Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon

Since I was making some Vietnamese Caramel Shrimp, I thought I could also make some do chua, or Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon to go with the shrimp. It's super easy to pickle these carrots and daikon - you don't even have to cook or heat anything! Simply dissolve the salt and sugar in the water/vinegar solution and then pour it over the carrots/daikon. It doesn't get much easier than that! Making do chua isn't difficult at all. However, if you, like me, chose to julienne the carrots and daikon, it can be a bit time consuming. The julienned carrots and daikon worked well as a side for us, but if you're going to put your do chua in bahn mi, it would probably be faster to just use a peeler. However, you can cut the carrots and daikon into just about any shape and it'll likely be fine - it all just depends on what your goals are. These sweetly tangy and crunchy pickled carrots and daikon provide a nice, refreshing contrast against most Vietnamese foods, although the pickled daikon (without carrots) is also commonly used in Korean (danmuji - usually as a side) and Japanese (takuwan - eaten as tsukemono) cuisine. The traditional methods used to make danmuji and takuwan are a bit different, but using this method will produce something very similar.


Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon by Morsels of Life
(printable version)
Do chua - sweetly tangy Vietnamese style pickled carrots and daikon. Similar to the Korean danmuji and Japanese takuwan.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: none
Total time: 15 minutes + pickling time
Yield: many servings

Materials:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• carrots, julienned
• daikon, julienned

Methods:

1. Dissolve salt and sugar in water and vinegar.
2. Pack julienned carrots and daikon into a container.
3. Cover the carrots and daikon with pickling solution. The amount of pickling time depends on how sweetly tangy you want the carrots and daikon.

This post is part of Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, These Chicks Cooked, Recipe Sharing Monday.