While I love my homemade, traditional sour pickles, and make two crocks full of them each year, sometime I like a sweeter, lighter, and less forceful pickle – something that doesn’t take weeks to reach maturity.
So, I make quick pickles. All it takes is about ten minutes on the stove to make a seasoned vinegar brine, and then a day in the fridge for the cucumbers and fennel to marinate.
Cucumber and Fennel Quick Pickles
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup cane vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3 tablespoons sea salt
- 2 tablespoons pickling spice
- 2 cucumbers peeled and sliced thin
- 1 medium fennel bulb cored and sliced thin
- 2 bay leafs
- 1 head flowering dill
Instructions
- Warm the vinegar and water together in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey, sea salt and pickling spice to the vinegar, and stir it until the honey and salt fully dissolve in the vinegar. Turn off the heat.
- Drop the cucumber and fennel slices into a quart-sized glass jar, top with bay leaves and dill. Pour the seasoned vinegar over the cucumbers and fennel, seal the jar and refrigerate for a day before serving.
Hi there, how warm do you need to get the water/vinegar? Reason I ask is that it says to dissolve the honey in it, and I have very recently read that heating honey makes it unhealthy to consume.
Thanks.
Hi Christina,
I warm the liquids until they’re just hot enough to dissolve the honey. But, no, heating honey doesn’t make it unhealthy to consume – not by a long shot. It’s a myth that is repeated, believed, and repeated within the health foods community.