When I made ribs Sunday, we needed some pickled red onions. We had already used up the ones I made last year. You can see that post HERE.
But the ribs were the next day and I needed less salt and something that I didn't have to cook the brine first.
So, I tweaked the earlier recipe a bit and these came out great! We really like them. There is no heating of the liquid so it's quick and easy and it uses minimal salt (still need some) which works for our healthier eating.
PICKLED RED ONIONS
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider or white vinegar
2 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 red onion, thinly sliced
Slice the onion as thinly as possible. I like to slice them vertically because it gives you the strips instead of the rings, but hey, you do what you like! The thinner the slices, the more the vinegar mixture will permeate to soften and mellow the onions.
Put them into a jar, one medium to large red onion should make enough for one pint jar and the liquid will be enough to fill it up.
Mix all the ingredients together and whisk until sugar and salt is dissolved, no cooking necessary.
Pour it over the onions, put a tight fitting lid on and give it a gentle shake. You can leave them to sit for an hour and eat right away but if you do them overnight, they'll get super good. You can actually keep these for up to two weeks if you keep them in the fridge, though they don't last that long here!
You can also do like our last cooked brined batch and add jalapeños, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, etc.
They were very good even after just 24 hours of being in the fridge, we'll finish them off over the next few days. They are great with BBQ, adding a tang and crunch. Some people use sliced pickles for this and that's great as well, but Texas BBQ likes the red onions. They are also great on sandwiches, tacos and are a frequent condiment with TexMex food. Heck, last night we had a salad and put the onions in there!
Enjoy!
Your recipes and food pictures always make me salivate! Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteAwww, thanks. It's actually fun to take pics of food. I like making it look pretty for the camera, ha.
DeleteI love pickled red onions! I should make and keep them all of the time but I don't.
ReplyDeleteRight? We don't do it often enough. We made those last year that we had several jars with different flavors but ate them all up. Then didn't even think about it for a while. Speaking of, I need to do some more. We just got a 5lb bag of red onions. :-)
DeleteI don't use salt in my mix (since I know you're doing low-sodium) and I add peppercorns for extra flavor (sometimes dill or garlic too) - they turn out fabulous every time. I also heat the vinegar/sugar/spices mix to almost a boil (but not quite) to melt the sugar and infuse the spices into the vinegar. I let it cool until it's warm enough to wilt the onions but NOT cook them (just cool enough to quickly touch). I find it permeates the onions better and faster and really spreads the flavor around.
ReplyDeleteSee, I wasn't sure if the salt was needed, I mean I cut it way down to just a 1/2 tsp but I'll try it without next time. I made some last year that I heated up the mixture but wanted to try it without too. Will have to try that again. Thank you!
DeleteI pickle lots of things for Tommy to put on salads, meat, and whatever. I cannot eat pickled food or hot foods. He eats these and loves them.
ReplyDeleteYou can pickle just about anything huh? I'm eyeballing a recipe now for a depression era salad that's similar.
DeleteI always like your recipes. This one looks yum. I love pickled goods. I’ll have to try this one.
ReplyDeleteThank you!! Yes this is good and nice for quick pickled onions. I. literally made these at like midnight the night before our ribs. Just didn't want to get out a pan and heat everything up and wait to cool and it worked fine (still even better a few days later). When I have time I'll do the heat up version.
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