I love pickled onions, they are one of the best condiments and homemade ones are the absolute best. When the Handsome One and I moved in together in July 2017, I started pretty much straight away started planning Christmas and making pickled onions, along with chutney, jam and mincemeat was high up on the to-do list.
I remember one weekend in Autumn last year, we bought some shallots to make pickled onions. On the Sunday morning, we looked at a recipe and as per the instructions we covered the onions with boiling water then left them to cool down and promptly forgot about them! We had a lovely supper, watched Poldark and bought our plates into the kitchen when we realised that we had a kilogram of onions to peel. So at 10.30pm one Sunday night we were stood in the kitchen, laughing and crying peeling shallots. Luckily, when we finally tucked in, the pickled onions were absolutely gorgeous.
Pickled onions are so easy to make and you really don’t need to add much to them for them to taste gorgeous. The two ways we make them is spicy and traditional. Spicy for me, traditional for the HO (but I eat them both of course).
Things you’ll need:
Sterilised jars (1 large jar should do the job)
600g shallots / pickling onions
50g salt
500ml pickling vinegar (you could use malt but the pickling vinegar tastes so much better)
100g caster sugar
Traditional:
10 peppercorns
Hot & Spicy:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp peppercorn
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 bay leaves
- Put the onions in a large heatproof / ceramic bowl and pour over a kettle of boiling water. Leave the water to cool and then peel the skins off. I find this makes the peeling much easier and definitely less tears!
1. Once you’ve finished peeling them, put them in a bowl and pour over the salt – ensure that all onions have been properly coated. Don’t worry, I know it seems like a lot but you rinse the salt off. Leave the onions for at least 8 hours but up to 24 hours.
2. Next, pour the vinegar and sugar into a large saucepan and depending on whether you’re making traditional or hot & spicy onions, add the relevant spices as above. Bring to the boil, then put the lid on and remove from the heat, allowing the flavours to infuse whilst it cools down.
3.Once at least 8 hrs has passed, rinse the onions well and pat dry.
4. Place the onions into the jar/s and then pour the vinegar (use a jug if you’re clumsy like me!) into the sterilised jars, seal and put them away for at least 6 weeks to get all lovely and tasty.
For me, this is a regular occurrence up until Christmas because before you know it, it’ll be time to get the cheeses out on a cool autumnal evening and there’s nothing better to go with cheese than homemade pickled onions.
Enjoy!
A xx
Abi in the Garden 