Vietnamese Style Pickled Carrots from Eating Local Cookbook
We’re obsessed with Vietnamese picked carrots. Our pantry and fridge are continually stocked with pickles from our garden vegetables and when we’re low on staples such as Vietnamese pickled carrots, we’ll forage our veggie plots for new replacements. But this year, the daikon plot is taken up with fresh spinach, so all we had to pickle were the carrots. That’s fine by us because Vietnamese pickled carrots are still perfect as a single accompaniment. The carrots by themselves are equally divine and versatile!
Our favorite tool makes the perfect cut QUIICK. More info here: OXO Julienne Tool
When we first started the blog, one of the first recipes put up was our staple Vietnamese carrot and daikon pickles recipe. But last week we wanted to try a different recipe and we found it in a gorgeous new book by Janet Fletcher called Eating Local: The Cookbook Inpsired by America’s Farmers.
This lovely cookbook is a farmers markets dream because the every single recipe had a fruit or vegetable included in it and perusing through it is like walking the stalls of our local farmers markets. Each page is bursting with fabulous produce and it’s like visiting a stand from a favorite farmer. The color, freshness and appeal of every recipe is a proud reminder of why so many of us try to eat local and support our farmers
Eating Local also takes readers on to the land and into the homes of 10 of America’s best small farmers as well. Their stories instantly connect all of us all to this vast food chain of eating locally and sustainably. I’m really looking forward to cooking from this cookbook because there’s recipes in here that can allow me to create a complete meal from fresh produce. A few days of vegetable meals isn’t a bad idea and my body is craving for that lately.
-diane
Favorite tools for making Vietnamese Pickled Carrots :
It can sometimes be hard to find good Vietnamese ingredients and tools. Here’s some of the favorites for pickling and beyond:
Weck 1L Tulip Jars (set of 6) – These are one of our favorite shapes of Weck Jars. A beautiful tulip shape, they hold 1 liter each (4 cups) making them perfect for bigger batches of pickles and other tasties.
Weck 1/2 L Tulip Jars (set of 6) – These are one of our favorite shapes of Weck Jars. A beautiful tulip shape, they hold 1/2 liter each (about 2 cups) making them perfect for smaller batches of pickles and other tasties.
OXO Julienne Tool – This little tool makes julienning the carrots and other ingredients a breeze. 
Flying Lion Fish Sauce – This has been our house fish sauce for decades. Great stuff! We’ll use it to make our dipping sauces as well as marinades.
Red Boat Fish Sauce – 100% all natural first press extra virgin Vietnamese fish sauce. A solid craft fish sauce producer.
Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce – Our house favorite hoisin sauce. Great flavor. We use it to make a dipping sauce for spring rolls.Here’s my personal family Vietnamese Pickles recipe.
Watch Our Vietnamese Pickled Carrots Video:
Here’s my personal recipe for Vietnamese Fish Sauce Dip and click here for all our popular Vietnamese Recipes that are sometimes traditional and definitely sometimes not.
Here’s our tutorial on How To Roll Spring rolls and All Our Great Spring Rolls Recipes
Vietnamese-Style Carrot and Daikon Pickles
Since I only had carrots growing in my garden and no daikon, I simply replaced the daikon half with carrots. Use any ratio you wish for the pound of veggies. Next time, I'll have to try just pickling daikon!Makes about 1 lb. of pickles.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound daikon , peeled
- 1/2 pound large carrots , peeled
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt
- 1 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
- 3 Tablespoons sugar , or to taste
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Wash daikon and carrots and cut into matchstick sizes, or round sizes (about thickness of a 25¢ quarter). Pat dry.
- In bowl, mix vinegar, salt, sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Add the carrots and daikon to the mixture and let marinate for at least 1 hour before serving.
- For best pickled flavor, store vegetables in an airtight mason jar for about 5 days in the refrigerator.
I just started peeking at this cookbook the other day after bringing it home as part of a goodie bag I received. I am inspired by your post to try some of the recipes now. Lovely photos, as always.
i’m always trying to find these kind of pickle recipes but i’ve had such mixed luck with them. i’ll have to look for that book.
The funny thing is, I’ve had “Start making refrigerator pickles” on my to-do list ever since I laid my eyes on the Lee Brother’s Southern cookbook…Now that you’ve posted those crisp and vibrant pictures of your pickled carrots, that to-do item just hit the top of the list!
Hahahaaa…. I JUST tweeted about “what to do with the last of my garden carrots” and Liam [mysocalledknife] was kind enough to point me to this post!
Since my garden carrots took so long to grow (I think we planted at the end of summer?) I’ll need to give them a dignified send-off. As a fellow Viet, I believe this may be it – and I could use leftovers for my banh mi thit cravings.
And – I got this book as part of a swag bag from Sur La Table this month. LOVE IT! Need to get that page open, stat!
Beautiful photo, as always.
[K]
P.S. I’m also addicted to salt. I figured it was a Viet thing. In fact, I put soy sauce on my over-easy breakfast eggs this morning. :shrug:
I love making pickles and my farmer’s market has been flush with cute baby carrots. This is going in the queue! Speaking of pickles, do you know the book ‘The Joy of Pickling’? 200+ interesting pickles recipes (plus the classics of course). Oddly, I discovered it when interviewing for a job — they had a whole wall made of interestingly titled book spines (just the spines glued to the wall, not the actual books!).
Recently I’ve been very taken with Indian pickles — I think their distinctive flavor comes from mustard oil? not sure though…
Simple, delicious, nutritious, economical and local. What more could one ask. Brilliant little idea. Let’s get back to these kinds of basics. I am in and will do this one, too!
🙂
Valerie
This looks great and I never thought of pickling carrots before. Your pictures are making my mouth water.
I saw that book the last time I was in SLT but neglected to pick it up. Perhaps I’ll have to on my next visit.
That book is right up my alley and one I don’t have it yet — I’ll be getting it soon! I, too, love pickled things and really like that pickled items cross over to many, many cuisines. Thanks for the new recipe to try.
Amazing as always. I’m going to have to try this recipe; I love pickled vegetables, especially in my bahn mi! Glad you are back; we missed you!
Love the photos. I want to try this!
Wonderful post on a delicious recipe from “Eating Local”! I especially love your photos. They make me want to start pickling right now. Thanks for the delightful review.
Aah – the perfect accompaniment to a small dish of sweet deep fried anchovies 🙂
I happen to have a big bunch of baby carrots in my fridge.
Thanks for the idea.
d-
how long do these last for? can’t wait to try it!
girlrobot- I’ve kept pickled carrots in the fridge for as long as a month and they still tasted great!
I’ve pickled carrots for over. YEAR. They tasted fine because they were pickled. Apparently, pickled things NEVER go bad unless you add some saliva. They were just a little too salty but that was fine with me
Diane,
Perfect timing for this recipe (for me). I’m putting together ideas for a pickling project, and I hadn’t even thought of pickling carrots. Plus I’m craving anything with vinegar these days. 🙂
I will give this recipe a try this week.
Nice writing. You sold me on the pickled.