This delicious Vegetable Salad Recipe is everything you can ever dream of. With a crunch, a delicious veggie kick, and loads of flavor this is by far the tastiest veggie salad ever!
What’s best is that it’s canned, so when you make it once, you can have it at hand whenever you want.
It’s the perfect way to get your family to have more veggies. This traditional vegetable salad recipe is seriously here to win your heart.
Want to learn how to make this Vegetable Salad Recipe? Then keep on reading!
Table of Contents
What is a Vegetable Salad?
A Vegetable Salad is any salad that has other veggies such as cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, and other vegetables that differentiate it from a ‘green salad’.
It’s the classic side dish to just about any meal, anywhere from meat and chicken dishes to pasta, and even pizzas!
Vegetable salads can be incredibly easy to work into any meal and can provide the necessary nutrition your family needs.
The best salads are the ones that are also healthy, so they don’t contain any mayonnaise, and aren’t high in sodium or calories.
And that’s exactly the type of salad I have for you today! Plus, what’s another bonus on top is that this salad is also canned, making it last for months and always being available when you need it!
Why Makes This Vegetable Salad Recipe Special?
This delicious recipe is a classic and traditional one passed on to me by my late mother.
I lost my mom shortly after I got married. I'm not exactly sure how her handwritten cookbook ended up in my house, but I am sure glad it did.
Upon scrolling through it, I stumbled upon this recipe and decided to give it a try. I don’t regret doing that at all because my family immediately loved it and I've been making it up to this day.
I've given this salad the nickname “Rescue Salad” because that's what it's been. We all have those moments in life where we just run out of time or get unexpected or short-notice guests, right?
This is when this salad comes to your rescue: unpickle and serve!
Crunchy, flavorful, and adored. This vegetable salad may be served with just about any main course on the side as a side dish in a bowl and is especially well enjoyed with pasta or potato dishes.
I hope you’ll enjoy canning this salad (putting those end-of-season vegetables to good use) as well as enjoying the results.
What You Need to Make Vegetable Salad at Home
You only need a handful of tasty vegetables and some other pantry-staple ingredients to whip up this delicious vegetable salad recipe.
Here’s what you’ll need to make this veggie salad at home:
- Green cabbage: This adds not only a delicious flavor but an incredible crunch to the salad.
- Cucumbers: Cucumbers are always refreshing, but when canned they get extra tasty. This makes the salad go well on the side with burgers etc.
- Zucchinis: These are packed with nutrients and antioxidants, plus the extra fiber helps with digestion. Not to mention they taste seriously good in this salad.
- Yellow peppers: The yellow kind have an almost fruity and sweet flavor, which balances out everything in the salad.
- Cherry tomatoes (yellow, orange, or red): Tomatoes add a beautiful acidity and flavor. You can pick from any type of tomatoes you like, but cherry tomatoes go best in this salad.
- Carrots: Carrots are the perfect addition to this salad, and the crunch takes the flavor to the next level.
- White distilled vinegar: We’ll be canning these so we’ll be needing acid to preserve it right. Distilled white vinegar is, by far, the best one and also a cheap method!
- Extra virgin olive oil: To make the mixture, we’ll also be needing some extra virgin olive oil.
- Sugar: This will enhance the flavor of the salad and also bring everything perfectly together.
- Kosher salt: We’ll also be using salt to enhance the flavor of our salad to the right level.
How to Make Vegetable Salad (Step-by-Step)
Making this delicious vegetable salad is incredibly easy. Here’s how to make it step by step:
How to Prepare Vegetables
Let’s prep our veggies first. Rinse and shred the cabbage. Peel, rinse, and trim both ends of each carrot.
Rinse bell peppers, remove seeds and cut into one ½ inch (2.5 cm) long strips, and slice cucumbers into rings. (Tip: Rinse carrots after peeling as they will need to be rinsed then anyway.)
Shred the larger half of the carrots. Remove the stem and rinse the tomatoes.
Sterilize the jars before making the marinade. Let the jars sit in the oven while preparing the marinade. Take one jar and lid at a time out of the oven. See more details on how to sterilize the jars in this post.
How to Prepare Salad Marinade
Into a medium pot add vinegar, olive oil, organic sugar, and kosher salt.
