How to Make Your Own Easy Refrigerated Pickles

So it’s harvest time and you have more homegrown cucumbers than you know what to do with. The solution is simple: make your own easy refrigerated pickles!

While canning and lacto-fermenting can be fun ways to preserve your garden harvest, if you’re new to home preservation, or you don’t want to tangle with messy canning supplies, making easy fridge pickles is a great place to start.

Read on for a super quick fridge pickles recipe that the whole family will love!

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Making your own easy refrigerator pickles recipe:

Whipping up a batch of quick refrigerator pickles is easier than you may think. You just need a few basic supplies, fresh cucumbers and you’re ready to go. In fact, it’s so simple, this recipe is kid-friendly too!

What you’ll need:

• 1-gallon jar
• 9 cups of cucumbers, sliced
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 green bell peppers, sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 2 cups of distilled white vinegar
• 3 cups of white sugar
• 1/4 cup of pickling salt
• 1 tablespoon of celery salt
• 1 tablespoon of celery seed

The best refrigerator pickle recipe:

1. To get started, first slice up your cucumbers, onions and bell peppers. Cucumbers can be cut horizontally for pickle chips or vertically for pickle spears, it’s up to you. Just try to cut your veggies approximately the same size.

Tip: If you’re making a lot of pickles all at once, a mandoline can make slicing much easier!

2. Next, carefully pack your veggies into your clean 1-gallon jar. Then use a wooden spoon to gently pack everything in and remove excess air space.

3. Now, mix your remaining ingredients (vinegar, sugar, salt and spices) in a large bowl to form your pickle brine. Stir the brine mixture until the salt and sugar are fully dissolved. There is no need to heat up the brine.

4. After your brine is well mixed, carefully pour it into your 1-gallon jar. Your veggies should be fully submerged in the brine; however, if you need more brine, you can mix up a bit more using the same ratio of ingredients.

5. Finally, just pop your jar into your fridge and allow it to marinate for at least 24 hours before sampling your pickles. After 24 hours your pickles should taste nice and briny and be ready for munching!

Your pickles should last in your fridge for about 4 to 6 weeks — although you’ll probably gobble them up long before that! If you finish off your pickles and have leftover pickle brine, you can keep your pickle jar going by chopping up more cucumbers (or other veggies) and adding them to your leftover brine.

Fridge pickle recipe variations:

If you like spice, you can switch up the spices in this recipe to make pickles that perfectly suit your tastes. Some popular spices to try out include:

• Red pepper flakes
• Whole black peppercorns
• Dill seeds
• Allspice berries
• Coriander seeds
• Bay leaves
• Cumin seeds
• Fennel seeds
• Mustard seeds

For more DIY preservation recipes, check out our post on homemade sauerkraut.

Best cucumbers to pickle with:

Pickling cucumbers are generally the best types of cucumbers for pickling as they are smaller and they tend to remain crunchy when preserved. That said, if you end up with WAY too many slicing cucumbers than you can use, you can pickle them too!

My personal favorite cucumber varieties for pickling include:

• Bush pickle (great for growing in small spaces and containers!)
• Little leaf (resistant to powdery and downy mildew)
• National (good for fresh snacking AND pickling)

Do you have a favorite fridge pickle recipe that you’d like to share? How do you like to use your refrigerator cucumber pickles? Comment below — we love to hear from you!