Easy Pickled Onions
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A little bit sweet, a little bit savory, and a whole lot tangy, my easy and quick pickled onions recipe is a Southern gem that’s going to change your life (yes, really).
Pickled onions and cornbread is a meal fit for the hardcore Southerner. I’m going to start this post out with a disclaimer: half of you will hate even the thought of this pickled onion recipe, but the other half will take one bite and set about doing paperwork to rename all of your children after me. Pickled onions are not for the novice who is new to Southern food. These are hardcore, for old-school Southern tastebuds – but oh will they make those buds sing!
The life-changing moment
Would you believe that I had them for the FIRST TIME this past weekend? We went to a restaurant in Nashville with the kids and they brought out a bowl of pickled onions and hot cornbread, still in the cast iron skillet it was cooked in. I reached for a wedge of cornbread and put it on my plate where I topped it with a spoonful of pickled onions. Not knowing what to expect but trusting the instinct of my Alabama roots, I dug my fork in to get a bite full of hot bread and onion and tasted all that was reverent and good in the world of old-fashioned soul food.
As soon as we left the restaurant I called Mama and Grandmama and by the time I was home, I had a recipe. I ended up serving mine with a bowl of pinto beans and ham and a side of cornbread and the rest is history! These heavenly pickled onions are now on heavy rotation in my home… and my family’s. I sent a pint jar of them to my 81-year-old grandmother yesterday along with a quart jar of pintos. She called at 5 this morning. “Did you try it yet, Grandmama?” “LORD Yes! Done had me two bowls! That was the best stuff. Lord oh that was so good.”
Fortunately, my quick pickled onions recipe is so quick and easy to make. We’re just going to boil the ingredients together to make the pickle. This includes a delicious combination of sugar for sweetness, salt, pepper, and garlic powder for seasoning and flavor, and apple cider vinegar for that quintessential pickled tang. Then we toss the onions into the pickled mixture and let them marinate in the fridge. That’s it! They’re ready to serve in no time at all and the serving options are endless… but I’ve included plenty of ideas below. So let’s get pickling, hey?
Recipe Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- Garlic powder
- Black pepper
- Sweet onions (preferably Vidalia)
- Apple cider vinegar
- Sugar
How to Make Pickled Onions
In a medium saucepot, place the apple cider vinegar…
Sugar…
Salt…
Black pepper…
And garlic powder.
Stir that up well and put over medium-high heat to bring it just to a boil while you cut up your onions.
Keep a watch on this and stir it often.
Peel your onions and slice them into rings.
I cut my rings in half, too, to make them easier to eat.
You can even do diced onions if you want.
Oh, look! Our pickling liquid is boiling!
Now, if you or anyone you know has their sinuses stuffed up, all ya gotta do is invite them into your kitchen and have them stir this pot! Actually, cider vinegar is an old folk remedy for many an affliction.
Remove pot from heat.
Dump your sliced onion in and stir them to coat.
At first, it will seem like there are way too many slices, but just let them sit for about five minutes and they will wilt a bit.
Until they look kinda like this. Now place all of these ( and included) in a container and cover it to put in your fridge.
If you do not cover it, your sinuses will clear each and every time you open your fridge, which is good or bad depending on how stuffed up you are! Come to think of it, maybe this is a good springtime recipe in the south when our world is coated in that lovely yellow dust.
Voila! My refrigerated pickled onions are all ready to make my stomach happy!
Here I’m serving them with a big bowl of pinto beans and ham and a side of cornbread, of course.
But however you serve it, just git ya some!
Storage
When stored in an airtight container or a in the fridge, pickled onions will last up to 3 weeks.
Recipe Notes
- These can well. For canning instructions, check out this blog post.
- If you want to add some heat, add a 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.
- You only need to let the homemade pickled onions marinate and cool down for about 30 minutes before serving. However, the longer you leave them in the fridge, the more pickled they become.
- I prefer to use Vidalia onions, but many pickled onion recipes use red onion instead, which you can totally do as well.
- Some easy substitutions include cane sugar for granulated sugar, , sea salt for kosher salt, and black pepper for about 10 whole peppercorns.
- For added , you can also purchase in stores like Walmart, which is usually some combination of these spices: cinnamon, allspice, , coriander, bay leaves, ginger, , cardamon, black , and dill seed.
Recipe FAQs
Can I use white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar?
You can definitely use white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. Personally, I just love the extra little tang and flavor the cider vinegar gives my pickled onions. For English , is actually the traditional choice, but other options include .
How do you serve pickled onions?
There are so many ways to serve homemade pickled onions:
- are a popular topping on tacos, burritos, nachos, and fajitas.
- They also work as a topping for burgers, sandwiches, and salads.
