These lemon cucumber pickles are ready with just 20 minutes of hands-on time. Crisp lemon cucumbers are pickled in a simple brine flavored with garlic, fresh dill, mustard seeds, pink peppercorns, and cloves. Made with the quick-pickle method, these tangy pickles are ready for enjoying right away though they taste best after 24 hours.
Thanks to some lovely farmers at my local farmers market, I was introduced to these beautiful lemon cucumbers! While they donโt have a lemon flavor, they get their name from the fact they they are round, roughly the size of a lemon, and have yellow skin. Since pickles are one of my absolute favorite snacks throughout the warmer months, I knew I needed to whip up a batch of quick pickles. These lemon cucumber pickles come together with just 20 minutes of hands-on time and can be eaten right away, though I HIGHLY recommend letting them pickle in the fridge for at least 24 hours first. The combination of fresh dill, garlic, and the whole spices gives them a complex flavor that is way better than a standard dill pickle!
Pickle Ingredients and Substitutions
Hereโs what you need to make these quick pickles: lemon cucumbers, water, white vinegar, kosher salt, sugar, garlic cloves, fresh dill, whole mustard seed, peppercorns, and whole cloves. While lemon cucumbers make great pickles, they arenโt necessarily easy to find unless you grow them or find them at a farmers market. Any pickling cucumber variety or crisp slicing variety can be used in their place! Simply substitute an equal amount by weight. Iโve tried this recipe with both distilled white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Both work, but I find that I prefer the flavor of the white vinegar.
Making Lemon Cucumber Pickles with the Quick-Pickle Method
These cucumbers are made with the quick-pickle or refrigerator pickle method because they arenโt canned for shelf stability. With this method, youโre pickling the cucumbers in a simple brine made with salt, a little sugar, and equal parts water and distilled white vinegar. The brine is brought to a simmer, then poured over the sliced cucumbers. The cucumbers will pickle for an hour before being divided into jars. At that point, they can go into the refrigerator and will last up to a month.
Enjoying Your Pickles
These pickles are tangy and crispย with only the slightestย bit of sweetness.ย Iโve mostly been eating them straight out of the jar, but the options are limitless!ย Here are some suggestions for enjoying your lemon cucumber pickles:
- atop a veggie burger or sandwich
- chopped up and added to salads
- as part of a vegetarian charcuterie spread alongside olives, fruit, crackers, and your favorite cheese
- minced and added to dips or your favorite homemade ranch
Lemon Cucumber Pickles (quick-pickle method)
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 2 pints 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These lemon cucumber pickles are ready with just 20 minutes of hands-on time! Crisp lemon cucumbers are pickled in a simple brine flavored with garlic, fresh dill, mustard seeds, pink peppercorns, and cloves. Made with the quick-pickle method, these tangy pickles are ready for enjoying right away though they taste best after 24 hours.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds lemon cucumbers
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 1/2 tablespoon whole mustard seeds
- 1/2 tablespoon whole pink peppercorns, or black peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
- 4 sprigs fresh dill
- 2 clean pint jars
Instructions
Prep the cucumbers: scrub the outside skin well and then cut off the ends of the cucumbers.ย Slice the cucumbers into 1/4-inch thick rounds and set aside in a large heat proof bowl.
Combine the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, and spices in a sauce pan.ย Bring this mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.ย Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool at least 15 minutes.ย Once the mixture has cooled a bit, pour it over your cucumbers and let them sit for 1 hour,ย covered.
Prep the jars: make sure your 2 pint jars (or 1 quart jar) are clean.ย Place 2 sprigs of dill in the bottom of each jar.ย ย Divide the pickles and pickling liquid evenly between the 2 jars then put them in the fridge.ย Leave the pickles in the fridge for at least 24 hours before eating to allow them to absorb the flavors of the dill and spices.ย They will keep in the fridge about a month.
Notes
- I developed this recipe as a โquick pickleโ so it sets up in your fridge and keeps there for about a month.ย I have not tested it for being shelf stable for canning.
- If you do not have lemon cucumbers, regular slicing or pickling cucumbers will work just fine. Use 1 1/2 pounds of your favorite variety.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cooling Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: canning
thanks for sharing...
Oops. I just canned several jars with your recipe, not noticing that it's not formulated for canning. What will happen to them? They all sealed and I've stored them in the cupboard.
You used a 1:1 ratio of water:5% vinegar and more than the 1.5 tsp of salt per pint that’s normally used in water-bath or pressure bath canning of cucumber pickles.
I can Lemon and Mini-Me Cukes with that ratio and salt amounts and it meets FDA requirements for acidity, following recipes in Better Homes and Gardens You Can Cook book and Pickling Everything by Leda Meredith.
It should keep unopened with the vacuum seal intact at room temp for at least a year.
This is such helpful information! Thank you for sharing!
I would put them in your fridge as I'm not sure if the acidity content is high enough for prolonged shelf storage. They should still be fine ๐
Thank you! It's only been under two weeks. I'll put them in the fridge and try to consume them. Do you have a modified brine for canning? Just up the vinegar? I have a million lemon cukes this year! Thank you!
I know for canning shelf stable pickles you need to use a vinegar with at least 5% acidity and usually the brine is made from equal parts water/vinegar. I'm realizing now that these actually might be shelf stable without the fresh dill (dill seeds would be better) as long as you use a vinegar with 5% acidity. Here's a good resource to check out: http://foodinjars.com/2009/08/garlic-dill-pickles/
Thank you!!! I will check out that link and look what vinegar I used. I watched a youtube video for canning pickles and she used fresh dill and 2:1 ratio vinegar to water… This canning world is huge and I'm a rookie ๐ Your recipe is so amazing though. I already ate a whole jar ๐
Glad you like the recipe ๐
Thank you for this recipe! I was looking for a refrigerator pickle recipe to make with my 5 year old granddaughter who loves dill pickles. We too have an abundance of lemon cucumbers. Could I use dry dill instead of fresh? Also you meantioned they are just slightly sweet.
Wwould you say these are closer to dill that sweet pickles?
I would use dill seed as dried dill won't work quite as well. And yes, they are a dill pickle not a sweet pickle (I've never been a fan of sweet pickles). If you want you can always just leave the sugar out ๐
I recently lost my husband and I don’t go thru canned pickles as fast as before. A shelf stored canned sweet pickle would be best for me. What do you recommend?
Hi Phyllis! Anytime I’ve made pickles it’s usually a refrigerator pickle since I go through them so quickly (so that’s why any of the recipes on the blog are refrigerator pickles). But, I did a little research to see if I could re-work the recipe to be shelf stable. In the recipe above, you would use all vinegar. So just to be safe, I would go with 3 cups total of distilled white vinegar (and no added water). To make them sweeter you could increase the sugar to 1/4 or even a 1/2 cup. Instead of using fresh dill I would recommend using 1-2 tsp dill seed. Or, you can omit it altogether. Add the vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices to a large pot and bring to a boil. Once it comes to a boil add the sliced cucumbers and return the mixture to a boil. After it comes to a boil remove it from the heat and carefully ladle it into your sterilized jars leaving a half inch of headspace. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Let the jars cool completely then check to make sure the lids sealed. If so they are shelf stable up to a year. If not put them in the fridge and eat them within 1-2 months. I hope this helps!