Sweet and sour onions are good and tasty! Here is the recipe that will win you over

Sweet and sour onions are a quick and easy appetizer or side dish: here is the irresistible recipe and all the ways to prepare it!

Sweet and sour onions are quick and easy to prepare and are delicious on any occasion . You can make them with white onions or those of Tropea: the recipe, the ingredients and the procedure are the same but the final flavor will be different. Of course, red onions are sweeter, and perhaps our favorites too. The original recipe for sweet and sour onions involves cooking in a pan, with sugar and vinegar, but we will also offer you some variations and a useful conservation advice that will surely come in handy!

Serve them as an appetizer or side dish and you will be able to convince everyone. Let’s see the recipe immediately!

How to make sweet and sour red onions

As you can see we have prepared the sweet and sour Tropea onions, but also the white ones as we have explained to you will be fine! You can really choose the variety and cooking method you prefer and then choose the final flavor you like best.

1. Wash the onions and remove the peel .
2. Position yourself on a cutting board and, with a large knife, slice them (you can decide to make rings or simply cut them into pieces or strips).
3. Heat a little oil in a pan, then add the onions and cloves.
4. After a few minutes, add the sugar, balsamic vinegar, water and season with salt and pepper.
5. Mix well and let the sweet and sour onions simmer with the lid on , until soft. Another 10/15 minutes should be enough.
6. Eliminate the cloves and serve on the table!

Other recipes for sweet and sour onions: the baked variant and the sweet and sour

You are not obliged to make this recipe in a pan, although, in this case, you can check the degree of sweetness of your onions at any time. In fact, you can also cook sweet and sour onions in the oven.

1. After cutting and seasoning the vegetables with oil, prepare a baking dish covered with a sheet of parchment paper.
2. Put in the oven at 180 ° C and cook for about 20-25 minutes , then mix everything well and continue cooking for more or less the same time.
3. At this point add the sugar and vinegar, mix again and close the sheet of parchment paper in foil ways.
4. Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes to stew the onions well and complete the recipe.

The passage with vinegar and sugar for sweet and sour onions is essential in both cooking methods, in fact the sweet and sour is only prepared with these two ingredients. The doses of vinegar and sugar are also important, and vary depending on whether it is made in the more traditional way or with balsamic vinegar. There is no precise rule to prepare the perfect sweet and sour, even in this case it depends on the tastes: increasing the concentration of sugar it will be sweeter, on the contrary if you want the sour note to stand out, increase the dose of vinegar. This does not apply to balsamic vinegar, to prepare sweet and sour onions with balsamic vinegar and brown (or white) sugar you must absolutely decrease the amount of vinegar unless you prefer the sweet note.

Finally, a variant to try is to replace the sugar with honey (the acacia one is more neutral but chestnut honey with red onions would also be fine).

storage

You can keep the sweet and sour onions in the fridge for a few days in a tall and narrow jar, closed, covered with their cooking juices and, if necessary, an addition of oil to prevent them from coming into contact with the air.

If you want to make preserves , you can pot and store the onions in sterilized jars and cover them with a brine made up of 5 parts of vinegar, 1 part of water, 1 part of EVO oil and 1 part of sugar.

1. Boil the liquid and add it on the onions, in the jars: it is important that we are all covered but also that they remain a couple of centimeters from the edge .
2. Close the jars and boil them to sterilize everything.

Here are the sweet and sour onions in oil, which can be kept for six months in a cool and dry place (such as the pantry).