I love this quick pickled red onion recipe! These make just about anything better and are ready to eat in under an hour.
Our pickled red onions are crisp, tangy, and slightly sweet. I add them to tacos, salads, grain bowls, burgers, and more!
These pretty pickled onions are a fridge staple in our house. If you’ve never pickled before, onions are a fantastic place to start. You may also enjoy these pickled beets (so pretty) or try my quick pickled carrots or these dill pickles!
Key Ingredients
- Red onion: Pickling red onions makes them turn bright pink. I love the beautiful color, but you can use other onion varieties in our recipe without any changes.
- Spices: I use cinnamon sticks, cloves, and red pepper flakes in my pickle brine. I love the extra spice these add.
- Apple cider vinegar: Adds a little extra flavor and sweetness. You can substitute it with other vinegar if needed. White vinegar is popular and tastes cleaner, while rice wine vinegar offers a little sweetness and flavor.
- Lime juice: I love this recipe’s bright, citrusy tang from fresh lime juice. These onions are my go-to topping for tacos, burritos, and rice bowls, and the lime pickle truly complements them.
- Sugar: I add a bit of sugar to my brine. I like these slightly sweet, but I have included tips in the recipe for reducing or increasing the sugar to your taste.
- Salt: I love using fine sea salt in my pickle brine, but kosher or pickling salt is also great.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Pickled Onions
Tip 1: Use a mandoline slicer. My recipe is perfect for a large red onion (or 2 smaller ones). I peel and slice it thin. If you have one, use a mandoline slicer (I use one in our video).
Tip 2: Deflame the onions. Add your sliced onions to a bowl, cover them with boiling water, count to 5, and drain. This simple step briefly blanches them, slightly softening them and speeding up the pickling process.
Tip 3: Make the pickle brine. It’s tangy, spiced, and a little sweet. I love it with the onions! Combine the spices with apple cider vinegar, lime juice, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. When the sugar and salt have dissolved, you can pickle your onions.
Tip 4: Add the brine. Add your onions to a glass jar or container, then pour over the brine. Set the onions aside to cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate. You can enjoy homemade pickled red onions within an hour of refrigerating them, but they get better the longer they sit in the fridge.
Ways to Use Pickled Red Onions
These are perfect for topping burgers and sandwiches. I especially love them with veggie burgers and black bean burgers since they add a bit of color and crunch. They are also amazing for topping avocado toast.
Anytime you are enjoying Tex-Mex or Mexican dishes, add these onions. I love them with tacos, and I always add them to ground pork tacos and these roasted cauliflower tacos.
Pickled onions also brighten stews and dishes that cook for a long time, like this beef stew or our Texas red chili.
Finally, I highly recommend adding pickled red onions to salads. They add a pop of color and flavor. I use these in our cauliflower chicken salad.
More Pickle Recipes
The Best Pickled Red Onions
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Our pickled red onions are crisp, tangy, and slightly sweet. We use a combination of fresh lime juice and apple cider vinegar. You can use just the vinegar, but the combination makes these even more delicious.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes or gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
1 cup (240ml) apple cider vinegar
½ cup (120ml) freshly squeezed lime juice, 5 to 6 limes
¼ cup (50g) sugar, or more to taste, see tips
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
Directions
1Add the sliced red onions to a medium bowl. Pour enough boiling water over them so that they are covered. Count to 5, then drain. Add the onions to glass jars (or a food-safe glass container with a lid).
2Toast the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and pepper flakes until fragrant in a small saucepan over medium heat, 3 to 5 minutes.
3Whisk in the apple cider vinegar, lime juice, sugar, and salt.
4Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar and salt have dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes.
5Taste the brine for sweetness, and then add more sugar as needed.
6Pour the pickle brine over the onions, pushing them down so they are covered. Add the lid and set aside on the counter until cooled.
7Refrigerate for 2 to 3 weeks, ensuring the pickled onions stay submerged in the brine.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Quick pickled red onions last for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. The color may change slightly, but they will be delicious. I store pickled onions in an airtight glass container, like a mason jar. I do not recommend freezing them, as they will lose their crisp texture. While you can use a pressure canner for pickled onions, this quick pickled onions recipe is intended to be a refrigerator pickle, so I do not have instructions for canning them. The same is true for all of the pickle recipes on Inspired Taste.
