Sunday's swap meet meant we all brought zucchinis from our gardens. I had to giggle. It's worth a try, isn't it? But no-one wants zuccs at this time of the year - we're trying to offload them! I've made zucchini fritters, zucchini slice, zucchini cake, zucchini pizza, spiral zucchini pasta, vietnamese zucchini noodle salad. I kinda feel like Forest Gump's friend listing all the things you can do with shrimp. I've even dehydrated it for winter soups.

This year, I finally got around to zucchini pickle. I love pickle. However, I can't just all out follow a recipe, can I? The rebel in me refuses to. And I like to use things in my garden that ordinarily wouldn't have a use. This time, it was fennel flowers. I let the fennel go to seed, so that the bees can buzz around it, and the self seeded fennel has gotten big this year. I always save the fennel seeds, and have a big jar of them from last year, but I thought the flowers themselves would add a delicate taste to the pickle along with the other spices. I have to say, this is a revelation. Try googling 'zucchini and fennel flower pickle' - I bet you can't find it! You read it here first!

The fennel flowers look so pretty. I imagine if I was serving this as part of a cheese plater (vegan cheese, of course - or even some kind of dip like white bean hummous) I'd garnish liberally with the pretty fennel flowers - making sure there's no bees, of course. Sorry bees. I hope you don't mind sharing!

Zucchini & Fennel Flower Pickle

• Yellow and green zucchinis - you can also add dill squash, which I did here.
• Apple cider vinegar - about the same as your veggies, cup wise (eg 1 cup of veggies = 1 cup of vinegar)
• A few heads of fennel flowers, with the flowers picked off
• an onion or a few spring onions
• 2 tsp each of fennel seeds, mustard seeds, pepper corns, turmeric
• 1 pinch of chilli or you can dice a mild chilli into the mix
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 1 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar, and added it until I got the right balance between sweet and sour - this will be personal for everyone).

Firstly, slice your zucchinis with the mandolin setting on your grater or very thinly slice them. Cover with water and salt and leave for 2 hours, then drain.

Bring the ACV (you can use half ACV, half white wine vinegar for a milder vinegar taste) to the simmer with the spices, for about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and simmer for 3 minutes. Add to sterilised jars, and then put the jars in boiling water for about 5 minutes to seal (you should hear the jar lid 'pop'). I store mine in the fridge, but I don't expect these will last long!

This post was created for #fruitsandveggiesmonday, an iniatitive by @lenasveganliving on Steem. Join in with your vegan recipes on Mondays to win, and get inspired by great plant based food. Natural Medicine also proudly contributes a little steem to the reward kitty.

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