Sweet pickles 🥒

Suitable for: vegan, low phosphorus (11mg), low potassium (75mg), low sodium (2mg), gluten-free, soy-free – measured for ¹/₄ medium sized jar

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Pickles aren’t a big thing in France where I was born, so believe it or not but I had never seen a full size pickled cucumber until I moved to Finland!
French people do love “cornichons” though, baby cucumbers pickled in vinegar with mustard seeds and baby onions, but that’s about the only pickle they have.

Somehow in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic I fell deep into pickling and decided to pickle everything – cucumbers, red onions, daikon and even watermelon!
When I got put on a low sodium diet for medical reasons, I decided to learn how to make pickles without salt, and here is my version for cucumber pickles that are still tasty and keep a long time in the fridge even without the salt!
Mostly have no idea what are dill pickles versus sweet pickles versus… whatever. I based this recipe on different sweet pickle recipes I found online, and my Finnish friends seem to love it, so here you go!

I’m very lucky to have a small garden at my mother-in-law, and as the temperatures were getting lower in September and that a big storm was announced, we decided to collect all the last cucumbers in our garden and I made a big batch of pickles! Here’s the recipe I used.

Recipe

Makes 5 small to middle sized jars.
You can find the nutritional information for the ingredients at the bottom of the article.

Ingredients

• 500g (18oz) cucumbers
• 250ml (1 cup) white vinegar
• 250ml (1 cup) apple cider vinegar
• 425ml (1.5 cup) water
• 150g (1 cup) sugar
• 1 big onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• Pickling spices: dill, peppercorn, mustard seeds

Instructions

1. Scrub the cucumbers with a vegetable brush or the scratchy side of a sponge to get rid of the spikes.
2. Cut the blossom ends of the cucumbers to ensure they stay crisp, and then cut them further in the shape you want. I usually go with slices of 2-3mm (¹/₈ inch), but you can also cut them in quarters or leave them whole.
3. Because we can’t salt the moisture out if we want to avoid the salt, I put the sliced cucumbers between layers of paper towels and let them rest for 15min to an hour.
4. Sterilize the jars you will use by boiling them for 10min, and sterilize the jar lids and joints by putting them in hot but not boiling water for 10min (I use the same water as the jars, but leave it off the stove).
5. In a saucepan, mix the two vinegars, the water and the sugar, and heat up on medium-high until it boils and the sugar dissolves, then take off the heat.
6. Slice the onion very thinly and halve the garlic cloves.
7. In the sterilized jars, put some onion, garlic and spices, then the cucumbers, then some more onion, garlic and spices on top.
8. Pour the boiling vinegar-water-sugar mixture over the cucumbers in the jars, close the jars and turn upside down.
9. Leave on the counter until it cools down, then refrigerate. It will be good to eat in a week, and should stay good for about 2 months.

Nutritional informations

Total measurements (for 5 small to middle sized jars):

• 500g cucumbers is ~1105mg potassium, ~146mg phosphorus, ~30mg salt
• 500ml vinegar is ~0mg potassium, ~0mg phosphorus, ~0mg salt
• 150g sugar is ~3mg potassium, ~0mg phosphorus, ~0mg salt
• 75g onion is ~165mg potassium, ~30mg phosphorus, ~7mg salt
• 30g garlic is ~200mg potassium, ~50mg phosphorus, ~0mg salt

For a total of (for 1/4 jar): ~75mg potassium, ~11mg phosphorus, ~2mg salt, no gluten, no soy, no cholesterol, no animal products.