take your power bowls and salads to the next level

Cebollas Rojas Encurtidas.

One of my fondest memories growing up in Honduras was spending time cooking with my aunt. She cooked outside on a mud stove that she herself remuded and took care of every day. She always had a pot of beans on the stove and mounds of tortillas handmade everyday. All of her delicious food was garnished with one kind or another with encurtido. On my travels to the Caribbean I rediscovered this childhood favorite and vowed to figure out how to make it at home! I asked my mom to give me her recipe because in Texas we kept a Texas-sized jar of vegetable encurtido on the kitchen counter too! Sabroso! As I’ve played around with my mom’s recipe my favorite encurtido to make is an easy pickled red onion recipe.

The total time for this recipe from prep to table is 20 minutes to 1 hour depending how long you want to let it marinade before you use it.
I make small batches so I use either a half of a large red onion or a small red onion and that makes about 8 servings. Each serving is about 1/2 a table spoon.

Ingredients

1 medium sized glass jar or food storage container
1 small red onion (or a half of a large red onion)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground black pepper + 6 or so whole kernels of peppers
1 bay leaf

Instructions

1. Begin by gathering all the ingredients to your work space
2. Thinly slice the red onion and put them aside
3. take the glass jar and and mix together the remaining ingredients
4. add the onions and stir well. If you are using a jar you can give it a little shake
5. Listo! let it sit for at least 10 minutes before you use it.
6. Now garnish any meal especially a breakfast with a sunny side up egg!

Notas

*Making this recipe should feel very comfortable and organic for you. Do not hesitate to add more of any of the ingredients to make it to your taste.
*Sometimes my slicing is not equal and uniform and that’s ok! The sharper your knife the better your slicing technique will be.
*When I don’t have oregano I substitute Herbs de Provence instead-you will love this herb blend!
*if you would like to submerge your onions completely you can add a bit more of vinegar or even olive oil.

Enjoy,

PIC Credit: Cameron Braun

Post also appeared in Eclecticshadesmagazine March/April 2019 Issue