How to Make 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.

How to Make Pickled Red Onions

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 20 mins

Yield 1 1/2 pints

1 pound 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

Blanch the onions:

Blanch red onions in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in colander.
Boil vinegar with sugar and spices:

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.
Add blanched, drained onions to the vinegar mixture. Simmer for 1 minute
Transfer to a glass jar:

Allow to stand until cooled. Will keep several weeks refrigerated.