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Almost too pretty to eat, my easy recipe for quick pickled eggs is simple to make for a healthy snack, appetizer, or salad topping. Deliciously tangy on their own, they make for an excellent addition to a Lebanese mezze platter and serve as a beautiful base for pink deviled eggs.
You might be wondering, as I certainly have in the past … what are pickled eggs?
They’re a traditional preserved food made by soaking peeled, hard-boiled eggs in a seasoned pickling liquid, similar to the process I use for my pickled onions. After a few hours (or longer), the eggs absorb the brine, taking on a tangy, flavorful bite.
The result is a unique (and protein-packed) snack that’s both a little unexpected and surprisingly delicious. If you’re looking for new egg recipes, this might just become your new favorite. I love enjoying them any time of day, even during cocktail hour alongside an amaro cocktail or sparkling pomegranate cocktail.
Ingredients You’ll Need
The best recipe for pickled eggs, this method requires just a few ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen and can easily find in most grocery stores:
- Eggs – Use medium eggs or large eggs that are about 2-3 weeks old. Although you can use fresh eggs, older eggs are a bit easier to peel after boiling.
- Baking Soda – Adding baking soda to the hot water can make it easier to peel the hard-cooked eggs. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to taste the baking soda!
- White Vinegar – Distilled white vinegar won’t add much flavor to the pickled eggs, making it the perfect base for the pickling brine. Although you can make pickled eggs with apple cider vinegar, it will add a slightly fruity flavor and will slightly darken the color.
- Whole Cloves – These add the best flavor to the eggs, infusing them with warmth and a touch of spice. Don’t substitute this with ground cloves, as it will overpower the flavor and cause the pickled eggs to darken in color.
- Water – To dilute the vinegar in the pickling brine and get it to the perfect acidity.
- Beets – Although optional, adding beets to your brine will give the eggs a pretty hue. Diced red beets will naturally release their beet juice to turn your eggs pink, and diced yellow beets will turn the eggs yellow. The color of yellow beet isn’t as saturated as the red beets, so if you’re looking for a bright sunny yellow color, I suggest adding a pinch of turmeric.
How to Make Pickled Eggs
Making pickled eggs is so much easier and quicker than it sounds. Here’s an overview of the process:
Step 1: Hard-boil the eggs by adding them to boiling water, then turning down the heat just a touch. Cook them for 12 minutes.
Step 2: Run cold water over the eggs until they are cool enough to handle. Either shake the pan now to crack the eggshells, or take each egg out individually and crack both ends, then gently roll the egg on the counter under the palm of your hand. Peel the eggs under cool running water, starting at the large end of the egg to get under the membrane.
Step 3: Place the cooked and peeled eggs in a bowl or large jar with the beets. Combine the vinegar, cloves, and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour the hot pickling solution over the eggs and beets. Let the eggs sit at room temperature in the brine solution for about 2 hours for a light pink color that only penetrates the edges of the eggs.
My Favorite Ways to Serve
Beet pickled eggs are great on their own as a snack with a little bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper, or some za’atar! You can use them as a topping for a fresh salad, turn them into egg salad for a sandwich filling, or serve them over avocado toast.
My favorite way to serve homemade pickled eggs is to make them into absolutely lovely (and delectable) deviled eggs. These are a great addition to a brunch buffet, or as part of a mezze platter, or simply served with cocktails or other appetizers. The egg yolk filling of deviled eggs has a subtle sweetness that pairs perfectly with the tangy egg whites.
Pickled Eggs
Ingredients
- 8 large eggs, 2-3 weeks old
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 2 whole cloves
- ½ cup water
- ½ beet, trimmed and diced into 1-inch pieces
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, cover the eggs with cool water by 1 inch and add the baking soda. Bring to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and let the eggs sit, off the heat, for 16 minutes.
- Run cool water over the eggs until they cool substantially. Either shake the pan now to crack the egg shells, or take each egg out individually and crack both ends, then gently roll the egg on the counter under the palm of your hand. Peel the eggs under cool running water, starting at the large end of the egg to get under the membrane.
- To lightly pickle the eggs, place the eggs in a bowl or jar with the beets. Combine the vinegar, cloves, and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour the vinegar mixture over the eggs and beets, and let the eggs sit for about 2 hours for a light pink color that only penetrates the edges of the eggs.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FAQs
Pickled eggs have a light, tangy flavor that makes them incredibly versatile. The longer you leave them in the pickling brine, the more sour they will be.
Yes. This pickled eggs recipe is not canned, so the eggs must be kept in the refrigerator to keep them fresh.
Keep the eggs in the brine if you like, or dry without the brine, in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
It’s possible to pickle eggs by placing them in pickle juice, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, pickle juice draws water out of food, so when you reuse it, it’s a little diluted compared to when it was freshly made. You may also want to toss the pickle juice after pickling the eggs instead of reusing it again, to ensure food safety.
By boiling the vinegar along with the other ingredients in the pickling mixture, you can extract the flavor from your pickling spices. If your pickling juice includes salt or sugar, boiling the vinegar can also help to dissolve them.
More Easy Pickle Recipes
- Asparagus Pickles make a very elegant pickle, and the spears stay crisp with grape leaves in the glass jar.
- My recipe for Bread and Butter Sweet Pickle Chips is a simple approach, with no canning method involved, for refrigerator pickles that taste excellent.
- One of the most beloved pickles in the Lebanese pickle and preserves tradition is pink Lebanese Turnip Pickles, and like the beet pickled eggs here, these use beet in the mix for natural color.
- Quick Pickles are crunchy, flavorful, and ready to eat in under an hour, making them a staple in my meal prep routine.
IMHO(lol), you need to go a LOT heavier on the beets!!0
More beets = even better! Thank you!