Mixed marinated pickles

Making your own pickles is easy and is a great way to use up leftover vegetables in your fridge. They're also great for your health and last up to 3 months. The vegetables I've used are just a guide, you can use whichever vegetables or herbs you wish.

Ingredients

Vegetables

• Half a cucumber
• 1 carrot
• 2 mixed baby peppers
• 1/2 a red onion
• 2 radishes

Marinade

• 1 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 small red chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 large slices lemon peel

Pickling mixture

• 2 cups white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 cups water

• Method

• 1. In a large bowl stir together all of the marinade ingredients. Add all the pickling ingredients to a large pot and bring to the boil. While the mixture is heating, slice the vegetables into bite sized pieces, usually circles for the cucumbers, radishes and carrots and length ways for the other vegetables. You want the pickling ingredients to be able to penetrate the vegetables so you don't want them to be too thick.
  2. Add the vegetables to the boiling pickling mixture for three minutes before straining. Make sure while they're in the water that they are submerged, push them down with a spoon if necessary.
  3. Add the hot vegetables to the marinade and mix it all together. Whilst still hot, spoon into sterilised jars and cover with the marinade. If the marinade doesn't fully cover the vegetables, pour over additional olive oil. Ideally wait a couple of weeks so the marinade can infuse. These will keep for up to three months in the cupboard and one week in the fridge after opening.