Recipe for Quick Lime Pickled Onions
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Soon this website is going to be renamed Diaries of a Pickle Fiend. I’m slightly obsessed with them as you may have noticed. If you’re new, hi my name is Jasmine and I’m addicted to anything in brine. I’ve already made pickled onions in lots of ways but just recently fell in love with making lime pickled onions. They are exactly what I needed in my life and pair perfectly with any Mexican or Southwest food, but that’s just the beginning.
The best part is they only take a few minutes to make, and you don’t have to wait forever for them to be ready like some other pickles. Lime juice is nice and tart with a snap, so it comes through immediately. Pickles are always better with some wait time, but you can get away with rushing it here. Onions pickle quicker than some other veggies in my experience.
You can also make these ahead of time to have ready for a meal on a whim. If you don’t normally keep fresh pickled veggies on hand, you’re about to be mesmerized by such a stupidly simple little garnish and how much it will flavor up your meals. I also like how pretty they look, the acid brings out the pink in the onions and makes a dish look extra fancy.
How It Started
I’m going to stray off-topic slightly, but stay with me if you’re interested, if not there is always the “jump to recipe” button.
Have you ever tried a meal kit? If so, have you ever forgotten to skip weeks and ended up with a box of food you weren’t very excited about? Well, I have done this more times than I want to admit. However, this one ended up being a happy accident.
I opened said meal kit box that shall not be named, making a stink face as I looked through the recipes. Sloppy Joes? Ugh, okay then. I started reading and the recipe wasn’t half bad, and I could easily doctor it up with other things I had on hand.
While prepping and cursing them out as I had to open 700 packets of BBQ sauce for the pork, I thought, hmm, lime pickled onions sound great, but the recipe used plain sugar which I just happened to be completely out of. The sloppy joes were okay, but I had a lot more fun with the leftovers.
How It’s Going
I experimented a little and I was really happy with the combination of salt, fresh lime juice, and fermented honey. I ate pickled onions on leftovers all week long. The leftover BBQ pork went on English muffins and became sloppy joe breakfast sandwiches. I had them with tacos, on chorizo hash, and basically anything I was eating.
Speaking of tacos, if you want an amazing and easy dish to try, head over to Heavenly Spiced and make her Chorizo Breakfast Tacos with Cilantro Lime Crema. They are a match made in, well, heaven. I wish I had a good pic of the tacos I made, but the chorizo hash plate was born from the leftovers.
Ingredients for Lime Pickled Onions
It’s only 4 ingredients. Sliced red onions, freshly squeezed lime juice, salt, and sugar or honey. I recommend raw honey at the least for the health benefits but any honey will taste good. Fear not if you have neither, of course you can use plain sugar. You only need a pinch anyway. Use what you have on hand. If you want to make your own fermented honey with garlic for next time, head on over to this post. Because it has garlic in it, it adds an additional flavor, but I like pickled onions with plain raw honey too.
Raw onions are excellent to have in your diet, and pickling them takes a bit of the stink out. I’m a big pusher of medicinal foods for overall health and especially for the immune system. Healthy food doesn’t always relate to weight loss. This isn’t that kind of site.
One more thing, go with freshly squeezed lime juice if you can. I can’t live without my lemon/lime squeezee, also just known as a hand juicer by normal people. It gets more lime juice out and there is nothing worse than lighting that tiny cut on fire when you squeeze with your bare hand instead. My squeezer gets almost daily use. Then you can also make margaritas alongside the delicious meal you’re making with the onions.
Storage
These are quick pickled onions. The salt, acidic lime juice, and raw honey if you use it, will help preserve the onions. Did you know that raw honey and particularly fermented honey can last almost indefinitely? If you feel like geeking out and reading some scientific articles on it, it’s truly an alien substance. I’ll have to dig them up.
They still have to be kept in the fridge. Chances are you’ll eat them before you have to wonder how long they will last.
What to Eat With Lime Pickled Onions?
I love anything with carnitas and pickled onions. I regularly eat them with my egg toast. As I already mentioned, I ate these with some leftover concoctions I made like chorizo hash and BBQ pork sloppy joe breakfast sandwiches. I’ve also had them on Italian subs, and bagels with lox and cream cheese. I’m heating up pierogi, sausage, and red cabbage leftovers as I type this. Eat them on tacos, sandwiches, plates of nachos, burgers, burritos, rice bowls, and more.
I’m dreaming of a chipotle spiced seared salmon with lime pickled onions. Or maybe a burger with avocado and spicy sauce. This, my friends, is why I’m always hungry even when I just ate. Off to make a new recipe!
If you love pickled onions, leave a comment with your favorite ways to eat them.
Easy Lime Pickled Onions
Equipment
- 1 Knife
- 1 Small bowl or glass jar
- 1 Lemon/lime squeezer optional
Ingredients
- 1 lime
- 1 red onion
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp honey or sugar
Instructions
- Peel the onion, cut it in half, and slice into very thin half rounds.
- Cut the lime in half. In a small bowl squeeze out the juice using your hands or a squeezer. Add the salt and the honey, or sugar. Stir to combine.
- Add your onion slices and stir up well. Taste for salt and add a pinch more if needed.
- Let the flavors meld while you cook the rest of your meal, or store them in the fridge for later use.
Notes
Love pickled vegetables!! Adds such great flavor to different dishes!
Love this recipe. The balance of sweet and tangy is spot on.
So, one of the street taco places in St. Louis uses the lime pickled onions idea with their breaded portobello street taco and some creamy spicy salsa. I don’t think people know how delicious this stuff is. I’m definitely going to try this next time I do street tacos for my kid.
These pickled red onions are amazing! I appreciate you including my chorizo breakfast tacos recipe in your post!
I’m deeply intrigued! I think my son would even like this and I know my husband would! Printing recipe and putting it at the top of the recipe pile!
This is an interesting recipe. I have heard of pickled vegetables using vinegar but not lime juice. Will definitely be trying your recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Excited to try this. One question: how many limes do you use per one red onion? It doesn’t say in the recipe card.
One lime for the recipe is plenty, and thank you for catching that! I can’t believe how bad I am at proofreading that I didn’t even put the lime in the recipe card.