I absolutely love pickling my own vegetables, and these Pickled Red Onions are my very favorite. I always keep a batch in my refrigerator, but when I find that jar empty, these only take less than 45 minutes. You can have a refill of your favorite condiment in no time. Don’t miss my list of how to use these fantastic pickled red onions towards the bottom of the post. I have so many recipes that these are perfect with.
Pickled Red Onions Ingredients
You just need a few simple ingredients for this recipe! For the full recipe with all of the measurements, scroll to the bottom of the post for the recipe card.
Medium Red Onion: This recipe is very easy to double or triple. Buy as many onions as you’d like and just repeat the ingredients for the liquid until you have enough to completely cover the onions in the jars. Warm Water: The water doesn’t need to be boiling, it only needs to be warm enough that the sugar and salt easily dissolve. White Vinegar: I find that simple white vinegar works perfect in this recipe. That being said, you could absolutely replace it with white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar. The vinegar helps to soften the onions during the pickling. Sugar: An important component to learning how to cook is to learn how to balance flavors. Sweet can balance salt, spice, and bitter. In other words, if you’ve ever had a chili that is too spicy, a dash of brown sugar can lessen the impact of the heat. Here, the sugar helps to balance the acidity of the vinegar. If you are concerned about using sugar, you could use a replacement sweetener like monk fruit. Salt: I like using kosher salt in this recipe. If you use table salt, you will want to start with less, by about half. The salt enhances all of the other flavors int he recipe. Garlic Cloves: The garlic adds some great flavor to this recipe.
Slicing Onions
One of the key components for pickled red onions is slicing them very thin. While many people use a mandoline for this step, that isn’t something I find necessary. As long as you do your best to slice them thin using a sharp knife, you will be able to get pickled onions that are perfectly soft and delicious. All of that said, cooking is about what works best for you and your family. It should be about what you prefer in recipes, tastes absolutely vary. Go with whatever type of vinegar you’d like for this recipe. In addition to white and red wine vinegar I mentioned above, apple cider vinegar and rice vinegar could work great. I will just mention that apple cider vinegar if you buy the all natural brand has a very intense taste, so you might want to go with a brand that is a little more diluted. That being said, any onion will work in this recipe. Using a white or yellow onion can be really great depending on the recipe you are using them on. It is all just a matter of your personal preference.
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If you make this pickled red onion recipe or any of my other recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
