Today we’re talking about pickled onions, but this is really a recipe for the brine that I use for all my quick-pickled vegetables. You can use this in combination with different spices and herbs, in order to pickle things like beans, carrots, radishes, daikons, beets, hot peppers, etc. But my most frequented quick-pickled item is red onions.
Come springtime, we pretty much always have pickled onions in our fridge and we usually go through a batch every week or two. As the weather starts to warm, we tend to crave the bright and crisp pop of colour and flavour on things like salads, tacos, avocado toast, etc. And since they’re super quick to pickle, it takes minimal effort to always have them available as an easy addition to any dish.
It’s important to remember that quick-pickling isn’t the same as fermentation, and it must go directly into your refrigerator unless it’s been processed. The brine is where all your flavour is coming from, and most vegetables will be best if eaten within the first couple of weeks (although they’ll last for longer). But the beauty of this process is that there’s little fuss and you don’t have to wait months to test out what you’ve concocted. Most of your vegetables will be ready for consumption in a day, if not just a few hours (particularly onions).
Since this is such a minor project to undertake, it leaves room for creativity. You can play around with the ratios of ingredients in the brine, and even the type of vinegar you use. Personally, I like my brine to be a bit sweeter for this type of pickling… especially with onions. I don’t enjoy the sharpness of the vinegar as much as some people might, so I find the sugar creates nice balance and mellows the onions a little bit more effectively. For something like beets, I might adjust the sweetness a bit, and substituting different vinegars will change the flavour quite a lot. This brine is not what I use to preserve my garden vegetables, come the end of summer. For that, I go for a more traditional pickling flavour that’s less sweet and more vinegary, and those vegetables are processed and left in the pantry for months before we start to enjoy them.
Some vinegars you can test out include apple cider (my go-to), rice, white wine, and distilled white. They can be paired together or used on their own, but I find white vinegar to be a bit lacking for this, unless it’s used in combination. Once you have your brine, you can customize the flavours for all different vegetables. Some spices you might include are mustard seeds, coriander, allspice, cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise… the list goes on. You can also add garlic, peppercorns, different herbs, dried chiles, dill-weed, and so on. The options are endless, and unveiling the flavours you create is particularly exciting! I like to keep it relatively simple, and I always write down what I’ve done so I don’t forget!
Here is my basic brine recipe for these ultra-simple pickled onions. Enjoy!
Pickled Onions
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 1/2 Cups Water
- 4 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Kosher Salt
- 1 Large Red Onion
- 1 Half Quart Mason Jar
Instructions
- Halve the onion lengthwise, and proceed to slice thinly into half-moons, crosswise. Pack the clean 1/2 quart mason jar full, and set aside.
- Heat the water on the stovetop so it’s hot, but not boiling.
- Add the salt, sugar, vinegar, and hot water to a small bowl, and stir until all the salt and sugar granules have dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool if the water is still quite hot (warm is okay), then pour it over the onions until they’re just submerged.
- Cover the jar and place in your refrigerator. Onions will be ready to use within a few hours, but will gain deeper flavour after about a day. Reserve the leftover brine for another vegetable, or store in the refrigerator for your next batch of onions.
- Enjoy!
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