Lemon Lime Refrigerator Pickle Recipe
03. June 2025If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If life gives you cucumbers, make pickles. If life gives you lemons and limes and cucumbers oh my, then make Lemon Lime Pickles! You can make these easy refrigerator pickles with handfuls of leftover garden veggies. Since these are refrigerator pickles and not a shelf stable product, you can safely mix and match produce to your liking. Are you one of those weirdos that hates cucumbers but loves pickles (like my husband)? Or maybe you despise crunchy raw carrots, but love them pickled (like me). While MY lemon lime pickles are predominately made with cucumbers and carrots, YOURS don’t have to be! Feel free to add cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, or cauliflower (which I don’t recommend because cauliflower is GROSS). But hey, you do you!
These lemon lime pickles are tasty with Greek and Mediterranean dishes.
Canning Safety
It’s important to follow canning recipes for safety reasons. If something is going to sit on a shelf for a year or more, you need to follow the recipe to make sure no one gets sick. But there is more freedom when making refrigerator recipes. You can change up the ingredient list and make adjustments to your taste more easily when a jar will be stored in the fridge. Get creative and invent your own pickle mix by using a Master Brine recipe. Ball Canning has guidelines for making refrigerator pickles in The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. They have several different pickle recipes where you can choose your own vegetables and seasonings. Their pickle recipes use a master brine solution of vinegar, water, sugar, and pickling salt. You then add the seasonings and vegetables of your choice for their recipe combination suggestions.
These lemon lime pickles are based on Ball’s Mexican Fridge Pickles recipe. I have a similar recipe on our blog for Mexican Lime Refrigerator Pickled Vegetables. I use Ball’s base recipe, but tweak it for what veggies I have on hand. You can easily change up the vegetables within the mix and make safe substitutions. You are able to do this safely because these are NOT a shelf-stable product. You will make these pickles and then store in the refrigerator. Another great thing about fridge pickles is they tend to be crunchier than canned varieties. If you’re looking for a crisper pickle recipe that is shelf-stable though, try the Crispy Dill Pickle canning recipe on our blog.
Later in this post, I will list some alternate vegetable options. I will also note some of Ball’s original suggestions for their Mexican Fridge Pickles. Basically, I hate peppers and things that are too spicy, so I omit those from my pickle recipes.
Zesty Lemon Lime Refrigerator Pickles
Recipe adapted from “The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving” ©2025 CanningCrafts
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Preservation method: Refrigerator (not shelf-stable!!!)
Difficulty level: Easy
Yield: Makes 1 quart jar OR 2 pint jars (recipe is adjustable for more jars, just make more brine!)
Master Brine Solution*:
- 2 cups of white vinegar (5% acidity) (Ball suggests you can use White or Apple Cider Vinegar)
- 1 cup of water
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (or bottled will work)
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (or bottled will work)
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of pickling salt
*You may have leftover brine. Store in fridge and use for more pickles later. If I pack my jars pretty tight, I can often get 2 full quarts of pickles with this brine mix.
Seasonings:
- Fresh cilantro (dried will work too. Or omit it if you hate cilantro. Dill is another option to try)
- Optional: Fresh lemon & lime thinly sliced (just a few of each will do!)
The vegetables can be mixed and matched to your liking for this refrigerator recipe. I planned on adding red peppers to these pickles, but decided against it because I actually really hate peppers!
Vegetable Mix:
This recipe is flexible and can be adjusted for what you have left in your garden or what you prefer to eat. Mix and match as you wish, or make your own substitutions. Wash, trim, and peel your vegetables. Depending on the sizes of your veggies, you can leave them whole, halve, quarter, slice, or chop.
Here is the veggie mix I use for this recipe:
- Cucumbers, sliced into 1/4” coins
- Yellow onion, sliced thin
- Carrots, sliced into 1/4” decorative “flower” coins*
- Button mushrooms (leave small ones whole & cut larger ones in half)
Carrot Flowers: Obviously, spending time cutting carrots into flower shapes is an optional step. But it does make for fancy looking pickles. It’s not that time consuming either, so give it a try and your kids might just eat their veggies! First, peel your carrots. Then use a sharp knife to cut v-shaped wedges lengthwise down the carrot. You’ll need to cut 5 or more wedges out of the carrot to make a convincing looking flower. The larger the carrot, the more wedges you can cut out. Then slice the carrot into 1/4” coins. FYI, Don’t throw out the wedges! You can throw those into the pickle jar too. I’ve found that all the tiny bits of leftover veggies and brine work well in potato or egg salad. Waste not, want not!
