Lemony Cabbage or Onion Pickles

Tangy Cabbage and Onion Refrigerator Pickles

Our Meyer lemon tree has a full load of juicy lemons. So when we have lemons will we make lemonade? Well, sometimes we do, but here is another great way we enjoy those lemons. We’ve made refrigerator pickles before, see our post on lemony cucumber pickles, now we’ve adapted to other vegetables to make quick lemony cabbage and onion pickles. They are a bit like sauerkraut, but not fermented and are ready to eat in a few days. The result is a crunchy, tangy tasty dish. We tried a batch with onions and another with cabbage. Both got high ratings from our test panel.

This goes great as a side dish or as a tangy addition to soups or vegetable dishes. Since the cabbage (or onion) is not cooked it still has a nice fresh crunch. The lemon juice and spices add wonderful flavor.

The recipe has few ingredients and is quick to make. Once put into jars, they go into the refrigerator for a few days to absorb the flavors, then they are ready to enjoy.

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Ingredients

This recipe is for making 6 cups of pickled cabbage. We used 2 jars totalling 6 cups. One was a quart (4 cup) jar, the other was 2 cups.

• 6 cups finely chopped red cabbage
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 of our Meyer lemons, which are large)
• 2 cups hot water, maybe a little more
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 4-5 bay leaves (whole)
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds (whole)
• 2 teaspoons dill seeds (whole)
• 5 cloves garlic, whole or sliced
• 6-8 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns (whole)
• 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds (whole)

Variations (we usually change things a bit with every batch):

• Replace the cabbage with thinly sliced onions
• The mixture of herbs and spices is easily varied to suite your taste and availability with more or less as you prefer
• Dill, fresh or dried would go well as an alternative to rosemary
• Fresh or dried tarragon may be nice also
• Caraway seeds are a nice addition
• If you like spicy, try adding crushed red pepper
• Slices of ginger will add zing.
• Whole allspice gives a sweeter flavor
• A small piece of cinnamon stick can be nice
• Try other vegetables – like chopped cauliflower or shredded beets

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Process

Select the desired jars. Wide mouth jars are more convenient for serving, but not required. For this batch we used one quart jar and one pint jar, to make a total of 6 cups. It is easy to adapt the recipe for other amounts.

Put water in a small saucepan and heat to boiling then turn off. The water does not need to be boiling, but hotter water brings out flavor of the herbs more quickly. Add salt and dissolve.

Juice the lemons and add to the hot water and salt to make the brine.

Shred, or finely chop the cabbage. To get the right amount, we stuff the cabbage into the jars tightly get to measure the correct amount, then empty into a large bowl temporarily.

Place the herbs and spices into the jars. Divide evenly between jars if using multiple jars.

Pack the cabbage tightly back into the jars then pour the brine mixture (water, lemon juice and salt) over the cabbage. The brine should cover all the cabbage. If needed, add a little more water and/or lemon juice.

Tighten the lids on the jars then invert a few times to start mixing the herbs and spices with the cabbage.

When jars have cooled, place in refrigerator for about 4 days to mature before eating. No problem sampling some before if you are like us and want to get an early taste, but the flavor gets better with time. Turning the jars over to help mix the flavors every day or so can help, but is not required.

These pickles should keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks, but ours usually disappear well before that. If you do keep them longer, check for any spoilage. The lemon juice and salt do help them stay fresh.

It is easy to adapt to smaller/larger batches. The basic formula for the brine is about half the volume of the jars. For our recipe, the jars total 6 cups, so we want about 3 cups of brine. The brine itself is 1/3 lemon juice and 2/3 water with about 1 teaspoon salt per cup of brine. In our case that is 1 cup lemon juice with 2 cups water and 3 teaspoons salt. No need to be exact on the proportions, a little more or less lemon juice will be fine!

So an example for a 1 quart (4 cup) batch, you want 2 cups brine. That would be 2/3 cups lemon juice and 1 1/3 cup water with 2 teaspoons salt.

Happy eating!