Pickled Chipotle Red Onions

These sweet-hot and crisp red onions are perfect as garnishes for salads, burgers, Mexican food and any other food or condiment you would like to kick up a few notches. Simple to make, too. The heat comes from chipotle chile powder which is readily available in your grocery store, or you can make your own with dried chipotle chilies. Just toast the whole dried chilies in a cast iron skillet until fragrant, cool and remove seeds and stems, then grind in a blender.

Because these red onions are not cooked, the onion flavor may be too strong for some tastes. To tame them, give them a five minute soak in ice water, drain and use as is, or continue with the pickling recipe Another method is to soak the onions in hot water first, then the ice water or another entirely different way would be to soak the onions in cold milk. The first time I made the chipotle pickled red onions, I didn't soak them and the second time, I soaked them in the ice water for five minutes. The time soaking in the ice water helped keep the onions crisp for a longer time.