If you have ever been to a restaurant with my husband Mark and I, for a quick bite at a diner, or any type of place that serves sandwiches or burgers, we have a bit of a ritual. Since I am obviously rarely able to order a sandwich at a restaurant, but Mark obviously can and does quite often, we have a little rule where the pickle on his plate is always saved for me. He likes pickles, but he knows how much I love them, so he will gladly gobble up his turkey club and then hand the delicious briney pickle spear or round over to me. Even when I haven’t noticed that he even had a pickle, let alone save it for me, there it is, at the end, waiting for me. What a great hubby I have – he totally supports my obsessive LOVE of pickles!!
I also have been known to order a side order of pickles if a restaurant is known for having delicious ones. There is a place near Austin, Texas that everyone loves to go to for BBQ, it’s called the Salt Lick. They have delicious food, but since I am not a huge meat eater, I usually get a small order of smoked turkey with all the fixins’ and a huge side of pickles. I usually make a small dent in the food and then eat the pickles until I can’t eat them anymore. I have been to Disneyland in California twice now, and thanks to my friend Summer, getting one of the large dill pickles from one of the fresh food carts there is part of the whole experience. They are so delicious and they are best when eaten very slowly, to savor each and every bite. I seriously could eat pickles until my tongue hurts from all the vinegar. They are the best. But not all pickles are created equal. It is very rare that I buy pickles from the grocery store and just eat them at home, they are never quite good enough. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a jar of pickles from a girl at the farmers market and they were incredible. It was then that I realized that I should really just be making my own at home, especially now that cucumbers are in season.
Most summers I usually make a batch or two of pickled peppers with the different hot peppers we grow in our garden, but since I didn’t plant any this year, I am not sure I will be doing it. But when I saw the delicious local gherkin cucumbers at the market a few weeks ago, I knew I HAD to buy some and make refrigerator garlic dill pickles. How could I not?
You can play around with the spices in this recipe, too. I added my usual favorites and also tossed in a couple of dried super spicy thai peppers that I had dried out from our garden last year. They brought a very subtle spicy heat, that I really loved. You can omit the peppers all together or add a teaspoon or so of dried red pepper flakes if you don’t have whole dried pepper. Plus, you can use this same brine to pickle other things like peppers, cauliflower or carrots, which I did, since I had some leftover brine. The carrots were amazing and I think I may have eaten them between two sittings.
OK, so who else is obsessed with pickles? I know I am not alone in my love.
[print_this]Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles – Gluten-free, Vegan + Refined Sugar-free
Makes a couple of jars (depends on the size of your cucumbers and your jars, etc)
- 2 pounds local gherkin cucumbers (you can also use any other small firm cucumber of your choice)
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 2 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar
- 3 tablespoons raw cane sugar or other sweetener of your choice
- 3 tablespoons coarse kosher salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
- a couple of sprigs of fresh dill (or a couple of teaspoons of dried dill)
- Optional spicy add-ins: 1 or 2 spicy dried peppers, red pepper flakes or you can add some sliced jalapeños in with the cucumbers.
Clean the cucumbers very well and slice them as thin as you would like them, I would say I cut mine to about 1/4″ thick rounds. You could also cut them into spears or leave them whole depending on their size. Place them in a large glass preserving jar or two smaller jars.
In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the other ingredients to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes.
Remove from heat and pour the brine over the cucumbers. Place the lid on the jar and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate. You can start enjoying them the next day, but obviously they are better after a couple of days. They’ll keep for about 2 months in the fridge.
* This brine is great on lots of other veggies, like carrots, cauliflower, peppers, etc. You can also add onion slices to the jar with the cucumbers, if you wish. Play with the recipe and make it your own.
[/print_this]
23 Responses
Aw, that’s so sweet that he saves his pickle for you. Kevin does nice things like that, too. Just today we were out for lunch and as much as he loved his fries, he offered them all to me because I enjoyed them, too. There’s nothing quite like a man that takes care of his woman. It’s the little things, you know? Refrigerated pickles were big last Summer, weren’t they? Everywhere I turned, there were pickles! But I never did make the refrigerated kind. You make them look easy enough, though 🙂
I WANT THESE!! My papa made the best pickles, and I always meant to make them, but never seemed to get around to it….and then I lost the recipe! ha, well I’ll make these for sure 😀
Aww well I hope these are close enough to your Papa’s when you do make them, so they can remind you of him 🙂
do you have to use a mason type jar? i live in costa rica nd they are not readily availble to me. maybe an old mayo or pickle type jar? i love your blog, as i too have been trying to go gluten free and dont eat red meat, it fits along with my dietary needs really well. congratulations on a great blog
You are nice– in that sort of scenario, I usually nab my poor husband’s pickles before he even puts his plate down! Lately, I’ve been thinking about that stereotypical pregnancy scenario where the mama craves weird things like pickles and ice cream… my fear is that I WON’T be able to eat pickles when I am expecting!! Mmm. I wish I had some right now!
oh yes, LOVE me some pickles! these look terrific! i’ll have to give it a go!
