Homemade pickle power.

Recently, I was confronted by some very sad looking fennel and cucumbers lying in the crisper. I really hate food waste and so decided that some homemade pickles could save the day. Pickles are made with vinegar, salt and almost any combination of your favourite herbs and spices. Ideas for vegetables that you can pickle include: cucumbers, fennel, carrots, beetroot, beans, chillis or asparagus.

The jar shown above contains ‘quick’ pickles. Quick pickles are great if you are in a hurry and want to extend the life of vegetables for about a week. You can get that lovely sour, crunchy pickle after about a day in the fridge. However, to really get some added sourness out of your pickles you will need to let them ferment.

Fermentation is the process in which the salt and vinegar in the pickling liquid work to break-down the naturally occurring sugars in the vegetables. This process produces probiotics - or live mircorganisms, which may improve gut health. To achieve fermentation at home you need to make sure that you leave your pickles in a dark place (out of the fridge) for a few days or until you see some bubbles forming. The bubbles indicate a chemical reaction is underway. The longer that you leave your pickles outside the fridge the more sour they will become.

While the research on the benefits of fermented foods is still emerging, I can promise you that making your own pickles will add some interest to your 5-a-day and cut down on wastage.