Should I Always Use Lime Juice To Make Pickled Red Onions?

Our answer

Nigella's Watermelon, Feta And Black Olive Salad (from NIGELLA SUMMER) is a refreshing summer salad. The thinly sliced red onions are steeped, or pickled, in lime juice. The lime juice mellows the bite of the raw onions and turns them an attractive glowing pink. The lime juice is then used to dress the salad.

Nigella often uses lime juice to pickle onions, but most citrus juices and vinegars can also be used to soften red onions and bring out their colour. For the Feta And Avocado Salad With Red Onions, Pomegranate And Nigella Seeds red wine vinegar is used as it amplifies the colour of the red onions, turning them a deeper red, to go alongside the ruby pomegranate seeds. However, if you don't have red wine vinegar, then you can certainly use lime juice instead for this salad, particularly as the pickling liquid is not used in the dressing. The red onions will simply be a pinkish shade, rather than puce.