This recipe for Pickled Asparagus is so simple but yields delicious results every time!

Great for serving on an appetizer plate or in a Caesar or Bloody Mary as a garnish, these Pickled Asparagus Spears are a real treat. These are zingy, snappy and crunchy awesome!

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

Asparagus may seem like a strange choice to pickle, but once you try this recipe you’ll be changing your tune! If you like asparagus, this recipe is for you. That delicious green flavor infused with dill, cayenne pepper, garlic, and more is absolutely delicious.

You can use a pickled asparagus spear in drinks in place of celery stalks for a burst of flavor, or serve them with appetizers to impress your guests!

Simple to make and easy to store, this pickled asparagus recipe is something you’ll revisit over and over!

Pickled asparagus makes a healthy snack, full of vitamins and fiber.

How to Make Pickled Asparagus

(Note: 1 pound of Asparagus makes 1 pint jar, with asparagus left over!)

1. Harvest 1 pound of fresh asparagus. Have one whole cayenne pepper on hand.
2. Put the pickling ingredients (cider vinegar, coarse salt, sugar) in a saucepan and bring to a boil on the stove, using medium heat. You can use white vinegar instead of cider vinegar if you like. Give this mixture a good stir while it is on the stove. Once it has boiled, remove from stove and let it cool.
3. Into your clean jar, add 2 or 3 garlic cloves, along with the dill weed and pickling spice.
4. Now pack in your asparagus spears, nice and tight.

   

5. Then add your cayenne pepper, making sure you can see it from the outside of the jar. It adds such a nice pop of red colour to those bright green spears.
6. Using a canning funnel, pour the cooled pickling liquid over the spears. Wipe the rim of the jar, cover with a canning seal and tighten the canning ring.

How to Trim Asparagus Spears for Pickling

• Hold a spear up against your jar so you get a rough idea of how much stalk to cut off.
• You want them to be standing up in the jar – it looks so nice this way! Put one spear right in the jar to see how much further trimming you need to do. Then use that one spear as a guideline for cutting the rest.
• The bottom of the Asparagus stalk can be nibbled raw, lightly steamed or turned into some delicious Asparagus Soup. Or, turn them into this delicious side dish – Garlic and Parmesan Asparagus.

Tips for Pickled Asparagus

• These Asparagus Pickles can be eaten after about 5 days, but are even better if you can leave them in the fridge for two weeks.
• They will keep in the refrigerator for about 3 months, if they last that long. You may find they get eaten up pretty quickly!
• To save some for the winter, just can them. Water bath can your Asparagus Pickles for 10 minutes – here’s how to do that!
• NOTE: To make these shelf stable they MUST be canned in a boiling water bath.
• For some extra heat and flavor, you could also include jalapeno peppers. Or, toss in an extra garlic clove!
• If you don’t have any pickling spice on hand or can’t find it in stores, you can use a combination of these ingredients to achieve the same effect: dill seed, black peppercorns, crushed red pepper flakes, bay leaves, mustard seeds, allspice berries, coriander seeds, ground ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Add/subtract ingredients to taste!

More Pickle Recipes

Our entire Country Living in a Cariboo Valley Recipe Collection can be found here, and here are some more pickled recipes!

• Check out this guide on how to make and preserve Pickled Beets.
• Pickled Eggs are another tasty and nutritious pickled food!
• Forage young ferns and make a batch of Pickled Fiddleheads.
• Make some easy Dill Pickles; this recipe has the canning instructions.
• Another green vegetable, Pickled Brussels Sprouts are an interesting and delicious twist on the classic pickle.
• For some information on how to use a pressure canner, you can also check out this post!

Pickled Asparagus Recipe

If you enjoy this recipe for asparagus pickles, please be sure to rate it 5 stars below! And print this off or save it to your Recipes folder!

Pickled Asparagus

Yield: 1 pint jar

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Crunchy and with a real zingy!

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Ingredients

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• 1 lb Asparagus
• 1/2 pint water
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 tbsp coarse or kosher salt
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dillweed
• 1/2 teaspoon pickling spice
• 1 cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Combine and bring to a boil:
2. water, cider vinegar, salt and sugar. Stir often.
3. After the mixture comes to a boil, remove from the stove and let cool.
4. Meanwhile, trim fresh Asparagus to a size where they will fit standing up in jar.
5. Add garlic, dillweed and pickling spice to the clean jar.
6. Pack Asparagus spears into the jar tightly.
7. Add cayenne pepper to the jar.
8. Pour cooled liquid mixture over spears. Wipe the jar rim and add a fresh seal. Tighten using a canning ring.
9. Leave in fridge for at least 5 days to allow flavours to develop.
10. Will store in fridge for up to 3 months.
11. Water bath can the jar if you want to add to your pantry for long term storage.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 2 pickled spears
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 19Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 664mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 1g

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This Lentil Bean and Ham Soup is the perfect meal for a cold evening! Easy, delicious, hearty and filling!

