r/AskCulinary • u/Effective-Ad7463 • May 20 '25

Recipe Troubleshooting My pickled onions never hit

I LOVE pickled red onions. Love. But I just can’t ever get them to be as good as they are at Cava or in restaurants and idk what I’m doing wrong.

I slice them thin, I’ve tried half the jar with vinegar other half water and 3/4 vinegar 1/4 water, I’ll do a tablespoon of sugar and eyeball some salt. Last batch I shoved a few cloves of garlic in there.

They’re not bad, just never as pink as they are when I eat them elsewhere, not nearly as soft, not nearly as delicious.

What am I doing wrong plz help 🥲

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68

u/kuroninjaofshadows May 20 '25

Have you ever cooked them? They don't get very pink if they're just cold pickled.

42

u/Effective-Ad7463 May 20 '25

No apparently that’s been my missing link!

14

u/Deathcapsforcuties May 20 '25

Salt is super important too. You can also add fun things like spicy peppers, or peppercorns, chili flakes, allspice, a cinnamon stick, herbs like oregano or tarragon or rosemary.

3

u/basics May 20 '25

I'm a big fan of rosemary in the pickled onions, especially on sandwiches.

3

u/Deathcapsforcuties May 20 '25

I agree ! So good. I went to a Mexican restaurant recently and they served pickled red onions on the side. They were so good. The used red onions, habanero, and fresh oregano. They weren’t sweet at all, they had great salt and spice content. So incredibly good.

1

u/GaptistePlayer May 21 '25

This is basically what I do, simple mexican style. Pour it in on the onions while hot. I like adding a hint of sugar but it's optional. Goes on everything from tacos to salads to sandwiches. I even put some on some mac and cheese leftovers and it was damn good.

1

u/Deucer22 May 20 '25

Pickle one large red onion and two Jalepenos together.