Given that we love our food with little twists, and often indulge in cheeses and meats, we were excited to be sent a range of pickles by the folk at Haywards Pickles. We were sent a selection from their new range, which promises to ‘liven up your food’.

We were sent sliced beetroot, sweet piccalilli, red cabbage, whole gherkins, traditional onions, and mixed pickle. Some of these (the onions, gherkins, and piccalilli) are established favourites of ours, whilst the others were new to us. As an additional bonus, Haywards also sent a fantastic pickle-grabber that both entertained our little girl and helped to pluck the pickles from their jars with the minimum level of mess.

With the pickles we were unfamiliar with, we decided that the way to go was to enjoy them as starters, with the sliced beetroot adding a bit of crunch to some cold meat, the red cabbage working well in an improvised-slaw with walnuts, and some of the mixed pickle going down nicely as a snack straight out of the jar!

All of these were a success, but our favourites were the sweet piccalilli, traditional onions, and whole gherkins. The piccalilli was clearly a real winner with ham sandwiches, especially given the relative runny nature of the pickle, making it easy to spread. The onions were great for grazing and also saved us a few pennies when we ordered fish and chips!

The gherkins, though, really came into their own. They were unexpected teething saviours for our little girl, who loved biting them before eating them up! As well as this, they worked brilliantly with burgers, providing a different texture and offering that sweet tang to help elevate what was otherwise a fairly standard dinner.

Haywards sell a great range of pickles and we’re keen to try out a few of the different types of pickled onion they offer. We are also keen to hear any of your favourite pickle recipes, so that we can try them out at home!