EST. 2011 BY LIZ RUEVEN
Easy Pickled Chayote
Leticia Schwartz- pickled Chayote

Easy Pickled Chayote

Chayote, also called vegetable pear, mirliton or christophine, begs to be pickled.

Say, What???

We’re starting off our pickle week with chayote because we loved learning that it receives brine like a welcoming sponge (a good thing) due to it’s high water content and mild flavor. Classified as a gourd, Chayote is a kissing cousin to cucumbers, also gourds.

And yes, for sure, we’ll be posting a simple pickled cuke recipe later this week.

Adobe stock
Adobe stock

And yes, we just love any excuse to explore unfamiliar ingredients.

Our Brazilian foodie friend, Leticia Schwartz, grew up eating lots of chayote in her family’s kitchen. Her Mom simply sautéed it in butter with a little salt and pepper and a few drops of water. Because of it’s crisp, smooth texture and indistinctive flavor, chayote is often simmered in curries and soups, or julienned and tossed with beets and cabbage in a raw slaw. It’s a great raw addition to fruit salads, too.

Leticia recommends using gloves to protect hands from a sticky fluid that oozes from the chayote. She then peels the vegetable pear using a vegetable peeler, slices the gourd in half and carves out the the core and pits before slicing it.

Watch for more about pickling and fermentation later this week.  We’ll be sharing inspiration from Sandor Katz, aka Sandorkraut, fermentation revivalist extraordinaire, and James Beard award winner.  If you want to know why you should consider pickling and fermenting, what the health benefits are, and how utterly simple it is, check back in on Thursday.

Thank you, Leticia Schwartz, for this Pickled Chayote recipe.

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