Zucchini are a popular summer vegetable that is now available in stores all year round. Zucchinis from the garden usually ripen in masses, so not all of them can be eaten. It's worth cooking the pumpkin's green relatives in jars in advance.
How to preserve zucchini?
Zucchini can be preserved by sweet and sour preserving or by cooking in a preserving kettle or oven. It is important to use sterilized jars and to cook the zucchini with a suitable stock, vegetables and spices so that they stay fresh for a long time.
Wake up sweet and sour zucchini
The green fruits can be deliciously seasoned and cooked in jars. This means that any surplus harvest is used sensibly and you can fall back on your harvest in the winter months. In addition to the ripe fruits, you will need onions, peppers and carrots to taste, apple juice, apple cider vinegar, sugar, s alt, pepper and dill. You should also sterilize enough jars with twist-off lids or swing tops. To do this, boil the jars or place them in the oven at 100 degrees for ten minutes. Germ-free glasses are essential for the shelf life of the food, as this prevents the formation of mold.
Once the jars are prepared, you can start preserving.
- Wash the zucchini and remove the flower base and the thick stem.
- Cut the zucchini into centimeter-thick slices.
- Peel the onions and cut them into rings.
- If you also want to pickle garlic, peel the cloves and cut them into thin slices.
- You can add other vegetables depending on your taste. Clean the vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
- Heat the water with vinegar and sugar.
- When the stock is boiling, add the zucchini slices, the onion rings, the other vegetables if necessary and the garlic slices.
- Let everything come to the boil.
- Then add the remaining spices and let everything boil again.
- Turn down the stove to a low heat and cook the vegetables for about a quarter of an hour.
- Now place the vegetables in the jars and fill them up to the brim with the stock. All vegetables must be covered with liquid. Whatever looks out of the brew becomes shriveled and dried up.
- Close the jars and turn them upside down so that a vacuum can be created. The contents will last for about a year.
- Keep your zucchini jars cool and dark.
Cooking zucchini in a kettle or oven
If you want to preserve the zucchinis in this way, you don't have to cook the vegetables first.
- Wash and clean the zucchini.
- Cut these into bite-sized cubes.
- Dice an onion too.
- S alt both with 6 tablespoons of s alt in a large bowl and let the whole thing sit for three hours so that excess water can drain out.
- Prepare a broth from half a liter of vinegar and oil, 1 tablespoon of pepper and 5 tablespoons of sugar.
- Also add spices such as 3 bay leaves, 3 allspice and 3 peppercorns. You can also add the water that extracted the s alt from the zucchini.
- Put the zucchini in the sterilized jars and pour the hot spice mixture over them. The zucchini should be covered.
- Close the jars and cook them in the oven or canner.
In the preserving machine
Place the glasses in the kettle so that they do not touch each other. Otherwise they could burst in the heat. Pour water up to half of the glasses. Cook the zucchini at 80 degrees for 15 minutes. Let the glasses cool in the kettle for about 20 minutes. Then take your food out and let it cool completely under a tea towel.
In the oven
Use the drip pan here. Do not place the glasses too close and add 2 cm of water. Put the tray in the oven, heat to 100 degrees and turn off the oven when the liquid in the jars begins to bubble. Leave the jars in the oven for 15-20 minutes and then remove them. The glasses can cool completely under a cloth.
If you have kept the equipment as germ-free as possible when preserving, the preserved zucchini can stay fresh in the jar for several years.
