Quick Pickled Onions

I love pickled things. From cucumbers to beets to asparagus, there is something so perfect about a crunchy, salty, vinegary, something. I use these onions on tacos, but they are awesome added to sandwiches or grilled meats. Even my husband, who won’t go anywhere near raw onions, eats them up.

This is so easy I don’t know if you can call it a recipe. The proportions are important though. These can be made in advance and refrigerated, just pull them out of the brine to serve. Also, you can use any vinegar you like, cider vinegar is a classic, but red wine, white wine, rice wine, or other exotic vinegars work equally well, just make sure the vinegar is about 5% acidity. I made the onions above with banana vinegar, the fruitiness was pretty darn tasty. In fact, the only vinegar I wouldn’t recommend is balsamic (the dark stuff, white balsamic is lovely.) I think the flavor is too strong and the dark color makes the end result less visually appealing.

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar of choice
1 tblsp sugar (more if you like pickles sweeter)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 onion, thinly sliced (I think red onions look prettier, but white or yellow onions work just fine)

Simply whisk the first 4 ingredients together to dissolve the sugar and salt. Pour over the onions in a bowl or jar and let sit overnight in the fridge. If you want them sooner, you can leave them at room temperature and eat them after a few hours, but they taste so much nicer if you give them the extra time in the fridge.