A quick way to preserve your hot peppers from the garden is pickled hot peppers, you can do this in the fridge or also water-bath process your peppers for longer-term storage.
Pepper Varieties
Mixing peppers will give you a unique flavour and allows you to tailor the level of spice to your preference. As the peppers pickle, the level of spice will mellow slightly. My pickled peppers this year will include a combination of:
- Hungarian Yellow Wax Pepper
- Santa Fe Grande
- Habanada
For more details about the pepper varieties I’m growing this year, check out this post.
How to make Pickled Peppers
There are two methods you can use for making pickled hot peppers at home.
- Quick Refridgerator Pickle works best when you have a small number of peppers that you’d like to preserve and doesn’t take much time. The recipe below works great for these and is very similar to my Quick Pickled Red Onions recipe. You can continue to add peppers to the brine as your harvest them from the garden, just be sure to give them enough time to pickle before you use them. I will keep these in the fridge for a few months if they last that long.
- Water-Bath Canning allows for long-term storage of the pickled peppers without the need for a fridge. This is best when you have a large number of peppers to preserve. I’ve found this recipe from Ball Mason Jars a good recipe for water-bath canning.
Always be careful when handling hot peppers, if you are sensitive to the spice you can use gloves and be sure to clean all surfaces and tools such as knives once you are done.
Our favourite way to use pickled hot peppers is on pizza, it adds a nice level of spice as well as a bit of acidity. These are also great for tacos or nachos.
I hope you enjoy and let me know in the comments below your favourite way to use pickled hot peppers.
Pickled Hot Peppers
Ingredients
- 5-6 Hot Peppers
- ½ cup white vinegar
- ½ cup water
- 1 pinch kosher salt
Instructions
- Slice hot peppers into rings and place them in a jar. I find a pint jar works well.
- Add white vinegar until peppers are half-covered, approximately ½ cup. Next add enough water to cover the peppers, approximately ½ cup. You are aiming for half vinegar and half water.
- Add a pinch of kosher salt. Install lid and shake to mix.
- Allow to sit for at least one day in the fridge before serving.
Yummy!!!