Onion Salad in Vinegar (Pickled Onions) - Indian Home Style
Pyaz Sirke Waali or Pyaz Lachcha
Mamta Gupta
This is one of the simplest side salads to accompany an Indian meal. It is made fresh almost everyday, in every Indian home. It can be used as a garnish on many Indian curries, specially spicy Chat foods. All amounts are approximate. I love it in sandwiches too. If you find vinegar too strong, dilute it with boiled water. Serves 4
Edited August 2019
Ingredients
1 large onion. Red onions are best
2-3 tbsp. any good quality vinegar (Sirka), I often use malt vinegar. You can also use fresh lime/lemon juice instead
1 tsp. salt, adjust to taste.
2 tsp. olive oil (optional). It helps the vinegar to coat the onions better and enhances the taste.
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 chopped green chilli (optional)
1 tbsp. chopped coriander leaves (optional)
Instructions
Peel and slice onion into medium thin slices. In India, especially in villages, people will sometimes break/squash the onion open, instead of slicing it. What you do is that you wrap the onion in a kitchen towel and either bang hard with your fist or a rolling pin. This results in roughly broken up and slightly crushed pieces of onion, which taste a lot better than onions sliced with a knife. You need smaller onions for this. Separate the layers.
Place onion is a bowl and top with all ingredients. Mix well.
Serve on the same day. You can eat it for a few days, if you keep it in a jar in the fridge, but fresh is best.
An easy way of making this salad us to put all ingredients in a jar, shake gently and chil in the fridge.
Also see Salad selection.
