Place the vegetables in a 20-ounce glass jar or a lidded glass storage container. Make sure it's made from thick glass that can withstand near-boiling water. Pack the vegetables in tightly, leaving ½-inch of space at the top.
Prepare the brine: Combine the water, vinegar, salt, sweetener, garlic, peppercorns, coriander, and bay leaf in a small saucepan. Stir to dissolve the salt and sweetener. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.
Allow the brine to slightly cool, then pour it over the vegetables. It helps to pour the brine into a spouted measuring cup first. The brine should cover the vegetables completely. If it doesn't, you'll need to make more.
Close the jar tightly, cool it to room temperature for about 30 minutes, and then refrigerate the pickles for 6 hours or overnight.
Serve with any meat or poultry dish. They are especially good with burgers.
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Notes
In the nutritional info, I assumed that the vegetables absorb ½ of the vinegar and the salt. This is just a rough estimate, though.
This recipe is just a rough guideline. It's fun to change things up! For example, you can change up the vinegar you use. I like to use champagne vinegar. White wine vinegar is also good. However, I don't recommend using distilled white vinegar. It's too acidic.
You can make these pickles spicy by adding a couple of hot chili peppers to the pickling jar. Just make sure no one actually tries to eat them!
You can keep these pickles in the fridge, in an airtight glass jar or container, for about a week. Being homemade, they don't contain preservatives, so they won't last as long as store-bought pickles.