Pickled Red Onions

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Learn how to make pickled red onions! They are tangy, crunchy, slightly sweet, and a perfect addition to almost anything!

Table of Contents

• 🛒 Ingredients
• 👩‍🍳 Visual Step-by-Step Instructions
• 🫙 Storage Instructions
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This pickled red onion recipe is quick and easy to make! They are tangy, crunchy, punchy, fresh, and slightly sweet. It’s the ultimate flavor boosting, with a bright red-pinkish color that turns every rather dull dish into a gourmet meal.

It’s worth always having a jar of them in the fridge. Pickled red onions are versatile and a perfect topping for almost anything. Such a great addition to jazz up tacos, nachos, Mexican burritos, poke bowls, grain bowls, burgers, hummus, breakfast sandwiches, avocado toasts (add poached eggs), salads, roasted vegetables, smashed baby potatoes, and so much more!

If a recipe calls for raw onions, swap them with pickled onions for a twist. This is especially delicious in cucumber, kale salad, or potato salad. 

Good To Know: This pickled onion recipe is a quick way to pickle onions! Pouring the hot pickling liquid over raw onions makes them ready in only 2 hours. However, I strongly recommend leaving them in the fridge overnight for a more intense flavor.

🛒 Ingredients

See recipe card for quantities.

• Red Onions → I like them finely sliced! Thicker slices work too, and are even crunchier.
• Apple Cider Vinegar → Change the basic recipe up with white vinegar, red wine vinegar, or rice vinegar. 
• Water → A quarter cup of water is added to the brine to dilute the vinegar.
• Sugar → Helps to balance out the pungent flavor of the vinegar. I use white sugar. Can be substituted with a sweetener of your choice such as maple syrup, honey, or erythritol for a sugar-free version.
• Salt → Just a pinch is needed to bring out all the different flavors.
• Spices: Garlic Clove, Bay leaf, Black Peppercorns → To make the flavor of pickled onions more complex.

Variations → Adjust spices for a different twist: chili pepper, red pepper flakes, a stick of cinnamon, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, star anise, sliced ginger, or fresh herbs (I recommend sprigs of thyme) can be added.

👩‍🍳 Visual Step-by-Step Instructions

This visual step-by-step instruction will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a cooking beginner! 😉

• Peel red onions and slice them into fine rings (using a mandolin slicer).

• Add apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved.

• Add sliced onion rings, garlic clove, bay leaf, and black peppercorns into an 8 oz (250ml) mason jar.
• Pour boiling-hot pickling liquid over the onion rings.
• Close the jar tightly, allow to cool briefly, and leave to infuse overnight in the refrigerator.

🫙 Storage Instructions

The pickled onions will keep for 4 weeks in the refrigerator. Important: Always use a clean fork to dig into this jar.

📖 Recipe