- Sugar: I like the balance of ¼ cup (50g) of sugar, but you can make these slightly sweeter by increasing the sugar or less sweet by decreasing it. Add closer to ½ cup (100g) of sugar for sweet pickled onions. When making your brine, taste it and add more sugar if needed. You can substitute maple syrup or honey in the recipe (these taste a bit sweeter than plain sugar, so add to your tastes).
- The nutrition facts are estimates. We assumed ¼ cup of sugar.
I love you two! 🤗 Your knowledge of cooking & techniques are not too intricate but very doable for a home cook like myself to enjoy cooking even more! THANKS!
You have made our day! 🙂
Made this and so easy! DELICIOUS 😋. I have used them on many things so far. I made them so I can now make your yummy Cauliflower Salad. I can’t wait 🙂
These pickled onions are so easy, and absolutely fabulous. I have made jars to sell at a charity fayre and the sold out within minutes as I offered “tasters”. I also now get asked for them regularly by family and friends. Thank you so much for this recipe
This is the best recipe, thank you so much! I’ve made so many batches—we eat them on sandwiches, burgers, salads, tacos, and straight from the jar. I have given jars as gifts, too. Love the lime together with acv and cinnamon, anise, and cloves. And the color is gorgeous.
Fabulous! Absolutely love this recipe. I’m so pleased with it I’d leave a photo if I could. Thank you for sharing this.
I finally made these onions but I think I must have used larger onions because I had probably 3 cups of onions. I wasn’t sure whether or not the brine should fully cover the onions so I made another batch of vinegar solution using 2/3-1/3 vinegar and lime juice. When I swished the onions around, they were covered with the solution but barely. It was then that I decided to make more brine. So my question is, should the vinegar solution completely cover the onions? Also, you say the recipe makes about 3 cups of pickled onions. Does this mean the onions with or without the solution? Thank you.
Yes, you want the onions covered by the brine (it’s ok if they are barely covered). The yield is for the onions.
They are great on a ham or thin sliced roast beef sandwich or on a cheese sandwich. I am 76 now but my mother made these for years for her family. They were standard on the table of a working class man’s meal in those days gone by in the north west of England, specially at weekend meals. Do try them as they really are delicious. I am still making the after all these years and everyone seems to love them. They never let very long when I make them – which is often!
please can you tell me how long these will last as you contradict yourself, at the start of the video you say you last up to a week in fridge, then to the end you say last a couple of week please can you confirm this for me what you mean many thanks Alan, I not make till I have a replay Thanks again
I Love your site!!!
I can eat a whole jar of these plain – they are amazing and so easy! I even know a toddler who loves them.
I have lost count of how many times I have made these and the Herby Cauliflower and Chickpea Salad. The salad is a hit with all my family and friends and I use the pickles on everything! I have used Stevia powder to sweeten and it was good, but much prefer my organic honey
Great recipe! Have you tried substituting molasses for the sugar? Molasses just has a bolder flavor than sugar, one that accompanies lime juice and other spices in your recipe. You have great recipes here. Congratulations on really helpful but home-run recipes!!!!
The best pickles I have ever had! And since making these I have really got into making other pickles too. So thank you for helping me discover a new hobby!
You have ruined me. I cannot live without these now. So great on EVERYTHING! Can you use the cinnamon stick for multiple batches? They are pricey. Thank you, Jane
If you have a Hispanic section in your supermarket, you can often find whole cinnamon sticks there among the spices that are a fraction of those you’ll find in the regular spice section. Other spices are typically cheaper there, too.
Hi Jane, we would recommend that you use new cinnamon stick for each batch.
Can this be made without adding sugar? I have diabetes. Thank you
Hi, You can reduce the amount of sugar in our recipe, however, we recommend keeping a little sugar in the brine to balance the acidity of the vinegar and lime juice.
Hi there, I don’t have mason jars.. but have several bonne maree jam jars with metal lids… are these ok to use ??
Hi Christina, Any clean jar or food-safe friendly container will work. Keep in mind that these pickles are refrigerator pickles and that the recipe is not written as canned/jarred pickles that can be stored outside the refrigerator.
Sorry! Forgot to leave a rating!!!
