons pickling salt
2 teaspoons celery seed
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon liquid sucralose (25%
concentration)
Place all of the ingredients for the
brine in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil and simmer for 3 – 5
minutes.
Chef's Note: Personally I like my cucumber pickles for this recipe to be cut about the same thickness as dill pickle chips, and I usually cut them by hand. Steve likes the thinner slices and cuts his on a mandolin. You can also cut them into spears, just keep in mind that the thicker the cut of the veggies, the longer they take to brine. For spears, it may take 10 to 14 days before they are ready.
Putting it all Together
While the brine is coming to a boil,
slice the cucumbers, onions, and bell peppers and place in a large
bowl. When the pickling liquid is ready, remove from the heat and
pour the hot mixture over the sliced cucumbers, onions, and bell
peppers and allow to cool to room temperature (about 20 minutes).
Pack the vegetables in pint or quart
jars and top off with pickling liquid. Attach the lids and place the
jars in the refrigerator and chill. Allow the pickles to sit
undisturbed for 3 – 5 days for thin sliced cucumbers, and 7 – 10
days for thick sliced cucumbers to allow the brine to work it's
magic. (Yield: about 2 quarts)
Total Recipe
Calories – 233, protein 7.9 grams,
fat 2 grams, carbohydrates 45.4
Per Quart Jar (2 pints)
Calories – 116.5, protein 3.95 grams,
fat 1 grams, carbohydrates 22.7
Per Pint Jar (2 cups)
Calories – 58.25, protein 1.97 grams,
fat 0.5 grams, carbohydrates 11.35
Per Cup
Calories – 29.12, protein 0.99 grams,
fat 0.25 grams, carbohydrates 5.67
Chef's Note: Because I have
them, I use canning jars for my pickles, but you could place them in
any glass container with a lid. Remember we are not processing these
pickles, they will be kept in the refrigerator. Because we are not
processing them, I use clean, old lids from previous jars that have
been opened and the contents eaten. No since in wasting new lids on
refrigerator pickles.
Conclusion
We opened the first jar of these
pickles today five days after they were canned up, and they taste
fantastic. The veggies are crisp and crunchy, and sweet, just as if
they were made with sugar. That's the great thing about liquid
sucralose, you can use it in hot or cold conditions just like sugar.
Not only does it taste the same as sugar, it has zero, yes I said it,
zero carbohydrates. Keep in mind that because these pickles are not processed in a water bath or pressure canner, they only have a shelf-life of 60 days in your refrigerator. So while you could double this recipe, unless you eat a lot of pickles or intend to give them away to your friends and family, they may go bad before you can eat them all.
I hope that you will try out these pickles and I
guarantee you that you and your family will love them. As always, we
ask that if you find the information in this article informative and
enjoyable, that you share it this post with your friends. Don't
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