ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

ChefSteps

Picture this: It’s mid-July, and you are surrounded by a metric butt-ton of vibrant produce. Everything is so fresh, bright, and crispy—you’re basically living in Jessica Alba’s juice cleanse–fueled fever dream. “I could be an A-list actress turned lifestyle guru,” you muse, stocking your grocery cart with waxy peppers, plump blackberries, and crunchy cobs of just-picked corn. Oh, but now cut to a dark mid-January evening. Dinnertime nears, but why bother, what with that sleeve of Chips Ahoy you just hoovered? As icy rain pelts your window, you resolve to skip the supermarket, instead settling into an HGTV show about couples who buy second houses on remote archipelagos. “Man,” you marvel, cracking open a second phalanx of cookies. “Who knew so many people could afford their own island?” Then, just as you’re about to sink into a full carb- and cable-fueled funk, you remember it: the collection of quart-sized canning jars full of crunchy, colorful, cheer-inducing pickles. You race to the kitchen and lo, it’s all there: elegant white asparagus for zhushing up winter salads; cute cocktail onions to garnish them gimlets; blueberries and cherries for tomorrow morning’s <a href="/activities/easy-delicious-sous-vide-yogurt">yogurt</a>, and pickled peaches—the sexy BFF of crisp-crusted <a href="/activities/sous-vide-pork-chop">pork chops</a> everywhere. Yass, people. Squirrel away that fresh produce in summer, and you’ll be thanking yourself all year long. There’s no need to invest in any special canning equipment—with this low-temp sous vide technique, you can pickle any fruit or veggies in about the time it takes to watch Iron Man 3. Prepared this way, the pickles will stay crisp, bright, and delicious for months, preserving your mood all year long. So go forth and Alba out on summer produce. Then get ready for the sunniest winter of your pickle-loving life.WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

Veggies and fruit to pickle

A brine recipe (Consult <a href="/activities/low-temp-pickling-with-joule">our pickling guide</a> for awesome options.)

<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kerr-Regular-Mouth-Canning-Jars/dp/B0000BYD33?tag=delvkitc-20">Quart-sized canning jars with lids</a> (Sorry, fellas, size matters. You can’t sub in other canning jars here.)

<a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/joule">Sous vide setup</a>