Upgrade Pickled Red Onions With This Expert-Approved Addition

Pickled red onions are one of those easy-to-make condiments you can keep in the fridge to elevate any meal. Add the vinegary pink strands to toast or salad, and it suddenly looks restaurant-quality. Pickled onions are somewhat of a springboard recipe, so you can amplify the flavor with herbs, spices, and even flowers — yes, flowers.

Commonly used in Mexican cuisine, hibiscus — called "jamaica" in Spanish – is a flower that can add sweet, sour, and floral notes to the tangy onions. Angelo Sosa, executive chef of Kembara and Tía Carmen in Phoenix, Arizona, and Carmocha and Tía Carmen in Indian Wells, California, tells Chowhound the flowers add a beautiful, subtly sweet, floral flavor and a deep fuchsia color. And you can get the same results at home that Sosa gets at his restaurants. You can find these vibrant flowers dried and packaged in Mexican grocers and online. For example, Amazon sells both a smaller 4-ounce package of whole hibiscus flowers for experimenting and a bulk 2-pound hibiscus flower bag for restocking your supply.

Typically, you make pickled onions using the red variety, which provides a pink color when soaked in a brine. But with hibiscus flowers, if you only have white or sweet onion on hand, the flower provides the color instead. The addition of these flowers to pungent and vinegary pickled onions provides tartness and an almost dry, tannic flavor. The flowers don't make the onions sweet at all, so they don't change how you can use the onions. Pickled onions are the tangy topping your nachos deserve, plus you can use the bright-pink garnish on salads, soups, eggs, the distinctive Mexican torta sandwich, and your hearty breakfast chilaquiles.

For pickled onions, you need a simple brine of vinegar, salt, and a bit of sweetener, such as honey or sugar. The easiest way to infuse them with hibiscus flavor is to include a few hibiscus flowers in the jar and put it in the fridge for a few days. This option is low-effort and works in a pinch, but it's not the most effective way to draw out the color or flavor of the flower. 

For the most intensely-hued onions, first boil the hibiscus flowers in a small amount of water to make a very concentrated tea. Boiling draws out the garnet-red color, making the tea look more similar to wine. Strain the flowers out of the concentrate and pour the hot liquid into the brine. Note that the thinner you make the onions, the more color and flavor they will absorb. 

If you like the idea of adding more flavor to pickled onions, there are endless variations to complement both the onions and hibiscus flowers. Add whole chiles for a spicy kick or lemon peel for bright, citrusy flavor. Classic aromatics like garlic and ginger can also bring more complexity. When you're done experimenting with the hibiscus red onions, there are plenty of other edible flowers you have to try.