Bring it to a boil stirring constantly until the salt and sugar granules melt. After it boils turn the heat off and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
How to Cook Vegetable Salad
While the marinade is boiling place all the vegetables in a 15-quart pot. Then pour boiling marinade into a pot over vegetables (pour slowly to prevent splatter so you don't get burned).
Place a pot with marinated vegetables onto a stovetop and turn the temperature to high.
Stir vegetables with a large serving spoon from the bottom to top every 30 seconds until the marinade and vegetables start to boil (this process will take anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes; toward the end of this process most of the vegetables will be submerged and marinate will be visible with boiling bubbles).
Reduce the heat to medium and let it slowly boil for another 10 minutes stirring vegetables in the same motion moving vegetables from the bottom of the pot to the top every minute (the heat on the bottom of the pot is much higher and vegetables will overcook if not stirred).
How to Can Vegetable Salad Recipe
Reduce the heat to low. Take one jar (only jar not the lid) out of the oven, and place the canning funnel over the jar (this prevents the rim of the jar clean).
Using a large serving spoon fill half of the jar with salad, then using a tablespoon press the salad down to the bottom of the jar.
Fill and press the salad down until the jar is full leaving half-inch space to the top of the jar (if the jar has too much marinade while filling a jar with salad remove it with a ¼ measuring cup, and vice-versa, add marinate if the jar has not enough marinade when the jar is full).
Remove the canning funnel and wipe the rim with a clean and dry paper towel.
Other Veggies and Seasonings You Can Use for Vegetable Salad Recipe
This delicious Vegetable Salad is perfect as is, but if you’re looking to change things up to make it more versatile here’s what you can add:
Other veggies: You can add just about any vegetables you love. Some great ideas include red onions, garlic, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and green beans.
Spices: You can add any spices you like. A dash of black pepper goes well with it.
Garnishes: Before serving, you can garnish your salad with some fresh herbs or dry ones such as fresh parsley, cilantro, dill, dried oregano, etc.
How to Store Vegetable Salad
If canned vegetable salad is unopened, it can be stored at room temperature. The best place for them is somewhere cool (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit), clean, and dry, such as your pantry or kitchen cabinet.
You should never put canned veggie salad under the sink, in a damp basement or garage, above the stove, or anywhere else where the temperature is either too low or too high.
If you follow all of the instructions in the recipe, your canned, unopened vegetable salad should last you around a year.
You shouldn't leave opened or leftover canned vegetable salad out at room temperature for more than 2 hours. The fridge is the best place to store them.
Don't forget to transfer your canned veggie salad to an airtight container before refrigerating.
You can extend the amount of time you have to enjoy your veggie salad by up to 5 days as long as you keep them stored in the refrigerator continuously.
The salad tastes best chilled.
Click HERE to download and print Vegetable Salad Jar Labels for FREE on THIS printable label paper.
Similar Recipes
- Canned Tomatoes Recipe
- Easy Canned Dill Pickles
- How to Can Sorrel
- Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe
- Simple Homemade Strawberry Jam
- No Cook Raspberry Freezer Jam
Recipe Card
Vegetable Salad Recipe (The Perfect Canned Veggie Salad)
Ingredients
Canned Vegetable Salad Ingredients
- 4.5 lbs. - green cabbage
- 3 lbs. - cucumbers
- 1 lb. - zucchinis
- 2 yellow – peppers
- 2 lbs. - cherry tomatoes (yellow, orange or red)
- 2.5 lbs. – carrots
- 3 cups - white distilled vinegar
- 3 cups - olive oil
- ½ cup - organic sugar
- ⅔ cup - kosher salt
Instructions
How to Prepare Vegetables
- Let’s prep our veggies first. Rinse and shred the cabbage. Peel, rinse, and trim both ends of each carrot.
- Rinse bell peppers, remove seeds, and cut into one ½ inch (2.5 cm) long strips, and slice cucumbers into rings. (Tip: Rinse carrots after peeling as they will need to be rinsed then anyway.)
- Shred the larger half of the carrots. Remove the stem and rinse the tomatoes.
- Sterilize the jars before making the marinade. Let the jars sit in the oven while preparing the marinade. Take one jar and lid at a time out of the oven. See more details on how to sterilize the jars in this post.
