Earlier this week I mentioned that I miss certain things about my old workplace’s cafeteria – one of which was the pickled red onions that they would serve as a condiment with certain offerings. I would always go and “steal” some for my salad on the days that they had them.
I was making a salad last week, and as usual I had leftover red onion, which reminded me of those pickled red onions. They couldn’t be too difficult to make, right? So I decided to give it a try.
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These onions are so easy to make – you only need 4 ingredients if you want to keep it super simple – and they perk up anything. They are amazing on sandwiches and wraps, burgers, brats or other sausages, grilled cheese, and pulled pork. I like them on my salad, and I want to try them in potato salad, pizza (yes, pizza!) and focaccia bread.
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I love the combo of pickle and onion on my burgers!
Of course, I had to search and read about 100 recipes before I came up with what I decided to try. The variations were truly astounding. Some recipes only had a few tablespoons of vinegar, some had whole cups. Some had only a white wine or rice vinegar, others used cider or even balsamic. Some have spices and garlic, and others none. Here’s what they all have in common: vinegar, sugar, salt, and onions. I realized that I couldn’t really go wrong. (If you want to see how obsessed I was, go here to see the spreadsheet version of 9 different recipes. I know, it’s only 9, but I did look at least 50 – honest!)
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I decided to not obsess, just make a batch – it takes 5 minutes, so I can easily tweak the recipe to make it more or less tart, etc. And, they turned out great. I think next time I might add garlic cloves. I was very tempted on this turn, but I wanted the onions to shine on their own.
There were about as many different techniques for making the pickles as there were recipes. Some boiled the brine, some wilted the onions, some didn’t do anything extra. I came up with what I think is a good compromise.
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Next time you are grabbing a red onion for your salad, grab an extra one and make these pickled onions, you won’t be sorry that you did.
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- 1 large red onion, sliced into rings
- 1/2 c cider vinegar
- 1/2 c water, warm or boiling
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Optional: 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of coriander seed, dill seed, black peppercorns, and yellow mustard seed
- Put at least 3 cups of water on to boil.
- Slice your onion and place in a strainer. I cut the onion in half, then sliced the rings, but you can do full rings or even chopped onion if you'd prefer to use them that way.
- Combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt in the 2 cup jar that you'll be using for the pickles. Cover and shake to dissolve.
- When the water has come to boil, pour 1/2 a cup and reserve. Place the strainer with onions into a large bowl and pour the remaining hot water over the onions and let them sit for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the reserved water to the brine mix and continue swirling to dissolve sugar and salt. Add optional spices.
- Quickly remove the strainer from the hot water and remove excess water from the onions.
- Add the onions to the brine in the jar. Cover and seal and let them pickle in refrigerator for at lease 2 hours, but overnight is better.
- Cook time is refrigerator time.
- Will keep in refrigerator for 2 weeks to a month.
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