This homemade soup is darn good, so deliciously healthy (especially if you use homemade tomatoes) and so very filling. It tastes even better the next day, as all good homemade soup should! 

Why You’ll Love This Ham and Lentil Soup

After the Christmas holidays (and the money that is spent!) we like to try to live “low to the ground” during January. And that includes our grocery bill. Here’s our recipe for Ham and Lentil Soup. It’s a favourite for a cold winter day!

Although we don’t spend a huge amount at Christmas, we like to cut the spending for the next month or two, if we can.

So we eat out of our pantry, cold room & freezers and just hunker down. We make soups, stews and other delicious homemade meals.

Full of fiber, lots of protein, low in saturated fat and so filling. Along with the bread, even teenagers will be full after a nice big bowl of this soup! Enjoy!

Tips for Lentil Soup

• If we start the soup early enough in the morning, we can cook the soup on top of our woodstove in a Dutch oven. We love doing this because it’s easy, it makes the house smell awesome for hours and we don’t even need to turn on the electric stove to get it made.
• If you do make it on your electric stove, plan for it to take about 3 hours.
• You can also make this in a slow cooker.
• Just remember, once you add the lentils, give the soup a good stirring every half hour or so, especially in the beginning. This will really help to avoid the lentils sticking on the bottom of the pot. 
• This soup can feed a family of 6 for about $10 and that’s a great price for dinner!
• Add a loaf of fresh homemade bread to serve along with it. If you don’t already have a breadmaker, consider getting one this year. Find one at the thrift store if you can’t afford a new one, but get one. You will save so much money on bread – right now, we pay almost $5 a loaf for multigrain bread. So we make our own. The breadmaker is so convenient.

Ingredients Needed

• ham – the star of the dish! This is a great way to use leftover ham.
• tomato soup – provides an great base for this soup.
• lentils – dried soup mix also works for this, or you could use both. Split peas are another option.
• herbs – use whatever kinds of herbs you like!
• salt and pepper – to taste.

• Put a large pot of water on to boil. Dice the ham and add to the water, adding a little olive oil if you like. Bring to a boil, then turn down and let simmer for 45 minutes so the broth water is full of meaty goodness.
• Add the tomato soup and the soup mix. Be sure to stir it frequently as the lentils tend to stick to the bottom of the pot.
• Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a few of the herbs, and if you have bay leaf, add a couple now.
• Let soup simmer on the stove top for about two hours. Cook lentils until the lentils are tender. 
• About 15 minutes prior to serving add some more herbs. Serve with hot biscuits.

Storing Leftover Soup

Just let the soup cool, then store it (lid on) in the fridge for several days. If you’ve got lots, store some in an airtight container in the freezer.

This makes a wonderfully easy dinner for those busy weeknights!

Variations and Serving Suggestions

• For even more flavor and nutrition, add some more vegetables to your soup! Carrots, kale, celery, onion, garlic, and any kind of leafy greens would enhance this soup!
• Spice this soup up with some smoked paprika.
• You can easily use a ham hock for this recipe or any cut with a ham bone. Boil the meat on the bone for about half an hour, then remove the meat and bone. Cut meat into smaller pieces then proceed with the recipe.
• You can also use chicken broth as your base instead of tomato soup, which will give you a lighter soup.
• Instead of canned soup, use lentils tomatoes freshly chopped – then add fresh herbs from the garden.
• Serve with fresh baked bread or some croutons for added crunch and texture.
• Biscuits and cornbread would also pair well as sides for this soup.

Other Fantastic Dishes

Our entire Country Living in a Cariboo Valley Recipe Collection can be found here, but here are some highlights!

1. These Turmeric Garlic Pork Chops are a great option for a flavorful and filling meal.
2. Pumpkin Cranberry Banana Bread is great as a dessert or a sweet and decadent breakfast.
3. If you’ve never made your own Homemade Pizza Dough, you’re missing out on a cheaper and tastier option than store bought!

Lentil Soup Recipe

If you enjoy this recipe for delicious ham and lentil soup, please be sure to rate it 5 stars below! And print this off or save it to your Recipes folder!

Lentil Bean and Ham Soup

Yield: 8

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 20 minutes

A hearty and delicious soup best served on a cold day. Add a side salad and some homemade biscuits.

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Ingredients

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• 3/4 pound ham
• 2 cans tomato soup
• 1/2 bag dried soup mix or lentils, or both
• water
• Herbs: parsley, lovage whatever you like
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Dice the ham and add to the water. Let it come to a boil, then turn down and let simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Add the tomato soup and the soup mix. Be sure to stir it frequently as the lentils tend to stick to the bottom of the pot.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a few of the herbs. Let simmer for at least two hours, the longer the better.
4. About 15 minutes prior to serving add some more herbs. Serve with hot biscuits.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1 Servings
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 144Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 783mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 3gSugar: 7gProtein: 13g

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First Published January 2017; Updated March 2021

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Originally published Jan 2017; latest update Nov 2024