Easy Quick Pickled Cherry Tomatoes You'll Want To Eat All Day (2024)

Pickled Goods, Southern Sides

These easy quick pickled cherry tomatoes are a great way to use fresh tomatoes, keep them in the refrigerator, and serve at will.

A cherry tomatois packed with Vitamin C and can enhance your immunity and act as an antioxidant. While cherry tomatoesare miniature sizes of the real deal, they are just as powerful.

They are also good sources of Vitamin A, K, and potassium.

Here are some ways you can enjoy your quick pickled cherry tomatoes:

Excellent in salads.
Part of a cheese plate.
Halved and tossed into pasta salads.
Garnishes for gazpacho.
The brine is incredible in a bloody Mary.
Trypickled tomatoesas a garnish for a martini.

Easy Quick Pickled Cherry Tomatoes You'll Want To Eat All Day (2)

Pickled Tomatoes You’ll Love

With Spring here and gardens sprouting up all over the South, it won’t be long before you can gather your own cherry tomatoes or buy them from a local farmer’s market.

These fresh and wholesome crimson veggies are not only pretty in an array of southern dishes but good for your health. A double punch!

You can grow them yourself at home as well. My grandmother grew tomatoes in an old tractor tire for years and years! I still remember biting into juicy tomatoes with tons of salt.

She’d make a tomato and mayonnaise sandwich… now that’s a recipe I need to write.

Things To Remember When Pickling Vegetables And Fruits

Use only fresh (not frozen), undamaged, and unspoiled fruits or vegetables.
Always clean produce thoroughly.
Cut uniform sizes, ideally small enough to both fit in a jar and keep bite sized for eating purposes.
Prepare and measure out everything (from brine to veggie or fruit prep) before heating the pickling brine.
Wash containers and jars well and let air dry. You can put quick pickles in any airtight container, but the mason jar is classic.
This is a recipe for refrigerator pickles – they are not intended to be shelf-stable.

Easy Quick Pickled Cherry Tomatoes You'll Want To Eat All Day (3)

Here’s why you boil the vinegar when doing quick pickles

You boil the vinegar when pickling so that it is hot enough to penetrate the fruit or vegetable being pickled. It’s the same principle seen in making tea. Hot water steeps more intensely than cold water.

Be careful not to over boil. The flavor and pickling comes from the vinegar, and boiling it for too long will cause the vinegar to evaporate.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

Container of cherry tomatoes (enough to fill pint jar), whole
2 Garlic cloves, whole
1/4 tsp. dill, dried
1/2 tsp. mustard seed, whole
1/4 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, whole

Here are the ingredients for the Brine:

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt

Easy Quick Pickled Cherry Tomatoes You'll Want To Eat All Day (4)

Directions

Directions:

Wash the cherry tomatoes. You’re going to use enough (depending on the specific size) in this recipe to fill a 16 oz. jar.
Add the tomatoes, garlic, dill, mustard seed, yellow onion, and peppercorn into your jar. Don’t worry that the spices settle at the bottom, they will rise up again and evenly distribute their flavor when you add the brine.

Preparing the Brine:

Mix the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a stainless steel pan and bring to a boil.
As soon as it reaches a good boil, pour it over the cherry tomato mixture in the jar until the tomatoes are just covered.
Put the top on immediately and put into the refrigerator.

Other Quick Pickled Foods You’ll Love!

Pickled Jalapenos
Pickled Cherry Tomatoes
Pickled Cabbage
Pickled Sweet Peppers
Pickled Celery
Pickled Beets
Pickled Cucumbers (AKA Pickles)
Pickled Sausage
Pickled Chicken Feet

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes

Rachel Norman

These easy quick pickled cherry tomatoes are a great way to use fresh tomatoes, keep them in the refrigerator, and serve at will.

