Pickled Strawberries, First Attempt Not a Winner

Last week I attempted to make Spicy Pickled Strawberries.  I am always on the lookout for recipes I can make with seasonal fruits and vegetables that are on sale, recipes I can process and store or give as gifts and really anything new that looks appealing.

Now with everything on the web, Facebook posts, Pinterest, recipes are everywhere and are sent to you even if your not looking and not everything that is posted is good.  But it is also all about your own taste and what you like so sometimes it is almost right and then I add our favorite ingredients or take away some of those I don't like and in the end I have a recipe I love or one for the recycle bin.

Last week attempt was Pickled Strawberries.  It was easy, cheap to make, but not so good.  The strawberries were extremely sour on day 2, giving you a pucker face and tasting like the apple vinegar it was soaking in.  As the week progressed it got more of a slight jalapeno flavor which was a good addition and the pucker did mellow a bit but it was still too vinegary.  The original recipe came from the CanCanGirls.

I want to try and add more sugar and also try Mr. Vickers Spicy Pickled Strawberries.  If they are able to sell these they have to be better...right?  I'll let you know when I purchase them and how my next attempt at it works out.

Last night I decided to add them to my salad.  I hate to waste things so I figured the pickling juice can be used in place of vinegar in salads and I thought if I made a sweet dressing it would tone down the vinegar in the strawberries.  The salad consisted of the following, a bit of a refrigerator clean out.

The dressing was sweeter than I would have made if I had I not added the sour strawberries but it all worked.  In this salad the strawberries were edible but alone they are still a bit too sour. 

Vibrant Red Salad
Roasted red beets
Red bell pepper
Tomatoes
Strawberries with a few of the Jalapenos diced
Carrots
1 pealed and diced peach
Fresh ball Mozzarella
Feta
Arugula
Spinach

Dressing
2 T. of the pickling juice
2 T. agave
4 T. grape seed oil
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

This salad is shown here with boneless, skinless Teriyaki Chicken Thighs.

UPDATE:  Although I didn't consider this a win for "Pickled Strawberries" it was a win for Strawberry Vinegar.  The second attempt on Pickled Strawberries was much better.  To see that recipe, click here.