Salad mashhadi Pickle

Pickling is a very common form of preserving  food  in Iran for winter, although we make different pickles  for all seasons , I think  you can spice up every meal by delicious pickles with salty or sour tastes,  they are fat free and low calorie  side dishes,  but as we all know  everything delicious can be harmful to our health  as we enjoy their benefits , so my motto is to keep everything  moderately . I also try to not use salt  excessively .

Iranians preserve  vegetables mostly  by fermentation in brine ( solution of salt in water) or storing them in  an acid solution  ( vinegar)  or  brine and acid  together, according to my own foodie protocol  I only use  combination of vinegar and salt,  it gives me the best result   always, unless I want to brine  cucumber ( khair shoor)  khiar is cucumber and shoor means salty,  

I know the  winter is going to  end soon in a few days but  it will be fun to have a small bottle of pickle  at your  fridge  in the spring!  I have to warn you  I am used to measure  things  with  my eyes  specially when I am making pickles and I can’t give you exact  amounts of raw materials , I have always made pickles in large scale . Don’t limit yourself for the ingredients measurement  you can reduce or even increase the ingredients  amounts.

Ingredients:

Half of  small size  cauliflower ( finely chopped)

500 gr carrot (chopped in very small cubes)

3 kg tomato

1 yellow bell pepper  1 green  bell pepper

One cup pickled cucumber ( chopped finely in small cubes)

5 cloves of garlic 9 finely chopped

4 cups  apple vinegar one cup water  and 1 table spoon salt  ( you can add salt if you wish to have salty solution)

One table spoon  coriander seeds

1 tea spoon turmeric

Direction

       First wash  all the vegetables   and dry them  completely , Put tomatoes in hot boiling water , drain them  after a minute  and rinse with cold water  so that you can easily peel the tomatoes.   process  tomatoes in your food processor  or you can chop them  finely ,  cook them without  adding any salt, or water  and until a thick consistency  but not like a thick  tomato paste!  Remove from the heat and  Leave it to cool

      Chop the cauliflower, carrots and pickled cucumbers  in fine small cubes , I processed  cauliflower and carrot  in electric chopper ,

    In large bowl  combine all the ingredients together ,

    Prepare a few containers some jars or you can use  air tight food containers,  wash them thoroughly and put them in the microwave  for a few minutes to dry and  clean them, or you can  clean the jars in hot water bath over the  heat I am sure you know the technique

 Jar Preparation
Wash the jars , lids, and bands in hot, soapy water; rinse and drain. Fill the canner with water and place the jars in the rack. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat and keep jars hot until you're ready to fill them.

Put the flat lids in a saucepan and cover with water; bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Do not boil. Reduce heat and keep them hot until you're ready to use them

      In a sauce pan add vinegar,  water and salt  bring it into  a boil and remove the pan form the heat.

       Fill the containers or jars with jars with a ladle the ingredients,  leaving the appropriate amount of headspace,  pour the vinegar salt solution to the  jars, seal them.  Put the pickle bottles or containers in the fridge  for a few days,  It s important to  keep it in the fridge always  because this pickle  has got a cooked  tomato ,

   You can  have this pickle after a few days,

I hope you like it.