How to Prepare Salad Marinade
- Into a medium pot add vinegar, olive oil, organic sugar, and kosher salt.
- Bring it to a boil stirring constantly until the salt and sugar granules melt. After it boils turn the heat off and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
How to Cook Vegetable Salad
- While the marinade is boiling place all the vegetables in a 15-quart pot. Then pour boiling marinade into a pot over vegetables (pour slowly to prevent splatter so you don't get burned).
- Place a pot with marinated vegetables onto a stovetop and turn the temperature to high.
- Stir vegetables with a large serving spoon from the bottom to top every 30 seconds until the marinade and vegetables start to boil (this process will take anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes; toward the end of this process most of the vegetables will be submerged and marinate will be visible with boiling bubbles).
- Reduce the heat to medium and let it slowly boil for another 10 minutes stirring vegetables in the same motion moving vegetables from the bottom of the pot to the top every minute (the heat on the bottom of the pot is much higher and vegetables will overcook if not stirred).
How to Can Vegetable Salad Recipe
- Reduce the heat to low. Take one jar (only jar not the lid) out of the oven, and place the canning funnel over the jar (this prevents the rim of the jar clean).
- Using a large serving spoon fill half of the jar with salad, then using a tablespoon press the salad down to the bottom of the jar.
- Fill and press the salad down until the jar is full leaving half-inch space to the top of the jar (if the jar has too much marinade while filling a jar with salad remove it with a ¼ measuring cup, and vice-versa, add marinate if the jar has not enough marinade when the jar is full).
- Remove the canning funnel and wipe the rim with a clean and dry paper towel.
- Get a lid out of the oven, place it over the jar, using canning gloves screw the lid tight, and then flip the jar upside down.
- Repeat the same canning instructions with the remaining salad. Let the jars stand flipped upside down for 12 hours or overnight.
- Before storing canned jars, rinse them with warm soapy water (as the jars will be a little greasy after canning), and dry them with a towel.
- Allow the salad to soak up all the flavors for at least a week before opening a jar.
- The salad tastes best chilled.
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This recipe was originally posted on September 22, 2017 (original picture below). I tweaked it a bit since then like using a good quality ingredient that makes the salad taste even better. This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure.
Bettie says
Good morning. I have not made this recipe yet but I have a question. In the directions you say to shred the larger half of the carrots. What do you do with the rest of them?
Valya's Taste of Home says
You slice the smaller part and add to the sales. The larger part takes longer to cook, so it's best to shred that part.
jessica says
Hi Valya, I only have homegrown cucumbers. Do you think I can use other veggies from the store? Not sure if the salad will still taste good. Thank you!
Valya's Taste of Home says
Of course. That is not a problem! Thanks for asking!
jessica says
I made this salad, had about a cup of leftover, and when I tasted it was salty. I was a little bit disappointed. Also, I had about 4 cups left of marinade, Is it normal?
Valya's Taste of Home says
Yes, it's normal to have an extra marinade. After the vegetables soak in all the flavors and seasoning it shouldn't be salty. But if it's still too salty to your taste, then adjust the salt next time you make it. Thank you for your feedback!
jessica says
I really hope it will taste great when I'll open it in the winter. Thank you!
Valya's Taste of Home says
You are most certainly welcome!
Luda says
Hi Valya! Thanks for all the delicious recipes that you’re sharing with us. How could I make a salad WITHOUT zucchini’s, cucumbers & tomatoes. I’m looking for a canned recipe salad that consists of: cabbage, carrots & bell peppers + marinade. What would the ingredients weight should be, how do I measure them out?
www.valyastasteofhome.com says
Replace the cucumbers, zucchinis and tomatoes with cabbage, carrots and peppers weight on top of the cabbage, carrots and pepper ingredients weight in the recipe. It doesn't have to be to the exact ounce. I hope this helps.
Anna says
This salad looks delicious! A must try for sure! Do you have any recipes for marinated tomatoes and gravy? Those are some that I would like to see. Thanks!
www.valyastasteofhome.com says
Thank you, it sure tastes delicious! Yes, click here for canned tomatoes recipe and here for gravy.
Makos(@thehungrybites) says
I believe everyone loves a "rescue" salad!
www.valyastasteofhome.com says
Salads like this one is a huge rescue sometimes in our busy lives for sure 🙂