Lemon Cucumber Pickles
Is there anything better than a gift of fresh vegetables delivered right to your doorstep? That was the case last week when our new favorite neighbors dropped off a beautiful bounty from their garden. It included some incredibly good tomatoes that we roasted and some lemon cucumbers. I have to confess to a love-hate relationship with cucumbers. I’m not very fond of them on their own. Oddly enough I love them pickled, marinated or brined. And when it comes to cucumbers, lemon cucumbers are a treat! They have a great delicate flavor and firm texture. For years, I enjoyed serving them as a simple appetizer marinated in rice vinegar, and a Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. But with more cucumbers than I could probably eat, I had to find a way to make them last. I got out my old recipe box and resurrected a blast from the past.
When I was a lot younger than I am now, I was very fond of growing my own vegetables. Well before blogging, before the Internet, even before Martha Stewart, I not only grew my own vegetables, but was also heavily invested in canning and preserving them. I made jams, chutneys, sauces, relishes, condiments, and pickles. I used to say I was Martha Stewart before she was. My favorite and most well received accomplishment were my pickles: Garlic Dill and Sweet Bread and Butter Pickles mainly, and refrigerator pickles when I didn’t have time to can. I finally gave up on gardening and got rid of most of my canning equipment about four moves ago. I enjoyed it, but I have no desire to get back into it. I guess you could say I have put canning on the back burner. Fortunately, there are always refrigerator pickles. Refrigerator pickles are almost as good as canned. You can make them in small batches that you can use right away. They are easy to make in a snap even if all you have is a small handful of vegetables. The brine in this recipe is my basic pickling brine. In addition to cucumbers, I have used it on almost anything that grows. You don’t need to adhere to this blend of spices; you can alternate with an endless number of combinations and different flavor profiles. That is one of the nice things about small batches… you are free to experiment without fear. These simple brined pickles are good enough to eat right away, but they are even better after sitting overnight. They will keep in the refrigerator for about three weeks, but I doubt they will last that long.
- 1½ pounds of lemon cucumbers, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- ½ medium onion, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
- ½ teaspoon mustard seed
- ½ teaspoon dried dill weed
- ½ teaspoon pickling spice
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup white vinegar
- Slice the cucumbers, bell pepper, and onion thinly (between ⅛-1/4 inch)
- Put the cucumbers, bell pepper, onion, and garlic in a large glass or other non-reactive bowl.
- Add salt and other seasoning, toss well, and allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Combine the sugar and vinegar over low heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved then remove from heat.
- Pour over the vegetables and allow to cool.
- Place the pickles in a lidded container and store in the refrigerator.
Pickles are great. I made 3 pints of them, but I did run out of brine and had to make extra.Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Are these sweet? I notice there’s quite a bit of sugar
Could you put the pickles in a hot water bath for 10 mins. to preserve them longer. Space in fridg is limited.
I have never used this recipe for traditional canning. Unfortunately I can not say if it would be advisable.
Tim, these are great pickles! We made them last year and now have another huge bounty of lemon cucumbers from our garden…I was so happy to find your recipe again!
Great pickles, Tim! Making them for the second year in a row with our huge bounty garden lemon cukes.
I am using this recipe for lemon cucumber pickles ajl the time and it is very good. we don’ have enough to actually can so we just make pickles and store them in the fridg until ready ton us which is often.
Thank you for the recipe! Love it!!!
I just wonder how long do the pickles last in the fridge and if l could just keep it in the basement instead?
These are Delicious! I cannot get enough of them and I am thrilled I have lemon cucumbers producing like crazy. The are just the right amount of crunch, vinegar and a touch of sweet. And beautiful looking good! We added them on our meatball subs and it kicked it over the top. Thank you for this keeper of a recipe.
When you say medium onion do you mean a yellow onion or sweet onion?
How long before you can dig into these pickles after making? ?
How long will these last in the fridge?
I read the ingredients and threw it all together. Then I read the instructions. Lmao. Still turned out great.
I assume you peeled the cucumbers first?
tasty ending, but word to wise-not all lemon cucumbers are uniform in size. wished i had looked closer at the photo first, mine are the size of baseballs – i would cut the big ones into half-3/4 inch cubes
I’m curious about the addition of sugar. Does that just cut the acidity of the vinegar or does it serve a purpose in keeping pickles fresh? I would rather not use sugar for health reasons. This is a great small batch recipe so experimenting will be easy without big disasters!
This is a great recipe! It’s quickly become a favorite in the house. I’ve found that cutting the sugar in half is more than enough, and using as little pickling spice as possible is a good idea. (Pickling spice, by nature, is hard to measure out in very small portions evenly, so making bigger batches might be the best answer.)😉
I also prefer more red bell pepper, so for two pounds of cucumber I’ll use two bell peppers, and I’m trying red onion next time. Keeping the onion pieces large enough when slicing is helpful; this can be done by separating the center sections of the slices before quartering the rings that are left. This way you don’t get tiny pieces of onion that are hard to get on your fork. (We eat this stuff by the bowlful!)
As others have mentioned, the recipe doesn’t make enough liquid to cover all the ingredients, so making more of the liquid is a good idea.