Sweet mustard pickle recipe

Sweet mustard pickle recipe

  • DifficultyCapable cooks
  • Prep6:00
  • Cook0:40
  • Makes 6
Cathey
by Cathey Last updated on 10/31/2025

Tangy and addictive, this sweet pickle is a delight on sandwiches or served with cold meats. I love that one ABR member wrote: “My husband sneaks past the fridge with a spoon and scoops it straight from the jar like a little kid. He is obsessed!” Perhaps, you will be, too!

How to make a sweet mustard pickle: key tips

You’ll need to pickle the vegies overnight in brine, before cooking them until tender in the brine mix. Once drained, the softened vegetables are cooked with vinegar, sugar, mustard, curry and turmeric for added flavour and colour.

After boiling, cool your pickle a little so that you aren’t pouring boiling water straight into your sterilised glass jars, risking them cracking! Having said this, your pickle will still need to go into the jars hot, so that you minimise the chance of any contamination occurring. Spoon the vegies into the jars until about 3cm below the rim, then carefully top up with the pickling liquid and seal.

Key ingredients in this sweet mustard pickle recipe

This recipe uses onion, cucumber and cauliflower as the vegetable base, but you could try it with other vegetables, if you like (see the notes, below).

Cornflour is used to thicken your pickle so that it isn’t watery, but more like a sauce. Mustard, ground turmeric and curry powder add a wonderful earthy flavour to your sweet mustard pickle, along with that gorgeous yellow colour! You can use around 4 tsp mustard seeds, instead of mustard powder, if you would like the added visual appeal and texture in your pickle.

If you have a penchant for pickles, you could also try this delish cauliflower pickle and green tomato pickles

This recipe was originally submitted by Cathey, a member of the Australia’s Best Recipe community. Introduction and additional recipe notes by Natasha Shaw.

- Australia's Best Recipes Team
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Ingredients

  • 2 L water
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1/2 cauliflower
  • 4 onion large
  • 1 cucumber
  • 750 ml apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup Woolworths Essentials Cornflour
  • 2 cup white sugar
  • 1 tbs mustard powder
  • 1/2 tbs curry powder
  • 1/2 tbs ground turmeric

Method

  • Step 1
    Combine water and salt in large pot.
  • Step 2
    Finely chop cauliflower, onions and cucumber.
    Sweet mustard pickle recipe
  • Step 3
    Add to salt water, mix well and stand overnight.
  • Step 4
    Heat mixture, cook vegetables until tender, then drain.
  • Step 5
    Put vegetables back into pot with the vinegar, sugar, mustard, curry and turmeric.
  • Step 6
    Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Add cornflour mixed with a little water and simmer until thick.
  • Step 7
    Seal immediately in sterilised jars.
Recipe Notes

Can I use different vegies in this sweet mustard pickle? 

Some ABR members have tried this recipe with chopped zucchini, sliced capsicum and chopped celery with success. 

How do I store this sweet mustard pickle?

You can keep an opened sterilised jar of this pickle in the fridge for up to a week. Unopened jars have a long shelf life, as long as they are sealed in sterilised jars, and will last up to 12 months in a cool dark pantry.

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