One of the tricks of preparing easy meals is having things prepared in advance.  How many times have you gone to the market and bought way too much produce with grandiose ideas of all the meals you’ll be making?  The week starts and reality sets in…there is no way you will be able to use all your produce this week.  So, rather than wait for the stuff to go bad, why don’t you try pickling your veggies?  Pickling is simply preserving food in a solution of brine or vinegar.  If done right, you can pickle your veggies and enjoy them for weeks or months!  Pickled veggies serve as a side dish or can be added to your meals to give them a nice zing.   Try this amazingly quick recipe for pickling red onions and you’ll wonder why you never tried pickling before!

These pickled red onions are so versatile and only your imagination will limit its uses.  You can also try adding different spices to the mix – try whole cloves, all spice berries, dry chile pepper, etc.  So play around with it and tweak it to suit your taste buds!

Sliced red onions, clove of garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, salt, vinegar, sugar and water.  When pickling, make sure that the vinegar you are using says 5% acidity.  I used apple cider vinegar but you can also use distilled white vinegar.

Over medium heat add everything but the onions to your saucepan and dissolve the sugar and salt.

Once the solution comes to a boil, add your onions

Stir your onions well and bring to a boil

When the solution comes to a boil you are DONE!  How quick was that?

Let the mixture cool then transfer all contents to a glass jar.  Let the onions sit at room temperature for one day then stick in the fridge after that.  The pickled onions  will last at least a month but you probably won’t take that long to polish them off!  You can enjoy these onions on burgers, tacos, sandwiches, bruschetta…really whatever.  They turn a lovely deep pink color and have a sweet-tangy taste…highly addictive!

Recipe for: Pickled Red Onions 

Servings: 2 cups total yield