Refrigerator Pickled Asparagus

Gather the ingredients.

Wash the asparagus. Trim the spears by holding each one near either end and bending it gently—it will snap exactly between the tougher bottom end and the tender tip end. Save the bottom ends for making asparagus soup or vegetable soup. The tender part of each spear is your asparagus for pickling. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Prepare a large bowl of ice water.

Once the pot of water is at a full rolling boil, drop in all of the asparagus spears and boil for only 15 seconds.

Drain the asparagus in a colander and immediately transfer it to the bowl of ice water. Drain after the asparagus spears have been submerged for 1 to 2 minutes. Set aside.

Bring the pint of water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a boil, stirring once or twice to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from the stove and allow to cool off.

Place the garlic cloves and 1 of the grape leaves, if using, at the bottom of a clean glass quart jar or a couple of pint-sized jars. You do not need to use special canning jars and seals, and you don't need to sterilize the jars. Clean and dry jars will work perfectly.

Place the jar on its side and start loading in the asparagus spears, adding the dill, mustard seeds, lemon slice, and small dried chile, if using, as you do so. Placing some spears upside down will allow you to pack more asparagus spears into the jar. Be sure to pack the spears in tightly so that they will not float up out of the brine.

Pour the cooled brine into the jar making sure that the liquid completely covers the asparagus spears.

Secure the lid and place the jar in the refrigerator. The tips of the asparagus spears may take on a pink hue because of the vinegar—this is completely safe to eat.

The pickles will be ready to eat in three days, but one or two weeks makes them much better. Keep in the refrigerator for three to four months, although there will be some texture loss after a few weeks. Enjoy!