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Pickled nasturtium seeds

Preserve nasturtium seeds from your garden with this pickling recipe.

The nasturtiums are on their way out in my garden, which is the sign that the winterish bit of autumn is here. Everything is cold and muddy and we had our first big frost this week. Before it came, the plants looked like this:

nasturtiums

nasturtiums-autumn
nasturtiums-autumn

In the cooler days of autumn, nasturtiums always grow bigger and climb further than they did in August, when they can look a bit tatty. They stick around for longer than you thought they would, which is what makes the first frost such a sad moment as it sends their lovely mounds of leaves flopping to the ground.

I will always grow nasturtiums in my garden, not just because they are so pretty, not just because the flowers are a great garnish, not just because the leaves are peppery and flavoursome and plentiful for salads, not just because they cover the soil well, but also because they give one more secret ingredient that I can enjoy during the winter.

Few people know about the beauty of nasturtium seeds. They are beautiful pickled. Some people claim they make a good substitute for capers, but that’s rather misleading as the flavour is nothing like capers. It’s more like a peppery, crunchy pickled cucumber. It has more bite than a cucumber. It has less of a rich flavour than a caper.

It is very easy to make this preserve.

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Pickled nasturtium seeds
Author: 
Recipe type: Preserve
Cuisine: Botanical
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
An unusual botanical preserve
Ingredients
  • ⅔ cup nasturtium seeds
  • ¼ cup salt
  • 2 cups water
  • ⅔ cup white vinegar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 6 peppercorns
Directions
  1. Dissolve the salt in a saucepan of boiling water. Leave until completely cool.
  2. Wash the seeds and place in your jar. Pour the water over the seeds until they are completely covered and leave for three days.
  3. Empty the jar of brine and wash the seeds. Then return to the clean jar, cover with vinegar, add the bay leaves and peppercorns and leave for three weeks before eating.

These seeds work so well over the winter in salads. This was the last salad I ate this week and this year with nasturtium leaves and flowers from the garden. Till next year:

nasturtium-salad

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