Elderflower giardiniera (Italian-style pickled vegetables)

Pollyanna Coupland
Food producer, delicious.

These colourful Italian pickles are flavoured with fresh elderflowers, giving them a wonderfully sweet and floral flavour.

Packed with veg: Giardiniera are Italian pickled vegetables. it typically includes cauliflower, peppers, celery and carrots. Our version makes the most of British spring veg and is packed with cucumbers, radishes and spring onions.
Versatile recipe: The pickles are delicious served with cheese boards, or in sandwiches and salads. Don’t throw away the elderflower vinegar afterwards – it’s perfect for salad dressings.
Scale it up: Make a batch of pure elderflower vinegar by using the same amounts of elderflowers and white wine vinegar as in the pickling vinegar recipe (omit the sugar), leave to steep for 2 weeks, then strain. Use for dressings and seasoning.

Find more delicious things to preserve with our easy pickled recipes.

Ingredients

For the elderflower pickling liquid

Specialist kit

Put all the vegetables in a colander with the salt flakes and toss to combine. Leave in the sink for around 30 minutes, then rinse with cold water.
For the pickling vinegar, inspect your elderflower heads for any bugs and discard – refrain from washing them as you’ll wash the flavour away. Put them in your sterilised jar.
Heat 100ml water in a small pan with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved, then take off the heat and add the vinegar to cool it down.
Put the vegetables in your jar, then pour over the vinegar, seal the jar and leave to pickle for a minimum of 2 weeks; a month is ideal, though the pickles will keep, unopened, in a cool, dark place for a year. Once open, keep in the fridge and use within a month.

Recipe from May 2025 Issue

Salting your vegetables before pickling them draws out liquid, making the vegetables more crunchy. It also ensures the liquid from the vegetables doesn’t dilute the pickling liquid and allow bacteria to grow.

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