Onions are an extremely versatile vegetable and they can be cooked in almost any way with any meat, fish, poultry or other vegetables or served as a side dish on their own. The unique flavour adds depth to most dishes similar to the addition of herbs and seasonings. In our house almost all our main dishes incorporate onions somewhere.
Preparing your onions for cooking
Most people have an answer to the biggest onion problem of them all – how do you peel onions without them making you cry? Onions are made up of a number of layers which form rings, the outer 1 or 2 layers usually dry to a papery thin skin, removing this or the trimmed roots alone will rarely cause tears. The problems normally start when slicing or chopping so keep a box of tissues handy especially if preparing a large number. The only way I have found to help me, and that is by no means fully proven, is to trim the root and leave it on, then cut towards the root, discard when the chopping is over. Fresher onions are much more likely to make me cry than older ones. If you have a good answer, then feel free to share them with us. Ultimately when cooking with onions you usually have to remove the outer skins and trimmed roots before you slice, chop or leave them whole for your recipe.
Cooking onions
Onions are more often than not used as an added ingredient to provide flavour to a recipe. Below I will cover off how to prepare them as a vegetable in their own right.
Steaming and boiling – Unless using in a soup, stew or recipe that incorporates the cooking liquor, I wouldn’t bother boiling or steaming onions as a vegetable dish. The only times I can think I have experienced them like this has been at fast food burger vans were the onions are boiled and kept warm in their cooking liquor whilst waiting to be heaped onto whatever fried delight they are being served with. They have always been sloppy and tasteless.
Bake – Onions baked or roasted are a treasure. The outer skins tend to go crispy, hard and unpalatable if you are not careful but the centre layers cook to a soft delicious pulp. Prepare the onions by removing the outer thin layers and trimming the root right back. Slice from the top towards the root about half way into the onion in a cross drizzle in oil and bake ina hot oven for 30 – 45 mins depending upon how big the onions are. Small onions are great baked whole with other vegetables.
Grill – you can grill onions successfully. It is best to use baby onions or quarters pushed onto skewers. Brush with oil and turn regularly, they should be done in approx 8 – 10 mins. They tend to caramelise on the outside and cut edges which is delicious.
Fry – I love fried onions. They are best sliced and slowly cooked in a mixture of butter and oil for 10 mins. If the heat is too high they will start to colour, turn the heat down low and they take on a unique flavour all their own, yummy! Salad onions are often used in oriental foods and stir fried. Please note that the white bulb end will take slightly longer to cook than the green leaves.
This is the biggest pan of fried onions I've come across so far! As you can see they are slowly cooking and being turned across the pan from raw to cooked. These have a sauce added to them to give a unique flavour and darker colour.
Raw – As I’ve mentioned before, onions are used in many recipes raw. Spring and red onions are the most popular as their flavour is milder. When preparing spring onions remove the roots and outer papery skins, trim the tops of the green leaves and leave the majority on as they are great to eat as well as the white base section. Serve whole or sliced with a green salad.
Happy eating!
If you fancy being a bit more adventurous with your onions why not try one of our onion recipes.
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Eat and enjoy!