Do you think I could use my canning recipe for sweet pickles but skip the canning process and just refrigerate? I never thought to jar pickles without going through the canning process, but since we moved, we don’t have a gas stove and the FDA website says not to use electric… Your post reminded me of how much I really crave my canned sweet pickles (grandma’s recipe). Can’t wait to try this dill version – especially with some red pepper flakes thrown in there! Can you post instructions on how to brine carrots, too?
Hey Carolyn, I don’t see why you can’t use your existing canning recipe, but I don’t know a ton about canning, so I am not sure if there would be anything extra in there to account for the canning process. I am sure not. I say try it. I would love to get into canning and preserving but it just makes me a little nervous, truth be told. I like the idea of making 1 jar of pickles at a time and eating it up, bacteria free 🙂 (I know I am being paranoid, but it totally intimidates me).
For the carrots, I used this exact recipe, I had some extra brine, so I just poured it over the carrot spears. I just cleaned them up real good, peeled them and cut them. Into the jar they went, pour the brine over, allow it to cool and the refrigerate. I ate the heck out of those babies! SO GOOD!
Hey Beth! Thanks for the info. Sorry to keep bugging you, but I have another question! So I followed your recipe. Of course I couldn’t wait a full 48 hours before tasting 😀 (crunchy and yummy btw) but I noticed that my brine tasted heavy on the vinegar. I was expecting something more muted on the vinegar and more dill-ish overall, so I’m wondering if 1.) I didn’t boil it long enough or 2.) I should have used fresh dill to get that taste. Or maybe 3.) it will mellow out tomorrow. Any thoughts?
Hey Carolyn, not a bother at all. I don’t think boiling it longer would change that as I have seen plenty of recipes that don’t even call for vinegar. I used a combo of fresh dill and dried dill, maybe yours could have used a bit more or possibly the fresh is what really does it. What kind of vinegar did you use? Hmm maybe it is a personal preference thing too, maybe I like mine more vinegary? I cannot say for sure. Maybe add a little more water to the mixture in the jars to take down on the vinegar? You could also just add more dill right to the jar, too, to get more of a flavor. Sorry you weren’t super happy with it.
Okay, I am a pickle-holic as well. However, the idea of the fresh refrigerator pickles works well during the late summer when they are readily available, but what about during those cold winter months and a craving sets in? I can my B & B pickles, and actually did some sweet ones this summer as well. I have no problem doing them, have been doing them for years, and love them. I have been known to put a few in a dish and eat them as a snack…YUMMM!! At the family gatherings (social and familial families) I am always asked to bring my pickles and my tossed green salads, so they must be a hit somewhere besides our house, eh? Love your blog and the way you write. Thanks for sharing!
YAY! I was really excited to see this recipe. We are growing pickling cucumbers in our tiny condo patio garden, and I was thinking, geez, there won’t be enough for grandma’s recipe and a bazillion Ball jars. Just when I was about to search for a refrigerator pickle recipe…I should have known you’d have something great. Can’t wait until we have more than 2 pickles at a time to pick. 🙂
Awesome. I definitely wish I had planted my own pickling cucumbers so I could just be making pickles all summer long! I hope you enjoy this recipe when you make it. You’ll have to let me know! Thanks so much.
I’m so excited to see how these turn out! I just put them in the refrigerator yesterday, so I’m hoping to have enough self-control to wait another three days before I dig in 🙂
I definitely had to eat some the very next day, I couldn’t wait. They definitely get better with time, but no hard sneaking a few early on 🙂
I totally cracked open a jar yesterday. They’re amazing!! My next step is to make a huge batch so I have a bunch to give away. Thanks for sharing the recipe, it’s absolutely going to become a staple in my repertoire! 🙂
YAY! I am so glad you liked them Elizabeth. I seriously could live on pickles, myself. 🙂
[…] I am still proud of our Ball jars full of refrigerator pickles lined up on the counter. The garlic dill spears, the sweet and sour slices, the HOT […]
[…] I looooove pickles. As I said above pregnant or not, pickles are my thing. I do not like bread & butter or any sweet pickles. I always grab dill or garlic pickles so of course when I started looking for a recipe I was 100% sure they would have to be dill. I have recently been participating in Meatless Monday and have found a blog that feeds me so many great options. Also with my sister-in-law being allergic to gluten and now the discussion of possibly putting Jade on a gluten free diet as well this blogger is really feeding me some great recipes. You can find her blog here. I took the chance that she may have made pickles in the past and luckily she had… and they looked fantastic. Here is her recipe. […]
This was my first time making pickles. I love this recipe! So easy too. Thank you for the recipe.
[…] Homemade Garlic Dill Pickles by Tasty Yummies. Top that burger with a homemade pickle – it’s natural and good for […]
I made these and waited two days to eat some….so delicious and healthy! My question is…can I use this exact recipe to.can some pickles? Thank you!
Hi Beth!
I’m a farmer and every year (for the past 3 years) we make pickles for our CSA. We use your recipe and everyone LOVES the pickles. I refer many of them here. Thanks so much! 😀
Amanda