To make quick pickles, you cram the vegetables that you want to pickle into a heat proof jar, potentially along with some herbs and spices. You then create a brine of vinegar, water, and maybe some sugar.  You heat the brine on the stove and pour the hot brine over the vegetables, completely immersing them. Let them cool and then put them into the fridge for a couple days.

This ad hoc recipe plays with some of those ideas, but the marination process can be as short as 30 minutes. Gather an equal amount of cucumbers and tomatoes, along with a red onion. I made this recipe with a pint of cherry tomatoes weighing 12 ounces along with two small cucumbers which weighed 12 ounces together. This yielded four servings of the size shown in the picture. Slice the cucumber into thin rounds, around an eighth of an inch thick. If the cucumber is large and seedy, you may want to slice it lengthwise first and spoon out the seeds, then make half moon slices. Eyeball how much onion you want and cut thin slices, again going for about an eighth of an inch thick. Pop out the smaller rings and cut the larger rings into smaller pieces. Put the cucumbers and onions into a bowl. Sprinkle two teaspoons of sugar and one teaspoon of salt over them, stir and let sit for a minute. The salt and sugar will draw moisture out of the cukes and onions, making them more receptive to soak up some vinegar. After a minute or two, pour one half a cup of apple cider vinegar over the them and stir. Now, let things sit as you prepare the rest of your dinner. Just give them a quick stir now and then as you think of them. When you are almost ready to serve, cut your tomatoes. If they are cherry tomatoes, cut them in halves. If they are larger, cut into bite sized pieces. Add the tomatoes to the mixture and stir. It’s fine to leave the tomatoes in for some time as well, but you can also serve this immediately.  When you plate, top the salad with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

and salt and some combination of sugar, herbs and spices.