How to Have your Pickles, and Eat them, Too...

I love pickles, always have, but they're REALLY bad for you. All store-bought pickles have HORRIBLY high sodium content and sugar content, even if they're not sweet pickles. I've looked up recipes to make my own, and it's the same for homemade pickles if you're making them and canning. I know the salt is a preservative, but I have no idea why a jar of pickles has more sugar than a soft drink.

What I've started doing, however, is making my own "refrigerator pickles" (in other words, not canned). I just make a mixture of vinegars in a container, throw in some seasonings, and then put slices of cucumber, onion or bell pepper into the liquid and put in the fridge.

A couple of days later, I can start enjoying my pickles. I'll throw them on top of my salads for some extra flavor or just have a few as a snack. Cucumbers have almost nothing in them except some vitamins and most of that is in the skin. This could also be done with carrots and cauliflower, for an "Italian mix"-esque sort of pickles, or cabbage with some hot sauce to have your own kimchi, of sorts. I don't want to use seasonings that have a lot of salt in them (that would defeat the purpose), but most of the flavor comes from the vinegar, anyway. I sometimes use dill, Mrs. Dash or even hot sauces - to bring the heat up a bit. This way, I can tailor the taste as I like and cut out a huge amount of sodium and sugar.

If you try this, you'll want to try mixing different vinegars to get a flavor your really like. Don't overlook white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar and, of course, apple cider vinegar.

One thing you want to do is to keep from introducing too much water into the jar, since bacteria can grow in water. I have put pepper slices in the oven to dry them out a bit prior to making them into pickles and will let the water drain out of cucumber slices and them dry them a bit by pressing them in a paper towel before dropping them into the mix.

Not only is this healthier than buying store-bought pickles, but you do this with vegetables that you "overbought," to help them last longer if you're not going to get around to eating them in other ways quickly. If you need to store them long term, you probably need to go the higher sodium route and actually can them, but, if you like pickles as much as I do, a few jars in the fridge won't last long enough to be a problem.