The Crying Game! Pickled Red Onions

One of my favorites and try not to cry! As we get deeper into winter I’ll be using my Master Food Preserver skills from to start pickling everything 😂

There’s countless uses for pickled onions. You can tuck them into sandwiches to cut salty rich meats, use them as a condiment to top tacos, nachos, and rich mayo-based salads (ie potato or egg salad); or toss them in leafy or grain salads!

PS-these are refrigerator pickled onions so no crazy canning methods!

Tips: A few things I learned from mastering these

• This is like the gateway to quick and easy pickles, I can make these in like 5 min flat!

• Keep it simple- Many recipes either uses no spices or too many. I just like them unfussy with just a few peppercorns and all spice seeds. I’m visual so it’s also all about the color and texture too (Too many slices cloud the brine and can add bitterness plus there’s worse than trying to flick off tiny mustard/fennel/caraway or cumin seeds).

• For a richer more red/purple color I’ll sometimes boil a few pieces of beet into the pickle brine

• Don’t prefer metal lids (they’re finicky and WILL rust eventually because of the acidic solution inside jar)

• These keep for quite a while if you don’t contaminate them with used utensils (about a couple to few months)

  Ingredients:

• 3-4 large red onions (peeled and slice thin to medium thin)

• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 cup white vinegar

• 1 cup water

• 1/2 tbs kosher salt

• 1 tbs All spice seeds

• 1 tbs Rainbow peppercorns

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 2-3 garlic cloves (peeled and smashed and sliced into halves)

• Sterilized jars (I run my ball jars and use leak proof ball lids (lids -here-) in the dishwasher before using)

  PREPARATION

  1. Make vinegar brine solution: Combine vinegars, garlic and water into pot and boil. Add salt, sugar, spices and stir til dissolved.

  2. Turn heat off and immediately add the onions into the hot brine solution, stir for about a minute or two (you just want them softened a little so they’re easier to stuff into jars).

  3. Use tongs and transfer/pack onions into jars. Leave about an inch to the top of the jars.

  4. Scoop a couple pieces of garlic, and a few peppercorns and allspice evenly distributed into each jar. Then top off jars with the brine solution leaving about 1/2” from the top and immediately cap.

  5. Wait until cooled room temperature and transfer to fridge. These will keep several months (3-6 months) if unopened and left refrigerated and will keep a couple months when opened and uncontaminated.