Whole pickled shallots are easy to make. Tangy, sweet and infused with aromatic spices, pickled shallots are incredibly delicious. Eat them whole or slice them up at the time of serving. This pickled shallots recipe is vegan and gluten-free.
Pickling is an all-natural method to preserve foods while enhancing the flavours. You can use this recipe to pickle either whole or sliced shallots, or even cut-up onions.
Pickled Shallots Ingredients
Here is everything you need to make this pickled shallots recipe. When it comes to pickling spices, you can be quite flexible with what you have on-hand instead of being limited to what I used.
- Shallots: I use whole regular shallots for this recipe. If you use banana shallots (echalions), I recommend cutting them in half. You can also pickle thinly sliced shallots in days instead of weeks.
- Red Wine Vinegar: It gives the pickling liquid a beautiful red colour. You can also use white wine vinegar for a clearer brine.
- Sugar
- Salt
- Water
- Back Peppercorns
- Mustard Seeds
- Bay Leaves
- Coriander Seeds
- Cloves
- Red Chili Flakes
How to Make Pickled Shallots
The following images illustrate steps to make pickled shallots.
- Peel shallots and separate the cloves if the bulbs contain more than 1 clove.
- Toast all pickling spices except for red chili flakes until fragrant.
- Add red chili flakes and toast a little more.
- Add vinegar, sugar, salt and water. Simmer the pickling spices to release their flavours.
- Fill a glass jar with shallots and pickling brine.
- Place a weight over the shallots and let it pickle in room temperature.
Keep Shallots Submerged Under the Brine
Your shallots will naturally float above the pickling liquid. It’s important to keep the shallots submerged under the brine by placing a weight on top. This will ensure the shallots not growing moldy in the acidic environment while absorbing all the flavours from the pickling liquid.
You have a few options for weights. 2 and 3 suit any kind of pickling containers.
- If you are pickling in wide mouth mason jars, you can purchase a glass weight specially designed to fit.
- You can make extra brine to fill a ziplock bag, then place the bag on top of the shallots. Using this method, you will not dilute the brine in case of leakage.
- Fill a plastic bag with marbles, then place the bag of marbles on the shallots. This is the method I use.
Pickling Sliced Shollots vs. Whole Shallots
You can use this recipe to pickle either whole shallots or thinly sliced shallots. If you slice the shallots, it will make a quick pickle in a week of time. But some of the pickling spices will also get entangled in the shallots.
I prefer pickling whole shallots. Although it takes 4 weeks, you will end up with whole shallots so versatile when it comes to the time to use them.
Serving Suggestions
Whole pickled shallots are versatile, because you can either eat them whole or slice them up at the time of using them.
Serve them whole, they are delicious as a side to oily or meat entrees. Besides, whole pickled shallots are refreshing as an appetizer with meat and cheese on your charcuterie board.
When sliced up, they are amazing to mix in salads. You can also use them as a condiment in burgers, tacos, wraps and sandwiches.
Related: More Delicious Pickled Recipes You Will Love
- Pickled Grapes (Quick & Easy, Vegan)
- Ginger Orange Pickled Daikon + Immune Shot (Paleo, Whole30, Vegan)
- Fermented Pickles /w Green Tea and Dill Flowers
Pickled Shallots
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb shallots (see notes)
- 1 1/2 tsp black peppercorn
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 1/2 tsp corriander seeds
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 cloves
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- 1 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp salt
- 5 tbsp unrefined cane sugar
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Peel the shallots and trim the tough ends. Separate the cloves if the bulbs contain more than 1 clove.
- Heat a sauce pan on the stove over medium-low heat. Toast black peppercorn, mustard seeds, corriander seeds, bay leaves, and cloves in the sauce pan for about 3 minutes until fragrant.
- Add chili flakes to the spice mix in the sauce pan and toast for about 10 seconds. Take care not to burn the chili flakes.
- Add red wine vinegar, water, salt and sugar into the sauce pan. Bring the liquid to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Simmer the liquid for 2 minutes to allow the flavour of the spices to infuse into the brine.
- Slightly cool the brine for 5 minutes.
- Place the peeled shallots in a glass jar. Pour the hot brine directly onto the shallots. Let the pickling liquid cool down completely.
- Place a weight (see notes) on the shallots to keep them submerged under the liquid. Close the jar with a lid. Leave the jar in room temperature during the pickling process. The shallots are ready in 4 weeks.
Notes
- Type of Shallots: I use whole regular shallots for this recipe. Regular shallots are the size of golf balls. They have a round shape with pointy ends. Regular shallots often come with 1 to 2 cloves within each bulb. Separating the cloves allow them to absorb flavour more easily. The long kind of shallots are banana shallots (echalions). Echalions are larger in size but contains only 1 single clove within each bulb. If you use echalions, I recommend cutting them in half.
- Weights: You have a few options for weights. 2 and 3 suit any kind of pickling containers.
- If you are pickling in wide mouth mason jars, you can purchase a glass weight specially designed to fit.
- You can make extra brine to fill a ziplock bag, then place the bag on top of the shallots. Using this method, you will not dilute the brine in case of leakage.
- Fill a plastic bag with marbles, then place the bag of marbles on the shallots. This is the method I use.
- Quick Pickle: You can use this recipe to pickle thinly sliced shallots. It will make a quick pickle in a week of time.
Nutrition
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