Indian Style Pickled Onion (Sirke wale pyaaz)

What are Fermented Foods?

Fermented food are a staple in many cultures. Fermented food helps with gut health and there by helping our body to assimilate nutrients from the food better. Keeping the flora in your gut healthy helps with controlling and eliminating many health issues, especially auto-immune diseases. Including fermented food in your diet every day will keep the good bacteria in your gut happy. I used to make a lot of fermented food like Kombucha, milk kefir, water kefir, kimchi and pickles but had to take a break from it for a while, as they need a lot of dedication and TLC. But fermented food like pickles are very easy to make and still give you the benefits of the fermented foods. I am excited to share this recipe of pickled onions!

About Pickled Onions

Indian cuisine has many delicious pickle recipes and these pickled onions are amongst the simplest and yummiest to make. Many recipes use beets for natural colors but I am not a big fan of beets so I wanted to try something different for the color that had mild flavors. I decided to use Hibiscus flowers, and it turned out great !

These pickled onions are not only good for the gut health, but also liver health because of the benefits of the hibiscus tea. You can make these ideally with pearl onions but larger onions can be used as well . if using large regular onions just cut them round into discs and follow the same recipe. I replaced the traditional white vinegar with apple cider vinegar to add some probiotics from that as well. Use the apple cider vinegar which comes with the ‘mother’ in it. I added ginger and green chilies for an extra punch and the benefits of ginger, and the pickled ginger is so good too. You can use the beetroot in the recipe if you prefer instead of the hibiscus flowers. Cut a quarter of a beet into strips and follow the same instructions and use them instead of the hibiscus flowers. The liquid from the pickle is delicious and has tons of probiotics, it tastes great as salad dressing on your cucumbers or salad with a drizzle of olive oil. the liquid can also be reused to make a second batch of the pickles.

Hope you try this recipe and enjoy the taste and the benefits of fermented food. 

Stir the pickle every 24hrs till you place it in the fridge after 48hrs using a clean dry spoon.

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Indian Style Pickled Onions / Sirke Waale Pyaaz

4.41 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

2 days d

Servings 0

Ingredients

  

• 20-25 Pearl onions
• 1 inch ginger julienned
• 4 green chilis optional
• 1 tsp black pepper corn
• 2 small bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 tbsp rock salt or pink Himalayan salt
• 1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Dried Hibiscus flowers
• 1 tsp coconut sugar skip for whole 30

Instructions

 

• Peel the onions and put a deep cross with a knife on the root section of the onion. If the onions are a little larger in size cut them into two pieces. If using large onions cut them into round slices
• Place the onions in a clean sterilized dry glass bottle
• Add the ginger, green chillies, bay leaves, pepper corn and cloves.
• Pour in one cup of apple cider vinegar.
• Add the salt.
• In a pan add a cup of water and once the water boils add the hibiscus flowers.
• Let the water boil for a few minutes and switch off, add the sugar if using it (skip for whole30)
• Let the hibiscus tea cool completely. Add the tea into the bottle with the onions.
• Cover it with a cloth and secure it with an elastic band.
• Let it ferment at the room temperature for 48 hrs.
• The onions should be ready to eat in 24 to 48 hrs but will develop more flavor over longer period.
• Store in fridge after 48 hrs, and secure with a proper lid.
• The pickled onions can be eaten as is with any meals, burger, meat or even in salads. Any leftover liquid that the onions are soaked in can be used as a salad dressing

Notes

Make sure to use clean knife and clean chopping board for chopping the vegetables for any fermented food.

 

Use a dry and sterilized glass bottle.

 

Store in the fridge after 48hrs.

 

Always use a clean dry spoon to take out the pickle. Any kind of moisture on the utensils or the bottle will cause molding of the pickle.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!