Use Pickle Juice To Help Add A Tangy Twist To Your Salads

For many, pickles are a regular snack right out of the jar or always around as a necessary sandwich or burger topping. Some of us may go through pickles so fast that we always have some extra pickle juice on hand, and it may feel like a waste to just dump all that briny flavor down the drain. You can always use the leftover juice to re-pickle. It's great in cocktails, like a bloody mary or a martini. It can be used as a post-workout sports drink substitute — full of electrolytes and potassium. Perhaps most surprisingly, pickle juice can be used to brighten up tarnished copper cookware, kettles, and mugs. But once you try this quick hack, you'll be amazed you haven't been drizzling the delicious pickle flavor on your salads all along. It's another one of the 12 simple ways to use pickle juice — turn your brine into a salad topper.

Pickle juice is an incredible, salty, pre-flavored base for a simple salad dressing, a vinaigrette to be exact — it's mostly vinegar, after all. Whether you like your pickles tangy, spicy, garlicky, or heavy on the dill, you already know you like the flavor profile, so it will translate perfectly to a dressing pre-built to your taste buds. For the most simple vinaigrette dressing, all you need is pickle juice and oil. But with another ingredient or two, you can transform it entirely, into a beautifully complex and balanced dressing.

Because pickle juice already contains an extensive blend of ingredients that have aged in acid (vinegar), it brings a depth of flavor to any salad dressing recipe that would be near impossible to replicate without the pickling. For a super simple vinaigrette, you can simply mix about five or six parts pickle juice to one part oil. For more unctuous flavor, a good olive oil is recommended, but pretty much any cooking oil will work great. You can whisk the liquids in a bowl to get a good emulsification or just shake them together in the pickle jar. If you plan on saving the dressing for later, mixing everything together right in the jar is great, because the vinegar and oil will eventually separate and you can just shake them together again when you're ready to serve. Just like a bottle of store-bought Italian vinaigrette.

For a more advanced and refined flavor, add some Dijon mustard or minced garlic. If you like it heavy on the dill, you can always add fresh or dried dill, but any dried herbs you may have in the pantry — oregano, basil, herbs de Provence, or an Italian blend — will brighten up the dressing and give it more depth. And lemon juice makes a great additive for more tangy acid. When you mix your dressing right in the pickle jar, you can add a pinch or spoonful at a time until it's just right. You can add a bit of honey for sweetness or hot sauce and Worcestershire for boldness. Pickle juice is one of the most useful refrigerator "leftovers" that you may be throwing away. Turn it into a salad dressing, and simply follow your taste buds to get the right flavor. This trick also works great as a dressing for the perfect pasta salad.