Sour Celery & Red Pepper Pickle

This tangy, salty, slightly sweet, and savory pickle brings all the flavors of Chinese food to the table. The combination of textures from the crunchy celery and the satiney peppers adds additional complexity and makes this pickle an easy side with any rice, fish, or noodle dish.

This recipe comes from my favorite book for pickling, Asian Pickles by Karen Solomon. The book is packed with pickle recipes from Asian countries that will bring you right back to the places you visited.

This recipe makes about 3 cups of pickle that an be stored in the refrigerator for months, if you don’t eat it all immediately.

Get ready and get cooking by grabbing the ingredients below.

• 1 pound celery, trimmed, and leaves removed

• 2 teaspoon avocado or peanut oil

• 8 ounces red, yellow, and orange peppers, cut into, thin strips. Seeds discarded

• 4 teaspoons sugar

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I prefer low sodium)

• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

• 1/3 cup cool water

• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Use a vegetable peeler to remove the tough strings from the celery, then slice it at an angle, 3/4 inch thick. Place celery in a medium bowl.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper and salt and sauté until the pepper softens and blackens in spots, about 7 to 8 minutes. Add the peppers to the celery.

While the peppers are still warm, add the sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, and sesame oil to the bowl with the celery and peppers. Stir well. Your pickle is ready to eat immediately, but the flavors will develop more if you wait until the next day.

Place the pickle in canning jars or any container with a tight fitting lid. Cover and refrigerate. This pickle keeps for months when stored properly. I just made 4 quart jars that will last through the winter to be eaten with ramen and other Asian pickles, like Pickled Mustard Greens.