Happy summer, readers! In this issue:

• Pickles: the good for you snack

• Pickle it yourself

• According to William Shakespeare

Sweet, sour, crunchy...and healthy

It may seem like pickled veggies are trending right now. These flavor bombs explode with nutrients and texture wherever they show up – on sandwiches, in bowls, or as finger food. In reality, pickles have been having their moment for literally thousands of years.

In addition to preserving vegetables, the pickling process intensifies flavors while creating entirely new taste profiles. A cucumber becomes a pickle, cabbage transforms into sauerkraut, and suddenly vegetables that might have been afterthoughts become the stars of the show.

It’s a probiotic party in a jar

From dills at a New York deli, to achaar in New Delhi, pickled foods literally cover the globe. Not only do their tastes tantalize, but they also benefit your digestive system.

The healthy microbes pickling adds to your diet help keep the gut happy, but there’s much more to this story. And there’s real science behind it.

The hydration station

Did you know pickle juice is nature's sports drink? The combination of sodium and potassium creates an electrolyte balance that puts expensive, oft-artificially colored sports drinks to shame. And, if you struggle to drink enough water, pickled foods can help you stay hydrated.

Try making pickle popsicles.

An antioxidant bonanza

Vegetables retain their nutritional superpowers when they are bathed in vinegar or brine. In fact, some become more bioavailable through the pickling process. Pickled beets retain their folate, pickled cabbage (hello, sauerkraut!) keeps its vitamin C, and pickled carrots maintain their beta-carotene. These same antioxidants help fight inflammation and protect cells from damage.

And studies suggest that there are gut-brain advantages.

Mental health and the pickle connection

Research points to fermented foods, like pickles, as possibly having a positive impact on mental health. The gut-brain axis is real, and a happy gut often means a happier mind. In other studies, it’s been found that people who eat more fermented foods report lower levels of social anxiety.

A blood sugar stabilizer

Adding pickled foods to meals can help manage blood glucose. It’s been shown that the acetic acid in vinegar can lower insulin sensitivity and slow down the absorption of carbohydrates. This means that some pickled onions on your sandwich aren't just there for crunch – it's actually helping your body process your meal more efficiently.

The weight management wonder

Pickles are surprisingly low in calories while being high in flavor – a combination that's the holy grail of satisfying snacks. The vinegar content may also help you feel fuller longer, which means you're less likely to reach for less healthy options later.

The probiotics in fermented pickles might also play a role in weight management by supporting a healthy gut microbiome. It's not magic, but it’s worth a try.

Pickling at home

Surprisingly fast and easy, homemade pickles give you total control over ingredients and flavor. Plus, there's something deeply satisfying about creating your own jar of tangy perfection, especially when you buy too many veggies at the farm market or want to preserve what your garden grows.

How to Pickle Basically Everything

Pickled red onions (10 minutes, from start to finish)

Dill pickles 

The Ultimate Guide to Pickles

My new favorite sandwich

For the love of pickled veggies and layer upon layer of flavors, this sandwich inspired me to try making it at home. Granted, it’ll never compare with the original from Pisco y Nazca, but this sandwich still satisfies on many levels.

Sanguche de Pollo

Adapted from Pisco y Nazca

For each sandwich:

• Brioche bun (toasted if preferred)

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast 

• Pickled onions (see quick recipe above)

• Halloumi cheese, ½” slice

• Avocado

• Huancaina sauce  (purchase from a Peruvian chicken restaurant)

Marinade:

• ¼ cup Nando Peri-Peri sauce 

• Splash of cider vinegar

Light the grill (a cast iron skillet can be substituted if cooking indoors)

Coat the chicken and cheese in the marinade and let sit for 15-20 minutes. 

Grill the chicken and the halloumi cheese (the cheese won’t melt), turning occasionally to evenly char. When a meat thermometer reads 165°F, remove the chicken and cheese from the grill. 

Spread the Huancaina sauce on the bun. Place the chicken on top, followed by the pickled onions, cheese, and avocado. Enjoy!

Shakespeare… what doth thou “in a pickle” mean?

As imagined by AI

Where did “in a pickle” originate? Some harken it back to Shakespeare. So we asked AI to explain it in his (kind of) words:

Hark! What curious phrase doth grace our tongue - "in a pickle" - whereof the learned and unlearned alike do make such frequent use, yet know not whence it springs nor how it came to bear such meaning most peculiar.

Merry, good reader, this expression finds its birth not in the briny depths where cucumbers do swim, but in the Low Countries of our neighbors Dutch, where "pekel" doth signify that sharp and sour liquor wherein flesh and herb are steeped for preservation's sake. Yet mark how language, like a river's course, doth wind and turn through territories strange.

In mine own time, to be "pickled" was to be preserved in drink most potent - aye, to be well-soaked in wine or ale, as drunk as any lord on Twelfth Night's revels. But soft! The phrase evolved, as all things must beneath Time's patient hand, until "in a pickle" came to mean entrapped in circumstances most vexing - as though one were a hapless morsel caught betwixt the vinegar and the brine, unable to escape that sharp predicament.

Consider well: a pickle is no gentle bath, but a harsh solution that doth sting and bite. So too, when Fortune's wheel turns cruel, and we find ourselves "in a pickle," we are preserved indeed - but preserved in trouble's very essence, marinated in mishap, and stewed in our own folly's juice.

'Tis wondrous how our speech doth grow and change, like some fair garden where new meanings bloom whilst others wither, yet the root remains the same - that ancient human need to speak of struggle in terms both homely and profound.

What kind of pickle are you getting into today?