Pickled quail eggs {horseradish mayo + furikake} (2024)

These cute pickled quail eggs are as delicious as they are stunning to look at – served with horseradish mayo, and furikake, they make a spectacular appetizer.

These pickled quail eggs, served with horseradish mayo, and furikake, look so stunning, yet are quite easy to make, and super delicious. I must have eaten more than a dozen of these cute little lollipops, while I was making them – so tiny, shiny, and beautifully pink!

The eggs are first boiled for 3-4 minutes, then peeled and submerged in a pickling marinade. That unreal color comes from a small beet I added to the marinade. You can leave them overnight in the liquid, for a deeper fuchsia color, or if you don’t have time, only 10-15 minutes will produce a nice shade of pink. The pickling liquid also impairs a slight taste to the eggs, which is a bonus of course, but really it’s therefor the color mostly. The rest of the flavor in this appetizer comes from two strong ingredients – horseradish, and furikake.

Furikake is a Japanese seasoning that has dried bonito fish, sesame seeds, seaweed, and soy sauce as its main ingredients. It’s a nice topping on cooked rice,veggies, eggs, and seafood. It’s salty, and crunchy with a bit of sweetness, and a slight fishy taste – perfect for a tuna roll-up, or homemade sushi (disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post, I just love its taste :)). There are a few varieties of furikake seasoning – I used this Katsuo Fumi Furikakewhich I bought at my local grocery store much cheaper.

The quail eggs, being so tiny, can be a pest to peel, but once that’s done, the rest comes together quickly. I made two dipping sauces, and two toppings – one Asian-inspired, with horseradishmayo and soy sauce, and furikake seasoning to dip, andthe other Mediterranean – with garlic mayo and dukkah. Check out my recipe for homemade dukkah, or use store-bought.

I loved both flavors equally but I think the Asian one goes better with the whole Japanese, miniature-food presentation theme. If you don’t feel like pickling, just boil them and serve with the different dips and sauces– the taste will not be much different.

Although the eggs did not acquire much of the pickling taste, the beet did – in fact it tasted amazing,andI am definitely pickling some beets, with this same marinade in the future.

If you have left over pickled eggs, keep them in a jar with the pickling marinade, andthrow into salads, or lunch bowls.