Every month or so, I get a craving for dill pickle spears. I eat 1 a day for about a week, and then I’m left with a jar full of pickle juice. I loathe wasting food, but I usually end up pouring the juice down the drain.
Now, I know some people use dill juice for pickleback shots (using bourbon or whiskey). I haven’t tried that, and I want to, but I don’t drink much, and I’m well past the “let’s do shots!” stage of my life.
When I ran into this dilemma a few days ago, coincidentally I had also just run out of salad dressing. It dawned on me that pickle juice could make an excellent base for salad dressing, and a quick web search yielded several recipes. I ended up going with this one, which I recommend and will summarize below:
- pickle juice
- mayo (I used about a tablespoon of Japanese mayo)
- avocado oil
- honey
- mustard
It was super simple to make, and I had all ingredients on hand. Plus, it scratches that pickle craving just a little bit every day!
What do you do with leftover pickle juice? Are there any other food waste hacks you like?
I mix pickle juice with my body Mary mix. I call it a bloody pickle-it’s excellent. Also if you ever have leg cramps, a swallow of pickle juice will stop the cramps instantly. It’s concentrated electrolytes.
I didn’t know that about pickle juice helping leg cramps! Thank you for sharing.
We cut up some carrot spears and throw them back in the pickle jar – give ’em a month or so and you’re set!