4.67 from 9 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Southern

Servings 1 jar

Calories 163 kcal

Ingredients

Brine

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt

Vegetables

Cherry tomatoes enough to fill pint jar
2 whole garlic cloves
1/4 tsp dill dried
1/2 tsp mustard seed whole
1/4 yellow onion thinly sliced
1/2 tsp black peppercorns whole

Instructions

Vegetables

Wash the cherry tomatoes. You're going to use enough (depending on the specific size) in this recipe to fill 16 oz. jar.
See Also
Easy Green Chicken Enchiladas What to Make with Shredded Chicken Easy Spiced Peach Bread Mongolian Ground Beef Noodles Recipe
Add the tomatoes, garlic, dill, mustard seed, yellow onion, and peppercorn into your jar.
Don't worry that the spices settle at the bottom, they will rise up again and evenly distribute their flavor when you add the brine.

Brine

Mix the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a stainless steel pan and bring to a boil.
As soon as it reaches a good boil, pour it over the cherry tomato mixture in the jar until the tomatoes are just covered.
Put the top on immediately and put into the refrigerator.

Notes

Note: Leaving the jar in the refrigerator overnight allows the spices time to develop a bold, rich flavor.

Nutrition

Calories: 163kcalCarbohydrates: 29gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 6996mgPotassium: 40mgFiber: 1gSugar: 25gVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 15mgIron: 1mg

Keyword pickling, quick pickles, tomatoes

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Rachel Norman

Rachel is a southern born and bred mother of 5 and founder of Southern Eats & Goodies. She's an entrepreneur, country girl, and world traveler who speaks 3 languages and loves Southern food.

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29 Comments

Donna G Caddell-Cox
September 18, 2022 at 8:09 pm ·Reply

Are you using different stages of ripeness for this recipe?
- Sara Jean
  September 19, 2022 at 3:08 pm ·Reply
  
  Hi Donna. The tomatoes should be fully ripe, but still firm (not overripe).
Justin Knapp
September 18, 2022 at 11:22 pm ·Reply

I want to can this recipe. Do you know how long one should process for in the water bath canning technique?
See Also
Easy Lemon Curd Recipe from The Food Charlatan.
- Sara Jean
  September 19, 2022 at 3:32 pm ·Reply
  
  Hi Justin. Here’s the site I rely on for this information: https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/canning-quick-reference-chart (check out the acidic food chart at the bottom of the page for tomatoes).
Shafiun
March 12, 2023 at 3:26 am ·Reply

I like this recipe. But wheather the boiled water should poured hot or cold ?
- Sara Jean
  March 21, 2023 at 3:33 pm ·Reply
  
  Hi Shafiun. The vinegar/water mixture should always be boiled as noted in the recipe and then immediately poured over the tomatoes or whatever food you are pickling.
Alex Carr
August 10, 2023 at 11:00 pm ·Reply

Can this recipe be water bathed to become shelf stable ?
- Sara Jean
  August 21, 2023 at 6:43 pm ·Reply
  
  Hi Alex. Here’s the site I rely on for this information: https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/canning-quick-reference-chart (check out the acidic food chart at the bottom of the page for tomatoes).
Rosann Kay Corey
August 12, 2023 at 2:51 pm ·Reply

How long will they keep in a refrigerator?
- Sara Jean
  August 21, 2023 at 6:46 pm ·Reply
  
  Hi Rosann. We recommend enjoying these pickled tomatoes within two weeks of pickling.
Donna
August 12, 2024 at 8:56 am ·Reply

Do you need to “prick” the tomatoes so the brine penetrates??
- Sara Jean
  September 8, 2024 at 4:56 pm ·Reply
  
  You can; this will aid the penetration. Thanks for pointing this out!
Martin Sobieraj
September 10, 2024 at 6:34 pm ·Reply

Changed up the recipe used fennel and fronds instead of onion and dill, apple cider vinegar, left all other ingredients same, that bit of licorish added a whole different dimension. Yummy!
- Sara Jean
  September 15, 2024 at 9:28 am ·Reply
  
  Those additions sound wonderful. Thank you for sharing those suggestions, Martin!