Hot Italian Giardiniera
Big assortment of fresh veggies, lightly seasoned and pickled, that's good with absolutely everything - on its own as antipasto, always on sandwiches, definitely in pasta salads.
Servings: 8 cups
Calories: 52kcal
Ingredients
- 8 oz. hot peppers thinly sliced (see notes)
- 8 oz. sweet peppers thinly sliced (see notes)
- 1 1/2 cups cauliflower roughly chopped
- 2 large carrots peeled & thinly sliced
- 2 large stalks celery sliced
- 1 large onion thickly sliced, slices quartered
- 8 cloves garlic lightly crushed
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups canola oil
- 2 T. italian seasoning
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- Toss all the vegetables together until evenly mixed.
- Fold in apple cider vinegar, canola oil, and italian seasoning.
- Transfer the veggies to a glass storage jar and pour any remaining vinegar mix on top. Add water to just barely cover the veggies. Carefully shake to distribute.
- Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before using to let the flavors soak together. Store in the fridge for up to a month.
Notes
"Hot peppers" and "sweet peppers" are intentionally vague - the idea is to use whatever you have available locally. You can also control the heat level, even using all sweet peppers if you don't like it spicy.
For my hot peppers, I used 2 fresno, 2 santa fe, 2 small habanero, and the rest jalapeno to reach 1/2 pound. This makes for a very spicy mix - remember that the oil will soak up and intensify the heat! For my sweet peppers, I used colorful 'mighty mini' peppers - no heat and a nice crunch.
If you want to be able to distinguish which peppers are hot and sweet in the final mix, I recommend using only jalapenos and mighty minis so you know all the green slices are spicy!