Pickle Fest Recipe Contest Winners Serve up Dazzling Dishes

We are dill-lighted to announce this year’s winners of our NC Pickle Festival Recipe Contest. The winners and their recipes will be featured at the festival, where Mount Olive the community and Mt. Olive the company come together to celebrate everything “pickle.”

This year’s event will kick off on Friday, April 28 from 5 to 10 p.m., with the main day on Saturday, April 29 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in downtown Mount Olive.

Besides bragging rights, these home chefs will each receive a year’s supply of Mt. Olive pickles – enough for them to get a start on creating and testing recipes for the 2024 contest.

Contestants were required to use at least a 1/2 cup of Mt. Olive Pickles. With more than 100 products to choose from, picking just the right pickle ingredients could be challenging but not for this year’s culinary cadre. They wowed contest coordinator and judge Michelle Estrada, Wayne County Family & Consumer Sciences agent.

And the winners are…

Appetizer

Sapphire Wasson from Angier, NC, rocked the appetizer category with her Creamy Pickle Spring Rolls with Sauce.

She created a dipping sauce featuring Mt. Olive pickle juice, creamy peanut butter, and hoisin sauce. The spring rolls include Mt. Olive hamburger dill chips and pickle juice, dill weed, cream cheese, carrots, bean sprouts and lettuce.

Beverage

We think her inventive appetizer pairs perfectly with beverage category winner Sylvia Bare from Apex, NC, and her “I Could Have Had a V-8” Pickled Bloody Mary.

This creative concoction not only tastes delicious, it also makes an eye-catching signature cocktail with its skewer of Mt. Olive olives, ribboned dill pickle slices and chunks of cheddar cheese.

Main Dish

Brenda Watts from Gaffney, SC, won the main dish category (and honorable mention for the longest recipe title. Just kidding!).

Her Pork Pickle Pepper Salisbury Steaks & Creamy Dill Alfredo Linguine. This hearty recipe features Mt. Olive sweet salad cubes, Mt. Olive roasted red peppers, and Mt Olive pickled Vidalia onion strips on the steaks, and a super creamy sweet-pickle seasoned linguine.

Dessert

Did you say doughnuts? Eric Cane from Holly Springs, NC, sure did when he concocted a surprisingly delicious dessert: Mt. Olive Dill Pickle Doughnuts.

These savory and sweet doughnuts feature Mt. Olive dill pickle juice, Mt. Olive dill relish on the inside with a powdered sugar and pickle juice glaze. Trust us, these are to die for!

To stay up to date about festival events, check out Mt. Olive Pickles and the NC Pickle Festival on Facebook or @ncpicklefest and @mtolivepickles on Instagram.