Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: A few delicious ways to enjoy pickles

Bleak midwinter is traditionally the time to turn to stores of produce stocked up during the summer months — those jars of jams, tomato sauce and pickles.

People who love pickles tend to really love pickles, and though there's nothing wrong with stacking them on sandwiches or eating them straight from the jar, there are plenty of things to make with dill pickles, and even the brine.

Dill pickle soup is a very prairie thing, and a pickle or two grated into a batch of borscht is delicious.

Pickles add a tangy burst to salads and sauces. Mix up a quick tartar sauce by stirring grated dill pickles into mayo to serve with roasted potatoes or other veg.

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The brine can be added to vinaigrettes, or used as a marinade for just-cooked lentils and other pulses, or drizzled over boiled, cubed potatoes as soon as they're tender and drained, before roasting.

This week on the Calgary Eyeopener, we discussed a few more delicious things to help pickle lovers eat their way through their winter stash.

Dill Pickle Roasted Potatoes or White Beans

I love either of these (sometimes I roast both on the same pan) with a dollop of tartar sauce — grated or finely chopped dill pickle, stirred into mayo.

If you like yours lemony, add a squeeze.

Ingredients

• white kidney, cannellini or butter beans (canned or cooked)
• potatoes (as many as you want to cook)
• dill pickle brine
• canola or other vegetable oil, for cooking
• salt

Soak well-drained beans in dill pickle brine for at least an hour, or up to a few days.

Cover your potatoes with water, bring to a boil and cook until tender.

When you're ready to roast, preheat your oven to 425 F.

For the beans: drain them well, spread out on a parchment-lined sheet, drizzle with oil and toss with your hands to coat them well. Sprinkle with salt.

For the potatoes: return drained potatoes to the pan, drizzle with pickle brine, cover and shake the pan to bash them up a bit, then take the lid off and let them dry out a bit.

Spread out on a parchment-lined sheet, drizzle with oil and toss with your hands to coat them well. Sprinkle with salt.

Roast (they can share a pan, if you don't want to cook too many) for about 15 minutes for the beans (stirring once or twice) or 20 to 30 minutes for the potatoes (stirring once or twice), until golden.

Serve warm.

Dill Pickle Salad

Vegan food blogger Laura Wright of The First Mess came up with a recipe for the popular bagged dill pickle salad you often see in grocery stores.

There are pickles and brine in the dressing, and I put them into the salad, too.

I've adapted it a bit here. Although hers is vegan, the dressing made with soaked raw cashews for creaminess, you could streamline things with a big spoonful of (regular or vegan) mayo instead.

Ingredients

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained (or about 1/3 cup mayo)
• 1/3 cup chopped dill pickle (about 1 large pickle)
• 2 tbsp pickle brine
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp sugar, salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Salad:

• 1 romaine heart, chopped
• a few kale leaves, chopped (discard stems)
• ¼ - ½ small red cabbage, finely chopped
• ½ small cauliflower, chopped (optional)
• 1 large pickle, grated or chopped
• ¼ cup chopped fresh dill (optional)
• oil or butter or ghee, for cooking
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

To make the dressing, combine the soaked cashews (or mayo), chopped dill pickle, pickle brine, white wine vinegar, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, salt and pepper.

Blend on high until smooth and creamy, adding a few tablespoons of water if it's too thick.

In a large bowl, combine the chopped romaine, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, pickle and dill.

In a medium skillet, heat a drizzle of oil and/or chunk of butter or ghee, and toast the breadcrumbs until golden and crisp.

Sprinkle with salt, if you like (especially if you used oil) and set aside to cool.

Drizzle the salad with dressing and toss to coat.

Sprinkle with the crispy crumbs (and some fresh dill, if you like) just before serving.

Serves: 4-6.

Dorata's Cold + Creamy Beet Soup (Chlodnik)

This cold, creamy, pickle-y beet soup is wonderful.

You simmer the raw beets, then cool the mixture and stir in fresh veggies, which stay crunchy in the soup.

A pour of buttermilk and/or a big spoonful of sour cream turns it creamy and brilliant pink.

Ingredients

• 2-3 beets, peeled and coarsely grated
• chicken or vegetable stock or water
• ½ large (or 2 small) cucumbers, finely chopped or coarsely grated
• 1-2 dill pickles, finely chopped or coarsely grated
• A few slices of pickled beet, chopped (optional)
• a few radishes, finely chopped
• a few green onions, finely chopped
• 1 cup buttermilk (optional, I just used sour cream)
• ½ cup sour cream
• salt and pepper, to taste
• Vegata (if you have it), to taste
• chopped fresh dill and/or chives
• hard boiled (or jammy, about 6 minutes) eggs, halved, for serving

Place the beets in a medium pot or Dutch oven. If there are greens still attached, wash and chop them (and the stems) and add them to the pot, too.

Cover with water or stock and bring to a simmer; cook until the beets are tender. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Stir in the cucumbers, pickle, radishes, green onions, buttermilk and sour cream, and add more stock if the soup seems thick.

Season with salt and pepper and Vegata, if you have it. Stir in some dill and/or chives, saving some to sprinkle on top.

Refrigerate for at least an hour, or for up to a few days.

Serve well chilled, garnished with hard-boiled egg halves.

Serves: 4.

Spiced Pickled Beets

Pickled beets are a very good thing to make when you have a few extra roasted beets.

I don't use measurements here because really you can pickle as many beets as you like; the brine is made from a 2:1 ratio of vinegar to sugar, so it's easy to mix up as much as you need.

Ingredients

• small beets, as many as you want to pickle
• white or cider vinegar
• sugar
• coarse pickling salt
• whole allspice berries
• cinnamon sticks
• whole cloves

Roast the beets, or boil them whole in a large pot of water for half an hour, until they are tender. Let them cool, then peel them and slice off any tough stem ends.

Keep them whole or slice them or cut them into chunks into your clean, hot jars. I just run them through the dishwasher to disinfect them and get them good and hot.

Put a cinnamon stick (or half one, if they are long), a couple allspice berries and a few cloves into each jar.

Sprinkle each with ½ tsp pickling salt.

LISTEN | Julie Van Rosendaal talks pickles:

On the stovetop, heat a 2:1 ratio of vinegar and sugar and bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar completely and get it nice and hot.

Pour over the beets, leaving about ½-inch headspace between the beets and liquid and the top of the jar. Seal.