Yay for summer time and pickling! I planted a whole bunch of beans and as a result now have a whole bunch of beans -funny how that works. I love to fix them with a quick stir fry or blanching too. However, I think my girl’s have a new favorite, dilly beans. Dilly beans are just like making pickles, minus the canning part; so you have to keep them refrigerated.
Looking at all the colors I still wanted more, so I grabbed some carrots and let my oldest peel them; she loves helping. While she was peeling I grabbed an onion, a head of garlic, and some spices and started the brine. I like to put the onions and garlic in the brine and bring everything to a boil. I’ve found that putting the onions amd garlic in early helps them pickle quicker. I also added the carrots early so they could get a head start on pickling too.
The brine is really easy as long as you remember 2:1 ratio of 2 cups water to 1 cup vinegar. Any vinegar will work; apple cider, balsamic, red wine, white wine or rice vinegar, but I really like the plain white vinegar. You just want to make sure that the brine covers everything. Salt is the other thing, use kosher salt. If you are in a pinch and only have iodized salt, that will work, but it will make your brine cloudy – learned that one from experience.
The grape leaves also change color and pickle in the brine.
Ingredients
- 3-4 lbs green beans
- 3-4 carrots, peeled
Brine Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic, peeled
- 1 onion
- 3-4 stalks of fresh dill
- 3 allspice balls
- 1 tspn black peppercorns
- 1/2 tspn mustard seed
- 1/2 tspn fennel seed
- 6 cups water
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 4-5 fresh grape leaves (optional)
Directions
- Pour the water and vinegar into a large pot and set on high. Make sure you have enough liquid to fully submerge all your beans.
- Peel the onion and garlic. Slice the onion into large chunks and add to the brine.
- Add the salt and spices into the brine and taste. Add more salt or other spices if you want more of a certain flavor.
- Peel the carrots and slice into chunks that are about the same size as your beans; add them to the brine.
- Prep your beans by washing and snapping off the ends. You should have plenty of time before the brine starts to boil.
- Let the carrots boil for 2 minutes and then add the beans.
- Gently stir the beans and turn off the heat.
- If you are using grape leaves, place them on the top of the pot and submerge them.
- When everything has cooled place your dilly beans inside some containers and refrigerate.
- They should last at least a month in the refrigerator, unless you eat all them first.
