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
PrintIngredients
- 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.
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Links:
Molly's pickles based on the Zuni Cafe recipe from Orangette
Avocado Sandwich with Pickled Onions from Tartine and Apron Strings
Carnitas Tacos with Pickled Onions and Salsa Verde from Shared Appetite
Quinoa Veggie Burgers with Pickled Red Onions from Love and Olive Oil
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
How to Make Pickled Red Onions
Second time making this recipe. It is so easy and I love it, it adds wonderful flavour to hot dogs, hamburgers, fish, cochinita pibil, grilled flank steak etc. Thank-you for this simple and flavourful recipe!
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Elise – if the hat remains sealed can I store the pickled onion in a dark cupboard say through the winter ? Thank you for your help with this
Hi Terry, if you plan to store outside of the fridge, I would make the recipe again and use proper canning techniques. As soon as you’ve put the onions in a canning jar and secured the lid, put it in a water bath of boiling water for 10 minutes. Without doing this, the vinegar and sugar in it will prevent the growth of the most serious bugs, but you may get mold.
So darn easy! And the flavour too. I made these to serve with a wine and cheese due but I’m going to make more next time we have company company — an excellent side dish and the guys loved it! Oh, and it’s pretty too.
xxxxxyyyyy
Hi Elise,
I am new to pickling. Do you have to put the jars in boiling water with every recipe? Or are there pickling recipes that don’t call for it?
Hi Colleen, if you are making refrigerator pickles like this one, you do not need to water-bath the jars. Putting the jars in boiling water is usually one of the necessary steps in canning if you are pickling something that you want to be shelf stable at room temp.
So are you saying yes, they can be water bath canned for longer term storage? If so, what is the processing time?
Hi Cindy, in theory yes. I haven’t investigated it. When canning, it’s always best to look for a specific canning recipe. This recipe is for refrigerator pickled onions, not a canning recipe.
Hi Elise! I’ve been using your site forever and have had great success with your recipes for many years. Thank you! Two questions… would a distilled vinegar be ok for this recipe or would you recommend something nicer like a white wine vinegar? Also, how long should we wait before eating to maximize deliciousness? I imagine we should wait a few days at least.
Hi Sarah, you can eat them after they’ve been cooling a few hours, but they’ll be better after a couple of days.