- English pickled onions are often served on baked potatoes, alongside fish and chips, on a Ploughman’s Lunch, with cream cheese dip, and as a hot dog relish.
- Enjoy them as a side dish with barbecue meat like beef brisket or pulled pork, Southern fried catfish, salmon patties, or steak.
- Add them to a bagel with lox and cream cheese or as a topping on avocado toast for a different kind of breakfast.
You may also enjoy these other onion-based dishes:
Delicious Hamburger Steak Recipe With Fried Onions
Keto Chaffle Recipe With Onion Rings
Tomato, Onion, and Cucumber Salad
French Onion Soup Restaurant-Style
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized sweet onions like Vidalia
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except the onions into a saucepot over medium-high heat. Bring just to a boil while stirring often.2 cups apple cider vinegar, 1 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- While the pickling liquid is coming to a boil, peel onions and slice them into rings. Separate each ring.4 medium-sized sweet onions like Vidalia
- When the vinegar mixture comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and add sliced onion. Stir and allow to sit for five minutes, or until the onions have wilted down into the vinegar slightly. Stir again and let sit for another five minutes.
- Place in a container, cover, and refrigerate until well chilled and ready to serve. Serve as a side relish or as a topping on pinto beans.
Video
Nutrition
It requires less character to discover the faults of others
than it does to tolerate them.
~J. Petit Senn
Christy, I swear our Mamas cooked the same thing as the other one every day, so you KNOW I ate LOTS of Pinto Beans and Cornbread – also lots of Great Northern and Lima (little and big) Beans. The Big Lima Beans were not my favorite, but adding ketchup to them made them delicious. Mother made “Fried Cornbread Fritters” with any kind of white beans. One of my favorite aunts ate these fritters with mayonnaise, so I adopted that habit, too. I liked lots of condiments with that meal! Top O’ The River restaurant in Guntersville has delicious pickled onions. I always ask for a little box to bring home any that are left. Thanks for the memories as well as the recipe!!!!
Christie, my Huntsville mouth is watering just looking at the finished product, lol. I think I’ve got some leftover Honeybaked Ham in the freezer, and I’m soaking the pintos as I type. When is your second book due to come out?
I will be making these as they do look delicious.
Try a bag of Cranberry beans on your hubby. Star Market or Wal Mart has them. They are the cadiliac of a pinto but over the mountain of a pinta and so delicious. We have eaten them for years as we like better than pinto’s we were raised on.
Thanks for all the post.
You are so right I have eaten these since I bought my first bag several years ago maybe 20…….lol…they truely are the best
Could you seal these in a hot water canner? They sound so good.
Yes Ma’am, you sure can! For complete instructions see this post https://www.southernplate.com/2008/09/yes-you-can-can-canning-tutorial-with.html
Gratefully,
Christy
sometimes we would just throw an onion in the pickle juice after we ate up all the pickles from a jar and leave them in the fridge for a few days. i love pickled onions too, i was thinking about them the last time i made pintos!
Hey Christy… what’s the name of the Nashville restaurant?
It is the “Cock of the Walk.” My sister and I ate there and had them. They were wonderful.
I was going to post this same comment. My Mom, never one to throw out anything that could be saved, recycled before it was the PC thing to do! That included the pickle juice. If it was onion, it was beets. Some of the best pickled beets I ever ate were pickled in the sour pickle leftover juice with a little sugar tossed in!! Yum. Makes me hungry for pickled beets and longing for my Mom
I’m from India, & it’s customary there for most restaurants to bring out a little plate of pickled red pearl onions before you start your meal, the way restaurants here bring out bread. Your post made me very nostalgic, so I am going to go home & make these. 🙂
India just got moved up to the top of my “must visit” list! I just have to save the money I’ll need to buy all the fabric I want once I’m there – and now an equally large food fund!
Gratefully,
Christy
Over here in the UK we pickle whole baby onions, or alternatively shallots, and then keep them in jars. A couple go very nicely with a crusty bread and cheese sandwich (or with anything else you fancy). I vary them quite a bit, sometimes I add sugar to white vinegar, sometimes I use malt vinegar, or any other vinegar. Sometimes I add chilies. Anything goes – just make sure your jar is sterilised before you put the onions and vinegar in. Before the onions go into the vinegar – just for a couple of minutes, you want them to stay crisp – they need to be topped and tailed, peeled, and salted overnight to draw out some of the juices. Then Jyst rinse the salt off, and throw them in.
Virginia,
I LOVED reading this comment and even called my mother to read it to her. We’re always so amazed to see such similar foods in different parts of the world. It makes sense, of course, that our love of vinegar and such originated in your neck of the woods, since “our people” came over from there eons ago, but it’s just so neat to see it validated and think “HEY! We DID get this from somewhere!”
Gratefully,
Christy