Pickled Red Onion

In the Nova Scotia section I posted about a restaurant called Rhubarb where I had the best chick pea salad I’ve ever eaten, and it included pickled red onion. I wanted to attempt a version of the salad at home so I pickled my own red onion for the first time. I didn’t follow a single internet recipe. Rather, I read a bunch and then just sort of winged it. The pickled onions turned out quite nice and I still have some left, that I think I might use on some grilled burgers this weekend. Here is the recipe I cobbled together.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized red onion
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup white vinegar
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Pinch of salt
• ½ tsp. course ground black pepper

Other:

• 2 x 250ml canning jar or other sealing container (or whatever sized containers you prefer that equal 500mls in total).

Note: I sometimes give out homemade canned goods to friends at Christmas time or as hostess gifts. For this recipe, I’d probably use these as they are such a nice little size!   https://amzn.to/2JpUSns

Method:

• Slice the onion into any shapes and sizes that you please. Consistency of size and shape is up to you. I will call my cuts “rustic” ;o)
• Divide the onion pieces between the two 250 mls jars and set aside.
• Add all of the other ingredients to a small pot, give them a stir, and put on the stove at medium heat. Bring to a boil so that all the sugar dissolves.
• Once it has come to a boil and the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and immediately pour the liquid into the jars with the onion in them.
• Seal, let cool, and then transfer to the fridge.

The red pickled onion will be ready to eat after 24 hours but should also last for weeks in the fridge!

This recipe resulted in lightly pickled onions. I will likely try it again in the future but I think I will double the vinegar, or maybe play around and try other types of vinegars. It really is a matter of personal taste so play around with this and have fun.  If you come up with some flavourful additions to this recipe, please comment and let me know! I was thinking that adding some hot pepper might be a nice addition for those who like things spicy.

Here’s how the onion looked after 24 hours. So translucent and pretty!

As for the chick pea salad, I rinsed and drained a can of chick peas, cut up some cucumber and cherry tomatoes, added some roasted chick peas for crunch (  https://amzn.to/2kC0NIi  ), chopped up some of the pickled red onions, and I tossed that all together with some Kraft honey mustard salad dressing. I have to admit that it wasn’t quite as good with the roasted chick peas as it was with the deep fried ones that the restaurant, Rhubarb, makes, but probably it was a little healthier and it was still very tasty.

Kraft Creamy Honey Mustard (You can find this at Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2st2fAc ) :

I would eat this salad again for sure. As you can see, below, I served it with some cold, sliced steak that I had grilled the night before, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. It’s a great dinner for a hot summer night when you don’t want to heat up the house.

Happy pickling to you all!