I’ve just made the pickled red onions! Really delicious. Could the same ingredients and method be used to pickle other vegetables? If so which ones would be best. I have a glut of courgettes (zucchini). Would they work well?
I do not care for lime flavor… is there a substitute or can I just leave it out? Also, will Stevia work in stead of sugar? I try to avoid sugar.
I have successfully made other refrigerator pickles using artificial sweetener, so I’m pretty sure it’d work for these onions. I didn’t like the taste (of that other recipe I’ve made) with artificial sweetener as compared to granulated sugar, so just know that it might taste different.
Hi Sophia, You can eliminate the lime juice from the recipe and just use the apple cider vinegar. We have never tried Stevia so we are unable to say how well it will work in the recipe.
Insanely Good! So easy to make! Thank you for this recipe.
The brine!!! These are amazing
I simply can’t wait to try this. The cauliflower chic peas salad will be my dish for my next knitting retreat!
Can you tell me how long the pickled onions will last in the refrigerator?
They will not last long believe me! No one can resist them. Mine don’t get any further than the kitchen counter before they are gone!
Two to three weeks.
I saw on Diners,drive inns and dives talking about pickled onions so I went on Google and found a recipe. Made them and in the frig. Gonna have with tacos tomorrow, can’t wait to try them as I’m an onion freak anyway. I bet this is something I will keep in the frig from now on!!
I made these pickled onions and they came out terrifically! I used them to top my leftover short ribs for delicious tacos. So good! Thank you!
Rather than refrigerate, can these be processed using the hot water bath method for canning? Very excited to try this recipe!
Hi Deb, great question! Unfortunately, we can only speak to how these pickles turn out when following our quicker method in the recipe above. I am sure you can jar/can these for a longer shelf-life, but I have not tried doing this myself.
Looks and sounds great can not wait to try
Can the pickles be stored along with our canned vegetables?
Hi Judy, This method is a quick, refrigerator pickle so I keep them in the fridge. You can probably jar/can them for a longer shelf life, but I have not done this myself.
Can you use this brine on any veg you want to pickle? And if yes then is it the exact same process, with the putting the veg in boiling water for ten seconds? Thank you
Hi Nicole, I bet this method would work for a variety of veggies (I’m thinking vegetables like carrots and cauliflower would be a great start).
Karen regarding the salt, I bought a large container of Pink Himalayan salt but haven’t used it yet. Is this something I can substitute for kosher salt which I don’t have? Also regarding the apple cider vinegar can Organic Raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar be used? I am anxious to try this since I’m looking for ways to get fermented foods into my diet for gut health. Thanks for all your help with this. Sandy
PS: Do you have a great healthy pickle recipe to share? I love bread and butter pickles but I’m trying to stay away from sugar for health reasons. So on this recipe and the onion recipe, I’m going to try to substitute stevia. Has anyone had success in doing this sugar substitution? Thanks again and can’t wait to try your onions. Never had anything like that before but they sound delish…
I made this a couple of times and have loved it! Thank you. I do have a question as so far I have just followed the recipe exactly. About the lime, can it be omitted or subbed with lemon juice? I don’t have a lime tree and don’t buy them often but I do have a lemon tree. Or if that flavor isn’t right can I just take it out all together and if so do I add as much more of the vinegar? Just curious.
Hi Julia, Lemons should work as a substitute for the lime.
The 1 cup of vinegar doesn’t cover all of the onions in my jar, only about half. Is this a problem? Should I make more liquid mixture to cover them all? Thank you!!
Hi Kate, making a bit more liquid should do it. Or use a slightly wider container.
This is a weekly staple … bf loves it, and gets anxiety when it starts to run out. He also loves the hummus recipe. Actually I have to make the hummus every 2-3 days because he practically inhales the stuff.
Hi There!
Do I need to do the sterilizing of the jars to store the pickles or is that not necessary since they are going to be eaten within the next week or so?
Thanks!
Jess
This is not necessary since we store them in the refrigerator and they are eaten within a couple weeks.
Can I leave out the sugar and or replace with stevia?
Hi Donna, You can leave some or all of the sugar out and the onions will still pickle. We have never tried this with stevia, but I’d be curious to see if it works out well for you. Let us know if you try it.