Mushrooms: These are really tasty in fridge pickles, but they can also get mushy or slimy if you store them longterm in the fridge. But if you’re like me, you’ll pick all the mushrooms out to eat first because they are the tastiest!
Lemon and lime slices: Initially, I thought I’d add citrus slices just for decoration. But to my surprise, the lemon and lime slices actually taste good pickled. I worried the pith and zest would be really bitter and punch me in the face! But it wasn’t that bad. Perhaps the small amount of sugar tamped the lemon tang down a bit? You can omit citrus slices if you want, but I encourage you to give them a try. Just don’t overdo it. I only add a few slices to each jar. They soften up and are a delightful taste.
Cilantro! Do you love it or hate it? We have a guest blog post all about the love/hate relationship for this herb. I’m not a huge fan personally. I only add cilantro to a few dishes, and I do so sparingly. I have always loved the cilantro lime rice from Chipotle, so I make something similar at home. I use dried cilantro for cooking, but I used fresh for these pickles. How much? I only used a finger full, not even an 1/8th of a cup. You can omit cilantro completely or substitute dill sprigs. But the cilantro and lime do work well together.
Feel free to mix and match your favorite vegetables. I have made this same lemon and lime brine solution using cucumbers, green tomatoes, green beans, carrots, red onion, crushed garlic cloves, and dill sprigs.
Other veggie options to try:
Ball’s original recipe suggestions for Mexican Lime Pickles are for bell peppers, carrots, chili peppers, green beans, onions, pickling cucumbers, radishes, and zucchini. I have tried zucchini in pickles and have not been fond of it. Zucchini is just a weird thing to can. Canned zucchini gets mushy over time, so if you add it, be sure to eat it sooner than later. Radishes are fun to slice thin for fridge pickles, but the red color will bleed, just as red onion will. If you have leftover green tomatoes from your garden at the end of the season, add those to the mix.
*Cucamelons (aka Mexican Sour Gherkins) are easy and fun in fridge pickles! They look like mini watermelons, taste like citrusy cucumbers, and have a great snap to them when picked fresh. They are easy to grow in pots on your patio and can be fairly prolific.
Prepare Your Jars
Prepare your master brine solution by combining the vinegar, water, lemon and lime juice, sugar, and salt to a boil in a small stainless steel pot or enameled pan. Reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes, stirring until the sugar and salt are dissolved.
Tightly pack vegetables, cilantro, and citrus slices into a hot quart jar (or 2 pint jars). I like to randomly mix the veggies and cilantro in the jar, then slide citrus slides in the front of the jar.
Pour hot Master Brine over vegetables to cover them. Use a bubbling tool or chopstick to remove air bubbles. Add more brine to cover if needed.
I also add the largest citrus slice to the top of the jar. It’s usually easier if you add that after you remove the air bubbles, especially if the lemon slice is as wide as the jar mouth.
Cover jars with a lid (since this is a non-shelf stable fridge recipe, I like to repurpose old, previously used lids. Do NOT use previously used lids for shelf stable canned goods).
Let jar stand an hour or until cooled at room temperature. Store cooled jar in refrigerator*. For best flavor, allow the jar to pickle in the fridge for at least one month before eating. Pickles will become more flavorful over time.
*IMPORTANT: This is NOT a shelf stable product. The jar MAY seal itself, but it must be stored in a refrigerator.
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How long will these pickles last in the fridge? I think that may depend on the veggie mix you use. Green tomatoes and cucumbers hold up a very long time. Carrots and green beans always feel snappy. I have made fridge pickles with zucchini which tends to break down quickly and get mushy. Yuck! My basic Mexican Fridge Pickle recipe is still good even after a year.
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Want MORE Pickle Recipes?
Try our Mexican Fridge Pickle recipe
Try our Mediterranean Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
Try our Crispy Dill Pickle canning recipe
Try our Watermelon Rind Pickle Recipe
Follow our Fermented & Pickled Foods Pinterest Board for more recipes
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