How To Make Pickled Onions

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Once you find out How To Make Pickled Onions and why pickled red onions are the best topping for so many meals, you’ll wonder why you didn’t make them sooner!! Yeap, they’re just that easy to make and totally delicious.

Like my Quick Pickled Radishes, this Pickled Onions Recipe is just in time for summer cookouts, get-togethers, BBQs, and parties. But don’t forget you can use them to jazz up your everyday weekday meal too. 

Related Link : Quick Pickled Radishes.

You will love adding these awesome pickled onions to burgers and tacos, next to aaaaaalllll your BBQ faves, and even on top of salads. So move over, regular pickles!

Why You’ll Love Them

• Transform your ordinary meals into packed full of flavor meals
• Easy to double or triple for crowds, meal prep, or when stocking your pantry.
• Made with basic everyday staple ingredients.
• A great way to use up your leftover onions.

What Is A Pickled Onion?

It’s a topping that you can make yourself, consisting of onions that have been pickled in a combo of vinegar, sugar, salt and various herbs and seasonings to bring out a variety of flavors. 

Pickling them takes your crunchy, firm red onions and makes them softer. And it gives them a tangy with a hint of sweet taste.

Tools You Need 

• Mason jars.
• A sharp knife.
• A cutting board.
• The best ever salt flakes.

Ready to gather up your simple pantry ingredients? Let me show you…..

How To Make Pickled Onions 

1. In a clean jar, add onion, garlic, thyme and chili. 
2. Cover with vinegar then add salt and sugar. 
3. Close the jar and give it a good shake. 
4. Store in the refrigerator. They’ll be done pickling and ready to enjoy in about 16 hrs. 

Recipe Tips

• Making pickled red onions will make your kitchen smell strongly of onions. I recommend running a fan or kitchen stovetop vent while making these. 
• Make sure to use a sharp knife to make cutting the onions easier. 
• Cut onions in thin slices, this helps them soften up so they can absorb the vinegar faster. 
• Store onions in glass mason jars because plastics can absorb the flavorings and metal containers can react with the vinegar from the pickling process. 
• Make these onions the afternoon or evening before you’re planning to use them to allow for the full 16 hours needed to pickle and absorb the flavorings.

Recipe Variations

The great thing about this pickled onions recipe is that it is super adaptable. You can easily make different flavor variations by swapping out the type of onions, using different vinegar, and changing the spices and seasonings. Here are just a few suggestions to get you started:

• Change up the onions : you can use white onions, yellow onions, Vidalia or Walla Walla onions, pearl onions, shallots
• Change up the vinegar: apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar. note: aged or concentrated vinegar (like balsamic or malt vinegar) won’t work for pickling
• Change up the sweeteners : honey, maple syrup, raw sugar, stevia, other sugar substitute, such as Swerve or Erythritol. Note: you also can omit sweetener altogether!
• Add extra spices and seasonings : dill, oregano, basil, bay leaves, fresh sliced ginger, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, cilantro, extra jalapeño.

FAQs

Meal Prep 

While this recipe makes a decent amount in your mason jar, you can easily double or triple this recipe if feeding a crowd. 

Keep in mind this isn’t the quick recipe of making these tangy onions and they will take at least 16 hours to pickle, absorb all the flavors, and soften up. 

I recommend that you make these onions the afternoon or evening before you’re planning to use them to allow enough time.

How Long Do Pickled Onions Last? 

Stored properly in an airtight container they can last up to two weeks in the refrigerator. They can actually last a little longer but they will start to lose the flavoring.

How To Use Them? 

If you’re me, then the answer is pretty much everything. But seriously folks, these pickled onions are delicious on sooooo many things. Try adding them on burgers, tacos, salads, potluck salads (especially good on egg salad and this potato salad), pork dishes, bean side dishes, and more. 

Serving Suggestions

• Air Fryer Burgers.
• Instant Pot Hamburgers.
• Smoked Chicken Wings.
• Air Fryer Ribs.

More How To Recipes

• How To Scald Milk.
• Learn How To Cut A Watermelon.
• How To Make Failproof Gravy.
• How To Make Buttermilk.
• How To Make Quick Pickled Radishes.

Weight Watchers Points 

There is 1 Blue Plan SmartPoint in a serving of this.

Thank you for reading my Pickled Onions recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue to slice, dice and dream up affordable Air Fryer recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Southern Recipes and more. Thanks for supporting Recipes from a Pantry, food blog.

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