Once again we have been blessed with a bumper crop of garlic scapes! Each year I explore new ways to utilize this bonus crop and today I am going to present you with two refrigerator pickled scape recipes that are sure to delight.
Like fermenting, fridge pickles involve very little in the way of prep work, equipment or heating up your kitchen, which are big pluses. The downside is that they are not shelf stable and need to be stored in the fridge. However, water batch canning does change the texture of foods, so I feel like these fridge garlic scape pickles are the way to go because they will stay nice and crunchy.
Other Garlic Scape Options
If you have a large amount of garlic scapes to work through, here are some great options in terms of preservation.
- Fermented Garlic Scapes
- Garlic Scape Pesto
- Compound Butter
- This video shows the process for compound butter using wild leeks, but it’s basically the same premise.
Pickled Garlic Scapes – Two Ways
What is nice about refrigerator pickles is that you can tweak the recipes anyway you’d like and you do not have to worry about whether your changes meant it was not longer “canning safe”. Once these babies are done they go right into the fridge. Wait for about 4 weeks and you’ll have a crunchy treat.
I am sharing two ways to prepare these pickled garlic scapes – one is your basic pickle recipe and the second is more like a bread and butter pickle base (which means it has a bit of sweetness to it). These recipes will yield one 500ml (or pint) jar of pickled garlic scapes.
Regular Pickled Garlic Scapes
Ingredients
- 15 garlic scapes (approximately)
- You can chop these into bite sized pieces or keep them larger
- 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp dill seed
- 1/2 tsp of peppercorns
Instructions
- Place your garlic scapes, chopped or whole, into a 500ml (pint) jar.
- On the stovetop, gently warm your apple cider vinegar and salt until the salt dissolves in the liquid
- Add your spices to your jar
- Cover with apple cider vinegar
- Place a lid on your jar, label and when cooled, store in the fridge
- Wait about 4 weeks for the flavours to marry and then enjoy!
Bread and Butter Garlic Scapes
Ingredients
- 15 garlic scapes (approximately)
- You can chop these into bite sized pieces or keep them larger
- 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 4 tsp sea salt
- 4 tsp of cane sugar
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/8 tsp of turmeric powder
Instructions
- Place your garlic scapes, chopped or whole, into a 500ml (pint) jar.
- On the stovetop, gently warm your apple cider vinegar and salt until the salt and sugar dissolves in the liquid
- Add your spices to your jar
- Cover with apple cider vinegar
- Place a lid on your jar, label and when cooled, store in the fridge
- Wait about 4 weeks for the flavours to marry and then enjoy!
- 15 chopped garlic scapes approximately
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 4 tsp sea salt
- 4 tsp cane sugar (B & B)
- 1 tsp dill seed (regular pickles)
- 1/2 tsp peppercorns (regular pickles)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds (B & B)
- 1/8 tsp turmeric powder (B & B)
- Chop your garlic scapes into bite sized pieces. It is also perfectly acceptable to keep them whole and place in them in jar that way.
- Warm your apple cider vinegar on the stove, dissolving the salt (and sugar if you are making the bread and butter variety) into the vinegar.
- Add the appropriate spices to your jar depending on variety. Regular Pickles 1 tsp dill seed 1/2 tsp peppercorns Bread and Butter 1 tsp mustard seeds 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
- Cover the your apple cider vinegar and salt (plus sugar for bread and butter).
- Place a lid on your pickles, label and once cooled, store in the fridge.
- Wait about 4 weeks allowing the flavours to marry and then enoy!
I hope you enjoy your pickled garlic scapes. If you have a favourite way to enjoy this crop, please leave a comment below.
Until next time,
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