Healthy Canning & Preserves Recipes

For these easy pickled beets, you only need to let them marinate in the pickling mixture for about 30 minutes to get great flavor. Marinating them longer just enhances the taste. Try them in place of cucumber pickles as a condiment or as a vegetable side dish for roasted chicken or beef.

This sweet-and-salty quick pickled cabbage is great to have on hand for a topping for sandwiches, hot dogs or brats. Both green and red cabbage work well and maintain their crunch after marinating in the pickling liquid that imparts a subtle, spicy flavor thanks to chile peppers.

This fermented food delivers a healthy dose of probiotics for gut health. Want to learn how to make sauerkraut at home? For this easy homemade sauerkraut recipe, choose fresh, firm heads of cabbage and use canning, pickling or kosher salt (not iodized salt).

Pickled garlic? You bet! This simple pickled garlic clove recipe is made by adding whole peeled garlic cloves to a flavorful brine. Use almost any type of clear vinegar—white, red or cider vinegar.

This Mexican-style pickled carrot recipe is great for topping tacos, tostadas and/or quesadillas or as a side to any South-of-the-border entrée. These spicy carrots are also delicious added to a bowl of soup or tossed with spring greens, feta cheese and just a drizzle of olive oil.

Using sweet brine instead of sour tempers the heat of hot peppers in these sweet pickled peppers.

You'll want to bring a pitcher of this white sangria to parties and potlucks all summer long. Fresh peaches look gorgeous in these delicious sparkling peach cocktails, but frozen peaches work too (and help keep your drink cool).

Kombucha is a lightly fizzy, fermented tea drink that's making waves for its probiotic benefits and tart flavor. Making kombucha at home is quite simple: make sweetened tea, add it to a jar with a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) and let it ferment for about a week. The scoby is a pancake-shaped living culture that eats most of the sugar in the tea, turning it into a tangy and delicious fermented beverage.

Make your BBQ or cookout easy with this slow-cooker beef brisket recipe. Rauchbier, a smoky German beer, gives this fork-tender brisket real pit-barbecue flavor, but you can use any beer that suits your taste, or even substitute beef broth, to achieve mouthwatering results. While the brisket is cooking, whip up the quick pickle recipe and stir together a garlic mayo to top off the sandwiches.

If you are looking to start fermenting your own vegetables, the Korean dish kimchi is a great place to start. It's easy to make, and fermentation takes just a few days. Once you have kimchi on hand, serve this healthy dish along with any meal, as an ingredient in stir-fries, stews, savory pancakes and more, or as a condiment to liven up grain bowls, tacos, sandwiches—and the list goes on!

The easiest, fastest way to boost a simple dish? Keep a jar of flavor-packed pickle on hand. A perfect combo of sweet and sour, this chunky tomato-pepper relish, aka "pea helper," dresses up a bowl of black-eyed peas, crowder peas, lima beans--any old legume you can think of. Hence the nickname! This makes the perfect hostess gift because it's unique and versatile. And let's face it, who doesn't want their beans to be more exciting?

Is your garden booming? Making quick pickles is a low-pressure way to use up your bounty. Mix and match the vegetables as you see fit; just try to maintain a variety of textures and colors. Tip: After you finish a jar, use the leftover brine to make vinaigrette.