My First Attempt at Making Giardiniera!
By Dana Roeske
This was my first try at making fresh Giardiniera. I found the Paupered Chef’s recipe online and wanted to try it. Although winter isn’t the best time to make things with fresh vegetables, I thought I’d give it a go. They use a lot of red peppers and most of the Giard we have eaten is green! I also wanted to try variations of the oil & vinegar combo. I purchased organic veggies, just because I thought they might be better tasting, especially this time of year.
I’m sure it would have been much easier with a food processor, but since I wasn’t making a huge batch, I thought I would chop the veggies by hand. My knife skills are not that great, so it took a while and my veggies are not completely uniform in size, what-evs...
I used the Paupered Chef’s recipe with a few modifications, and I doubled it.
Ingredient List
12 serrano peppers, thinly sliced
4 red bell peppers
3 celery ribs, thinly sliced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 head cauliflower, stems removed and florets (I broke them apart with my hands)
1 cup salt
6 cloves garlic
4 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon celery seeds
black pepper
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups Canola oil
Directions and What Not
Day Before: Chop all veggies and mix in a bowl. Mix in the salt and add enough water to cover the veggies. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight.
The next day:
- Rinse the veggies well and drain.
- Spoon the veggies into jars.
- Chop the garlic and mix in the spices (red pepper, celery seed, oregano, black pepper).
- Add the vinegar to the bowl, mix to combine.
- Slowly mix in the oil
I added a jalapeño to one jar for more heat (with the seeds). I also added olives to some jars that I made but did not brine them, since they were already brined.
I did this a little different since I wanted to try some oil/vinegar variations, so I distributed the garlic and spice mixture among the jars...then I did my vinegar/oil combos and added them to the jars and labeled them, so I knew which was which.
I did white vinegar and canola combo, white vinegar and 1/2 evoo, 1/2 canola, cider vinegar & canola, evoo & canola combo... to see which combo tasted the best. I’d also like to try it with a red wine vinegar next time.
You are supposed to let it sit for at least 48 hours, but you can let it sit longer. The longer it sits, the better.
I have tried one variation, and it’s YUMMY, but I can see tweaking the recipe when I make it again. We are going to taste test this weekend (it has been marinating for 2 weeks on Friday) and we’ll let you know the verdict!