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Pickled Red Onions

Posted by Elise on Jan 10, 2008

Filed under Condiment

Pickled Red Onions

I keep on making things that when I think about it, would be enhanced with some pickled red onions. Bean soup, liverwurst, salmon, and especially hot dogs and hamburgers would all be terrific with some pickled onions on the side. All you really need to make pickled red onions is some sliced red onion, vinegar and sugar. There's lots of leeway with the spices and herbs used. For this batch I used cinnamon, cloves, star anise, bay leaf and red pepper flakes. You could easily thrown in some ginger, swap out the chile flakes for some cumin, or allspice for the cloves.

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Pickled Red Onions Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 lb red onions (about 2 med or 1 large), thinly sliced
  • 1 1/2 cups white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Spices

  • 1/2 cinnamon stick
  • 5 cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 star anise
  • Dash red pepper flakes

More spices (optional): Fresh ginger slices, allspice berries, oregano, garlic, cumin seeds, mustard seeds

Method

1 Blanch red onions in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in colander.

2 While the water is heating in step 1, in a separate saucepan combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

3 Add blanched, drained onions to the vinegar mixture. Simmer for 1 minute.

4 Transfer to a glass jar. Allow to stand until cooled. Will keep several weeks refrigerated.

Makes 1 1/2 pints.

Indexed: Onion, Pickle

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21 Comments

Wonderful recipe!!! I made a red onion tart a while ago and I've just fallen in love with the mixture of red onions, vinegar (I used balsamic one), and sugar.

Posted by: Karolina on January 10, 2008 10:48 PM

I love the pink colour, and would like to try this recipe, Elise! However, could you please tell me what's the strength of the white vinegar in the US? We cannot buy it here in Estonia (we use a 30% vinegar that must be diluted, or then wine vinegars), and I want to be sure I mix the right strength for the brine..

Posted by: Pille on January 10, 2008 11:30 PM

Sounds so easy even I could manage it! I love the vibrant color. I'm very visual and it's always satisfying to have lots of color on my plate.

Posted by: Michelle Dawn on January 11, 2008 5:20 AM

This is similar to a Vietnamese version of pickled red onions which is served with hot beef noodle soup. (Pho)

You cut onions into large square chunks and soak in white vinegar for a couple of hours. I think there is a bit of white sugar added, but I can't remember!

This condiment is served alongside the soup, dipped in a mixture of hoisin sauce and Shark brand hot sauce.

Posted by: Rachel on January 11, 2008 6:42 AM

My mother would love this, I think onions are her favorite food she even eats onion sandwiches.

Posted by: Julie on January 11, 2008 10:31 AM

The color is wonderful--and it made my mouth water. I can just imagine them perking up a turkey burger. These types of thing really bring a recipe to life.

Posted by: sher on January 11, 2008 4:01 PM

When we were growing up my mum would have a great big jar of pickling onions, whole green chilies and pips of garlic. It's been ages since we have had these. We use small red onions and leave them whole. It's sort of an Indian way I guess.

Posted by: milee on January 11, 2008 6:35 PM

Pille, standard white vinegar in the US is 5% acidity.

Posted by: Scott on January 11, 2008 7:43 PM

I love pickled onions! I particularly like the recipe posted with panucos. Usually I just use a bay leaf and some peppercorns in the water for another Mexican version, but the Yucatecan version is delish!

Posted by: Dee on January 11, 2008 11:37 PM

These sound delicious; I love pickled onions. And thanks for the link!

Posted by: Lisa on January 12, 2008 9:56 AM

I've never pickled anything before, but I will definitely have to try this out. Excellent use for leftover veggies, right? Silly question, but does it have to be a glass jar? Could I use tupperware, or would that interfere with the flavor?

Posted by: katy on January 12, 2008 10:19 AM

I just made something similar to this last week. I'm following the South Beach diet so I didn't even use any sugar.

1 cup of chunked or sliced sweet onion (such as Mayan, Vidalia, Walla, Red etc.)
1 large sweet red bell pepper chopped
1 large cucumber sliced
2 TBSP chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate overnight. The natural sugars in the vinegar and the veggies made it very sweet. It's a nice refreshing crunchy salad.


Posted by: Rita on January 12, 2008 11:51 AM

I am SO trying this!

Posted by: PamN on January 12, 2008 1:24 PM

I kept thinking about finding, buying and trying pickled onions, now I have the perfect recipe! Thanks!

Posted by: Elle Kasey on January 12, 2008 7:26 PM

Thank you, Scott! That's very helpful!

Posted by: Pille on January 13, 2008 11:09 PM

I made the Zuni cafe onions in September and they're still in my fridge( I made them for a catering job) and they're still good!!

Posted by: Randi on January 14, 2008 7:47 AM

I love pickled onions! They're great with Mexican food, too. I mix them in with steamed yucca, and serve them on the side of slow-cooked achitoe pork. I also often mix in a few beet slices with the pickling mixture. It makes the color even more brilliant, and the sweetness of the beets is a nice contrast to the sharper onion flavor.

Posted by: Amber on January 14, 2008 8:40 AM

I just made a similar recipe, but minus the blanching. Served them as a side dish with some great steaks.

Posted by: Ellen on January 14, 2008 4:44 PM

PilleAccording to my sources, white vinegar's acidity level is 4.2% in the United States. I could be mistaken, but that is the number I have seen for regular, plain distilled (or white) vinegar.

It looks like this recipe can be adapted to any vegetable that I would like to pickle! Would that be a fair assessment? Of course, I would likely change out the spices a bit depending on the produce (i.e. carrots with cumin, dried chiles, garlic, etc).

Posted by: Art on January 17, 2008 1:14 PM

I just made this tonight. I couldn't find any star anis, but used anis seed (I know they're not the same). They have the same licorice flavor though. They came out great. We had them over turkey burgers we made ourselves. We started with toasted wheat bread, a bed of fresh spinach, mushrooms (sauteed in earth balance), homemade turkey patty, melted cheese, and finally the Pickled red onions. The best burger I EVER had.

As soon as I saw this recipe I was excited. But I was soo impressed when I tasted how GREAT they were. Oh yeah, I also added mustard seed!

Posted by: Jenifer on January 21, 2008 8:57 PM

So, I tried pickling some onions last night. I sliced a yellow onion really thin, blanched it, and stuck it in a jar with some vinegar, marjoram and two bay leaves. This morning, I came downstairs and tasted one, and I was a little grossed out. Just tasted like onion and vinegar. So, while I was checking your site for new recipes today, I looked back at this pickling recipe to see what I had done wrong and... sugar! Whoops! I am such a dope -- I'm going to add some sugar over heat now and hopefully they'll taste good by tomorrow!

Posted by: katy on January 27, 2008 1:19 PM

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