Pickled Prunes, How to Get More Gut Healthy

Say hello to your new obsession, Pickled Prunes, which are super easy to make with only a few required ingredients and almost no cooking. After a few short hours left alone to pickle in the refrigerator, you end up with perfectly plumped sweet tart pickled prunes that you can use as a condiment, sauce, sweet or savory topping, cocktail garnish, so many things! Shall we?

Jump to:

• What are Pickled Prunes?
• Health Benefits of Prunes*
• What Ingredients You Need to Make Pickled Prunes
• Instructions for How to Make Pickled Prunes
• How to Use Pickled Prunes
• Pickled Prunes Recipe

What are Pickled Prunes?

In this house, if it can fit in a mason jar, it can be pickled and that includes prunes. Combined with tart vinegar and aromatic spices, naturally sweet prunes plump up into sweet-tart flavor bombs that can be used in so many different ways—on a cheese board along with other little pickled things like olives and cornichons—including eating them straight out of the pickle jar.

Health Benefits of Prunes*

More fiber? Less refined sugar? Just because they taste good? For whatever reason, to incorporate more prunes to your diet beyond just popping them straight up, add prunes to the recipes you already love.

One 38-gram serving of prunes, which is 4-5 prunes:

• provides 3 grams of both soluble and insoluble fiber
• has only 90 calories per serving
• is a good source of vitamin K, providing 20% RDA
• provides more antioxidants per serving than a serving of dried cranberries!
• Low-glycemic index at 29

_{* nutritional information provided by California Prunes}

Dietary Considerations and Health Benefits of Pickled Prunes

This recipe for Pickled Prunes as published, is:

• 100% plant-based/vegan
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free

What Ingredients You Need to Make Pickled Prunes

The beauty of this recipe is two-fold. There are only a few ingredients, and within those few ingredients, the flavors are totally customizable to your taste.

Here's what you need:

• California Prunes, 12-16 ounces
• Lemon, zest and juice
• Ginger, 2 ¼-inch thick slices
• Red wine vinegar, 1 cup
• Sugar, ¼ to ½ cup depending on how sweet you like your pickles
• Sea salt, 1 teaspoon
• Spice Mix that includes ginger, black peppercorns, red pepper flakes, bay leaf

As an option, if you like your pickles extra spicy, add a few slices of fresh serrano or jalapeño pepper.

What Kind of Prunes are Best for Pickling? Where Do You Buy Prunes?

Use California Prunes for this and any other recipes.

In California, prunes are descendants of the Petit d’Agen prune plum imported from France. California grows 90% of the prunes in the US and 40% of the prunes around the world. So, more than likely if you're eating prunes in the United States, they're almost certainly from California.

You can find prunes in every grocery store near the produce department since prunes are, in fact, a dried type of plum. And because prunes by themselves can be a healthy, subtly sweet snack, you can also find them in the snack aisle.

Does it Matter if Prunes are Non-Sorbate?

In the photo above, the prunes in the bowl on the left are "non-sorbate" and feel dry to the touch. The prunes on the right have sorbate and are shiny, plumper, and feel sticky to the touch. Either one work for this recipe, though using non-sorbate prunes may require just a little more pickling time for them to "plump up."

Here's the info straight from the source, California Prunes: "Prunes are sometimes coated with potassium sorbate to preserve them and help retain moisture content. Potassium sorbate or sorbic acid is considered safe for consumption. Prunes without potassium sorbate are less sticky and more chewy."

What are the Best Spices for Pickling?

Pickling spice is not a single spice, but a blend of spices that usually includes mustard seed, peppercorns, and bay leaves. After those basics, additional spices and seasonings can be added for different flavor and nuance like allspice, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, and ginger. The spices are kept whole so they don't break down too much soaking in the pickling brine.

For this Pickled Prunes recipe, you'll need: fresh ginger, black and pick peppercorns, red chile flakes, and bay leaves.

Instructions for How to Make Pickled Prunes

Pickled Prunes require nothing more than simmering the liquid and spice ingredients together, then pouring the pickling liquid over the prunes and just letting them pickle. You don't even need to—in fact you shouldn't—simmer the prunes with the liquid because they'll break down too much.

Honestly, the most difficult step of making Pickled Prunes is waiting for the prunes to actually pickle, which will be at least 8 hours.

Pro-tip: If liquid gets low while simmering, add water about ¼ cup at a time.

Can I Make Ingredient Substitutions?

Pickled Prunes, and pickles in general, are even better when customized with substitutions that suit your taste, health, and even whatever you actually have available in your kitchen. Here are some substitutions and suggested flavor variations:

ACV or other Vinegar for Red Wine Vinegar. If you don't have red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, or other type of wine vinegar in the same amount are all great substitutes. The two I would avoid are straight up distilled white vinegar which will be a little too sharp, and balsamic vinegar, which will be too rich and sweet.

Maple Syrup, Honey or Other Sweetener. You can use any sweetener in place of sugar in this recipe. In fact, if you don't want to add additional sugar since prunes are already naturally sweet, you can leave out any added sweetener completely.

Other Citrus for Lemons. Lemons are a house favorite, but if you happen to have an orange, use it as a 1:1 substitute. You can also combine both orange and lemon together for a more complex citrus flavor. Limes could take this Pickled Prunes recipe in a fun, totally different directions.

How to Use Pickled Prunes

Obviously Pickled Prunes are PERFECT for cheese and charcuterie boards, and have been added as a staple to my personal Cheese Board Pantry, which has every ingredient you need for the perfect charcuterie board. The contrasting sweet and subtly spicy flavors of a pickled prune pairs so perfectly with strong salty cheeses

But you can use Pickled Prunes beyond just a cheese board.

• Piled onto almost-burnt toast with a generous swoop of ultra fluffy Whipped Feta? Yes.
• Served alongside Roast Chicken as a condiment? Of course.
• Plucked and eaten straight out of the jar with a tiny fork? Yes, that is me.

The list can go on, and if you're inspired to thread Pickled Prunes onto sturdy sprigs of rosemary or tiny bamboo skewers to garnish a Holiday cocktail, absolutely cheers to you!

How Long Can You Keep/Store Pickled Prunes?

Keep Pickled Prunes in a tightly sealed container, preferably glass, and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

How to Get More Prunes into Your Diet

More fiber? Less refined sugar? Just because they taste good? For whatever reason, to incorporate more prunes to your diet beyond just popping them straight up, add prunes to the recipes you already love, especially desserts.

Adding prunes to recipes is an easy way to increase the health factor. Prunes are naturally sweet so they are a great substitute for refined sugar. When re-hydrated and pureed, prunes can be used as both a replacement for butter or oil and as a binding replacement for eggs in baked goods. If you're looking for ways to replace refined sugar with lower-glycemic sweeteners, or reduce fat from butter, oil, or eggs, or even just move toward a more plant-based diet, prunes are an excellent way to do that.

The Best Prune Recipes

If you're perfectly happy popping 4-5 prunes straight up every day (like me!), that's awesome. But if you'd like to incorporate prunes into your lifestyle in other ways, here are a few more recipes to try:

• Pinot Prune Jam the new jam for cheese and charcuterie board
• Healthy Chocolate Spread aka "no-tella"
• Chocolate Salami, a subtly sweet dessert or snack
• Brownie Baked Oatmeal, no eggs no banana
• Homemade Hoisin Sauce and Dip for Spring Rolls

_{Recipe developed in partnership with CA Prunes. Check out the their website and follow @CAPrunes on instagram for more information on prunes!}