Pickled onions recipe that is easy to make and super delicious; great for a variety of recipes from salads and sandwiches to burgers off the grill!
The Benefits of Eating Pickled Foods
Let’s talk about gut health. Pickling and fermenting foods can help with a healthy gut but putting good bacteria in your system. Pickling is also full of nutrients, amino acids and other nutrients.
Pickled Foods can also improve digestion, reduce ulcers and may offer your liver some protection.
Pickled Onions Recipe
This pickled onions recipe is truly out of this world! Your taste buds will be thanking you, I promise. Even if you’ve never been a fan of pickled onions I highly recommend giving this recipe a shot. I can eat these straight out of the jar; but they compliment lots of things too.
Use your pickled onions are a great addition to a relish tray and on sandwiches, burgers, salads, tacos; or use them on anything else you’d like to kick the flavor up a notch.
The great thing about pickling this way is that the benefits of the raw vinegar and onions are not cooked away like they are in canning. You’ll still be getting those gut-healthy probiotics, if you use the raw apple cider vinegar that I recommend.
At the end of the post you’ll see an easy to print version of this recipe for your convenience.
Ingredients for Your Pickled Onions
• 1 large red onion
• 1 cup of raw apple cider vinegar, like this (I prefer raw apple cider vinegar but any will do)
• 1/2 cup of water (I recommend filtered for best results)
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon of whole peppercorns
• 1-2 pinches of red pepper flakes
• 1 bay leaf
• Mason Jar with tight lid, like these or these (but leftover spaghetti sauce jars can work too if they are cleaned well)
Note: The peppercorns, red pepper flakes and bay leaf are optional, but make the flavor amazing.
Directions for Your Pickled Onions
1. Slice the ends off your raw onions and remove the papery peel.
2. Cut the onion into even, thin, round slices (a mandolin slicer makes this super easy)
3. In a bowl whisk together your brine (vinegar, water, sugar and salt) until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside.
4. Add your onions and spices to the Mason jar.
5. Pour your brine over the onions and spices.
6. Place in your refrigerator for at least 24 hours to allow the onions to soak up the flavor of the brine. Then they are ready to eat!
How to Store Pickled Onions
The onions are not shelf stable so be sure to keep them in the refrigerator. They should keep fine for several weeks, if you don’t eat them up before then.
Pickled Onions FAQ
- Are they pickled onions spicy?
The red pepper really doesn’t give them much heat. You can certainly add more if you want to pump up the spice. - Why don’t you can these?
Canning would ruin the health benefits of pickling the onions. - How do you use pickled onions?
I like them on burgers, chopped up in salads and they are fantastic on sandwiches.
Note: This recipe is meant for refrigerator pickling only and not for canning purposes.
But wait…there’s more! I don’t just pickle onions my friends! Check out these other pickling recipes to tempt your taste buds.
You meant to say the benefits aren’t, or are NOT cooked away like they are in canning.
Kind of important type-o.
Got it – will fix the typo, thanks!
I love pickled onions so much! I think they are genuinely my favorite pickled food. Sauerkraut is a close second, but I love putting pickled onions on sandwiches – it honestly gives it the best bite that you can’t get from much of any other type of food. Thank you for sharing this detailed and informative recipe! I will have to give this a try the next time I go to make pickled onions.
I love pickled onions and this sounds fantastic. I have just made a mental list and I have all the ingredients Only have brown onion and not red but I’m doing it now as I won’t wait till tomorrow to buy a red onion. Thankyou for this recipe.
do you have a recipe for canned pickled red onions? i wanted to make these to sell at a bazaar next november. i don’t have enough refrigerator space to store them in there that long…
No, generally I just pickle them.
Wondering if these are spicy at all? Do the red pepper flakes make them spicy?! Just wondering before I try the recipe out. Thanks so much!!!
Not to me, but you could leave them out.
Delicious!!! My new favorite on any sandwich/veggie burger!! Thank you for sharing.
Could the sugar be omitted in this recipe?
No, it is definitely part of the pickling process.
These are the bomb…been trying to find a good pickled red onion recipe for a while and these are my new favorite…love ’em. Thanks
Made these and they re amazing. I did add a clove of garlic to them. Next time I will use less sugar as they are a bit too sweet for my liking. Terrific recipe. Thank you!
What size jar are you using? Your links are for 16 oz and 12 oz jars. I used a 16 oz jar (quart) and the liquid isn’t enough to cover the onions. Should I add more onions? I didn’t want to mess with the liquid chemistry….any help is appreciated!! A friend made these and we really enjoyed them so looking forward to having them again!
You could add a little more of both. You definitely want the onions covered.
Can you pickle see food as well? Have a recipie for that? Hope so, thanks.
Yes, but I have not done it personally.