Grandma’s Quick Pickled Cucumbers – Refrigerator Pickles

These Quick Pickled Cucumbers with green onion are made in the refrigerator for a simple summer snack!

Try these recipes if you’re looking for more pickling options: Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Banana Peppers, Quick Pickled Cucumbers and Onions and Sweet and Spicy Cucumbers and Vinegar

Quick Pickled Cucumbers (Refrigerator Pickles)

When all the hard work of tilling, planting, weeding, watering, and more weeding a garden starts to pay off, I’m always astounded and thrilled by the buckets of fresh vegetables we get to play with! We usually have no shortage of green beans, basil, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, and cucumber. So, with all that fresh goodness, you’ve got to get creative in preserving some of it!

My grandma was a wiz in the kitchen and always created the most incredible recipes for her family of 13 kids (11 of whom were boys!), and I got this recipe for quick pickled cucumbers from her. She is an incredible woman, and thinking about her makes me happy. She’d create a simple brine and throw anything from the garden in — not just cucumbers, but onions, bell peppers, and whole cherry tomatoes, too.

It tastes like summer in a jar, and whether you’re an avid gardener or more of a grocery store frequenter, anyone can make these easy refrigerator pickles in no time.

Tips and tricks for making quick pickled cucumbers:

• White vinegar is the traditional vinegar for this recipe and a great place to start. If you know that you like apple cider or rice wine vinegar they are also good.
• These are delicious on our favorite pulled pork sandwiches (made easy in the slow cooker!), as a side for everything summer, and to eat for a snack. You can’t go wrong with this simple dish all summer long.
• Want to add a little spicy? Toss in a jalapeno cut in half (delicious!).
• I love these glass containers with lids to have things like this in my fridge. I also use a mason jar and one of these reusable lids really often.

What is the best vinegar for pickling?

Most recipes call for distilled white vinegar — it’s clear, colorless, and has a mellow aroma and tart acidic flavor. But you can really use whatever vinegar you like and have on hand, like apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar. This recipe is flexible!

What can I pickle at home?

If you ask my grandma, you can pickle any vegetables you like! A few common ones to pickle are cucumbers (of course!), radishes, carrots, red onions, asparagus, jalapenos, cauliflower, and green beans.

How do you pickle something quickly?

To pickle something, you simply need to soak the vegetables in a vinegar brine. My brine calls for water, vinegar, sugar (optional), and salt, and you simply let the cucumbers rest in the brine in the fridge until you’re ready to eat them. Letting them sit longer helps the flavors develop more, so an overnight soak is ideal, but they’re also fine to eat right away!

Quick Pickled Cucumbers – Refrigerator Pickles

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★★★★★

5 from 24 reviews

• Author: Melissa Griffiths - Bless this Mess
• Prep Time: 5 min
• Total Time: 5 min
• Yield: 2 cups of pickles 1x

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Description

Quick and easy pickled cucumbers with onion made in the refrigerator; our favorite way to use summer cucumbers!

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vinegar (apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons salt
• sliced garden cucumbers (about 2 cups)
• sliced onion or green onion (about 1/2 cup)
• additional vegetables as you like (bell pepper, whole cherry tomatoes, etc.)

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Instructions

1. In a small bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.
2. All the cucumbers should be covered in the brine, if you have lots of cucumber or are making a big batch, make more brine.
3. Let the mixture rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The flavors develop over time, so an overnight soak is great but mine are normally gone by dinner.

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Notes

• I love adding the sugar and my mom does too, but my grandma doesn’t add that much (she only adds a few teaspoons). I say try it and see what you like.
• White vinegar is the traditional vinegar for this recipe and a great place to start. If you know that you like apple cider or rice wine vinegar they are also good.
• You really can’t mess this up. Just adjust to taste and enjoy!
• The pickles will last at least a week in the fridge but get less crisp as time goes on.
• You can reuse your brine a time or two, just add more cucumbers!

• Category: Snacks
• Method: Refrigerator
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: easy pickles recipe, refrigerator pickles recipe, pickled cucumbers recipe

Other pickle recipes you’ll love:

• Quick Pickled Cucumbers and Onions
• How To Pickle Peppers (Hot Water Bath Canning Method)
• Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Banana Peppers
• Midwestern Creamy Cucumber and Vinegar Salad
• Sweet and Spicy Cucumbers and Vinegar
• Quick Dilly Cucumbers in Vinegar

Aren’t my baby onions cute?! They were the first I pulled and they are tiny… I think I’ll wait another month or two before I pick any more so they aren’t quiet so itty-bitty.

You’ll be in pickle heaven with this quick pickled cucumber recipe that comes together quickly in the fridge with minimal effort!

This post was originally published in 2013 and has been updated in June 2019. I still make it over and over again!