Pickle and Preserve Your Harvest

Waste not, want not, our grandparents always said, as they filled their pantries with jars of tangy goodness that made their leftovers and pickles our favourite meal of the week. If you’ve got a glut of vegetables on your hands or a tree full of fruit and would like some help to heed their advice, you’ve come to the right place. With recipes from Pam Corbin, Kathy Slack, Kylee Newton and other pickling pros, you’ll be preserving your produce in no time to enjoy with curries, barbecues and salads as well cheese and cold meats throughout the months ahead.

Homemade pickles are a world apart from mass-produced products – so even if you don’t have a vegetable patch or allotment, now’s the time to make a beeline for your local farm shop to enjoy the taste of summer through to winter.

So gather all you can, find yourself some jars and get pickling!

Pickle the patch

If it’s been a good year for green beans in your garden, we’ve got a delicious new recipe for you to try, courtesy of the master of preserves, Pam Corbin. Pam’s spicy green bean relish is made with spices and onions to create a perfect accompaniment for barbecues, cold poultry, ham, cheese, rice or grains.

If, this year, you’re the king or queen of runner beans, Kathy Slack’s runner bean piccalilli is a great way to use up your glut. Kathy’s beany take on this British classic pickle is the crowning glory for a ploughman’s lunch.

Runner Bean Piccalili

Now digging up the last of your carrots? We can’t get enough of Pam’s carrot chutney, which makes a terrific stand-in for mango chutney with curries and spicy food. Or, if you like your pickles ready in less than half an hour, give pickling guru Kylee Newton's quick pickled carrots a go to serve with salads or labneh and flat breads.

Pams Carrot chutney

If you’re anything like us, by the end of autumn your enthusiasm for courgettes may well be starting to wane… But don’t let any go to waste! Pickle them with coriander and cumin to create Pam Corbin’s “dazzler” courgette chutney to liven up the long winter months ahead. If they’ve turned into marrows, don’t despair. Throw in some dates to sweeten them up and enjoy Lizzie's date & marrow chutney with strong blue cheese and fresh crusty bread.

 Date and marrow chutney

Pickles with punch 

If your tomatoes have arrived late to the party and you’ve got some chillies to use too, there’s no tastier way to use them up than Pam’s tomato & chilli jam. Pam’s many recommendations for savouring this scrumptiously tangy preserve include mixing it with cream cheese to serve as a dip for crunchy batons of cucumber and carrot or using it to make lip-smacking sausage rolls.

 

tomato chilli jam

 

If you have chillies but no tomatoes, you can transform them into Kylee Newton's delectable quick pickled chillies, which add heat and texture to creamy root vegetable soups and cheese on toast.

Looking for a quick way to make the best of your beetroot? Our super speedy quick beetroot & ginger pickle skips the usual cooking stage for extra crunch and the fresh ginger in the recipe adds a flavour pop that’s a perfect match for Asian dishes.

Fancy turning your homegrown shallots into a tasty pickle for autumn lunches or the festive season? We think you’d be hard pressed to find a recipe more moreish than our sweet & spicy pickled shallots with their satisfying sweet/sour balance and delicate spicy heat.

Pickled shallots 

Fruity creations

If you’re lucky enough to have an apple tree in your garden (or a neighbour who doesn’t mind you scrumping a few), our pickled apples take just 20 minutes to make and are ready to lift leftover cold meats the very next day.

If your tree (or your friendly neighbour’s) is a cooking apple tree and you can forage some blackberries too, whip up a batch of Pam Corbin’s spiced blackberry and apple butter. Fruit butters are so named because they’re smooth and spread just like soft butter. Pam recommends pairing this one with soft white creamy cheeses, Cheddar or blues, or using it to glaze ham, flavour gravies or spread on hot buttered toast.

 Apple and blackberry butter

Lucky enough to have a pear tree or know someone who does? You’ll love Pam’s pear, ginger and chilli relish, which “dances the line between a savoury jam and a fruity relish”. Serve it with cheese, sandwiches or poppadoms and curries.

Grapes are another fruit that make a perfect pickle for the cheeseboard. We like to fill as many jars as we can whenever we make Rachel Green's pickled grapes because once one is opened next to a ripe Camembert and a box of crackers it’s gone before we know it.

 

Share your recipes

If you’re busy pickling and preserving your harvest, we’d love you to share your photos and recipes with us! Tag @Aspallvinegar on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.