Finally! IT'S SPRING! Many of us can feel the warmer air currents, see the improvement in our produce selections and watch the fat buds on the trees turn into pretty green leaves. Many of us celebrate this season in our own way by bringing out the season's best recipes and serving up tasty meals to our families.
However, a lot of us are super busy working. Who the heck has time anymore to menu plan, shop, prep, dust, polish and do the whole get-up for a big dinner? You know me, I am a BIG proponent of prepping. I am also a champion of easy yet flavorful. Did I mention already how I despise using more than one pan?? Ugh. All that clean up afterwards!
Some of us have our favorite meals too. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, snacks...you name it, we've got a favorite. Too often we get stuck in a rut and serve up the same thing over and over. We like the food, but it's just so....routine. How do you break that cycle? What can you do to change up a favorite oh so slightly that it makes you sit up and take notice? The answer...pickled onions!
What?! Yup. Pickled Onions! Hey you can pickle just about everything. But pickled onions are such a nice zing to add to any dish. I am partial to pickled red onions because they add a pretty color to the dish. And OH BOY are they easy to make! Got a tea pot? Got a ball jar with a good lid that seals well? Got a mandolin? No, silly, not the instrument you play. A mandolin is a great way to make super thin cuts on things like potatoes (hello! potato chips!) and in this case on onions! They work really fast but they can cut you too, so be super careful. You can find an inexpensive one anywhere, or you can cut super thin slices with a knife. Honestly, don't spend a lot of money on this folks. I rarely use mine. OXO makes a nice one and you can find it on Amazon for about $16.
Quick Pickled Red Onions is an easy recipe. This one here is from Bon Appetit. Oddly they left the 1 cup of water out of the ingredient list, but perhaps they want to make sure you actually read the recipe all the way through before you make it.
I have mine stored in the fridge in the brine. There is NO WAY I'm going to use all of that in one sitting! I simply take out the amount I want and let the slices drain on a paper towel before I use them. Easy! Oh, and to get the nice thin slices you'll have to peel the onion (duh), slice off both ends and start slicing from one end (the root) to the other. TIP! Have a wet paper towel sitting next to your work surface. Your eyes won't water as much!
This week I topped my over-easy eggs with the pretty onions and it really elevated my quick dinner to one that had a bit of zing to it! Enjoy and Happy Spring!