Impress your savoury-loving significant other with this pickle bouquet for Valentine's Day! Forget the chocolates - all you need is skewers, a jar of pickles, and some their favourite snacks to make this dill-icious DIY gift.
Is someone you love into savoury over sweet? Are chocolates and candies not their thing? Why not DIY and gift them a pickle bouquet this year for Valentine's Day!
Pickle bouquets have been taking over the internet recently. I learned about the concept a few years ago and made one for my boyfriend for the first time. Since I was the one who got him hooked on pickles, it was only natural that I craft up my own version of a pickle bouquet for him. He had never heard of the concept before so he was extra surprised. We also thoroughly enjoyed eating it!
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What is a Pickle Bouquet?
The pickle bouquet is a concept created a few years ago, originating from Boston pickle company, Grillo's. Their motto is "who needs flowers when you have pickles?", and they even sell DIY pickle bouquet kits featuring their favourite pickles. A classic pickle bouquet features dill pickle spears on wooden skewers, with a pickle jar as a vase. It's an edible and entertaining alternative to flowers.
A pickle bouquet can be so much more than just pickles! I like to include items such as mini peppers, jalapeños, fresh dill, cherry tomatoes, bocconcini mozzarella and prosciutto roses. The options are limitless!
This post outlines how you can make your own easy DIY pickle bouquet at home for Valentine's Day. Plus, it can be put together start to finish in under 15 minutes. Trust me on this one. I put it together an hour before I had to write a university midterm!
Are you intrigued yet? Keep reading to find out how to make your love a dill-icious DIY pickle bouquet this year!
Ingredients Needed to Make a Pickle Bouquet
The options are limitless! This is your time to be creative and use ingredients you know your significant other will like. Here's some suggestions:
- Dill pickle spears: Either buy spears or chop them yourself. This shape is easiest to skewer. Bonus is that you can use the jar as your "vase".
- Mini bell peppers: Great to eat and easy to skewer. They also add a nice colour variety to the bouquet.
- Jalapeños: While maybe not the best to eat raw, jalapeños can surely be used in cooking afterwards!
- Cherry tomatoes: Easy to skewer and adds great colour and texture.
- Bocconcini mozzarella: Adds colour! I like to skewer them alternating with the cherry tomatoes.
- Fresh dill: Fills in the bouquet nicely just like greenery would in a floral bouquet.
- Prosciutto roses: These add great colour! It was a necessary addition for my Italian BF, and you could even expand to other types of cured meat. Just roll up a piece of prosciutto and skewer it!
Non-Food Materials You'll Need
- A jar or vase: The pickle jar will work perfectly!
- Wooden skewers
- Ribbon to tie a bow around the jar
- Card or paper for a little note
How to Make a Pickle Bouquet + Tips
If I can make one of these pickle bouquets an hour before I write a midterm, you can surely create a beautiful arrangement in under 15 minutes! Here are my best tips:
Time needed: 15 minutes.
How to Make a Pickle Bouquet
- Start by prepping all of your ingredients
Chop the pickles into spears, wash peppers and tomatoes, clean the fresh dill, etc. Be sure to dry everything with a towel! One problem I initially had was that everything was wet, and the bouquet was dripping as I stored it in the fridge and the whole kitchen smelled like dill. So be sure to dry everything thoroughly.
- Prepare the jar
Dump out the pickle juice or transfer to a separate container. Wash the jar to try to remove some of the strong dill smell (don't worry, it will certainly still smell enough). The important thing here is that you still need some weight in the jar so that it does not topple over once everything is arranged. I recommend using floral beads, some pebbles, or even just fresh water in the jar to keep it sturdy.
- Skewer everything
Try to skewer each item individually, except if they're smaller like cherry tomatoes and bocconcini. You don't need to skewer fresh herbs. To create roses out of prosciutto or another meat, simply roll it up loosely and skewer diagonally so you can still see the design.
- Assemble
Once everything is prepared, you're ready to assemble your pickle bouquet! Start with the larger items first like pickles and peppers. Then start to fill in the space with colourful items such as your tomatoes and meats. Make sure the colours and visual weight looks balanced as you're building the bouquet. There is no right or wrong way to do it! Lastly, add any fresh herbs like dill to fill in empty spaces and add movement to the bouquet. Adjust until you're happy with the look.
- Decorate
The last step of preparation is to add some personal touches to the pickle bouquet. A ribbon around the jar tied in a bow and a cute hand written note on a skewer will take it over the top. Bonus points for a pun! Ideas include: "I love you a great dill!" or "Won't you be brine?"
- Storage
The pickle bouquet can sit at room temperature for about an hour, but any longer than that and I would store it in the fridge or a cool space. I recommend taking a plastic grocery bag, placing a paper towel in the middle, and sitting the jar on top of that in the fridge. If you've dried everything well, you won't have much to worry about - just want to keep everything as clean as possible.
Now you're ready to gift! Show someone you love how much you care with a homemade pickle bouquet for Valentine's Day. They will surely never forget this gift!
Have you made your own DIY pickle bouquet? Be sure to leave a comment telling me how much you and your love enjoyed it, and tag me on instagram @fromoliviaskitchen!
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