Caramelized Onions + Bonus Onion Soup Recipe

With fall and falling leaves firmly in the air, I apparently have turned to comfort food.  For most people, this might mean carb-0-licious carbs, and don’t get me wrong, I love a good carb or two.  For me though, comfort food means onions and garlic.

Earlier this week, I posted all about my family’s recipe for Garlic Coleslaw.  Now that we’ve kept the vampires at bay, it’s time to make sure we have another tool in our arsenal.

Caramelized onions are a staple for me.   This week I got an entire box of yellow, sweet, white and red onions from our co-op.  Not to mention garlic & shallots.  I felt like I’d struck onion gold.

Caramelized onions are also as versatile as it gets.  Just check out these babies from some fellow bloggers:

• Caramelized Onion Dip by Kailley’s Kitchen – because, dip!
• Caramelized Onion & Gruyere Tart by Lovely Bits – since tarts should be their own food group
• Goat Cheese & Caramelized Onion Pizza by Minimalist Baker – after all Goat Cheese makes love to anything it’s paired with

Success! 12 onions sliced up and ready to caramelize

The main ingredient in onions that are a jammy, golden pot of pure flavor is time.  Well, I guess the main ingredient is actually onions, but time is a close second.  These guys can’t be rushed and there is no short cut.  It will take a solid hour and a half to make start to finish.  The good thing?  They don’t need you to hover over them second by second.  The second good thing?  You can make them in the biggest pot you have and refrigerate or freeze them for later.  This means you are more than half way to whatever meal you fancy when your onion fancy hits.

Don’t forget to add salt! You can see the onions starting to reduce down here…

A Giant Pot of Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

• 10-12 large Sweet Onions or Yellow Onions or Any Mix – halved, peeled and sliced
• 1 stick butter, Earth Balance, or Ghee – this is one recipe that I won’t advocate olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Flour
• Time (not thyme)

Once they have cooked down a little more.

Method:

Start slicing your onions – the thinner and more uniform your slices, the better.  10-12 onions will seem like a lot, but they cook down in a major way.  Also, depending on how strong they are you may want to invest in some ski goggles to wear while you slice.  Otherwise the world can turn into a vail of (onion induced) tears.  No joke.

Melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Once it is melted, add the onions, and stir to coat.  Sprinkle in the salt and stir the onions from the top of the pile to the bottom of the pile every few minutes.

After a bit, the onions will start to reduce down and get soft.  At this point add the flour and sugar.  They will help things thicken along and also help the natural sugars in the onions develop.

Reduce the heat to low and let the onions continue to cook down over the course of the next 45 minutes.  Check and stir every 5-10 minutes making sure the onions aren’t sticking.  If the pot and the onions are getting a little dry add some water 1/4 cup at a time until they come unglued from the bottom of the pan.

By now, your onions will be in what I think of as the wormy phase – limp, tan, and gloopy.  Not what we are going for.  Let your onions continue to cook and you will know when they are done in a moment.  They rise above the wormy phase into a golden, sweet concoction that is jam-like in texture.  The flavor is oniony with the natural sugars in the onions playing a symphony on your tongue.  Again, no joke.

Let them cool for a bit in the pan you cooked them in, then portion them off into 2 cup portions either into the fridge or into the freezer (or directly into your mouth).  Then impress everyone with your tart, dip, or pizza.  OR make a classic: Onion Soup!

My homemade frozen veggie broth

Onion Soup for a Cold Day

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons Butter, ghee or Olive Oil
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 4 cups Caramelized Onions – frozen or otherwise
•  4 cups Broth – homemade is always better if you have it
• 1 cup Water
• Sliced Day Old Bread or Toasted Bread
• Sharp/Hard Cheese, grated

Caramelized onions + frozen both = minutes away from soup

Method:

I won’t label this French Onion Soup – it is more just a warm soup for a cold day when you need a bowl of comfort to feel like all is right in the world.  It wades from a pool of French-ish origin, but is faster and less pretentious.

The hard part is already done – you’ve cooked your onions down to a glistening golden concentrate of flavor.

Start by heating the olive oil or butter over medium heat until warm.  Add the garlic and let it stew for a moment in a puddle of oil.  Add the onions-fresh or frozen to the pot and let them get merry with the garlic.

Add the broth.  I make fresh broth on a regular basis at home and freeze the results.  So, my broth gets tossed in the pot frozen – I don’t bother dirtying up another pot to defrost it.  You can use chicken, beef, mushroom or veggie broth – I’ve used them all and each adds a different nuance.  It must be stated that beef broth is the tradition, however.

The finished soup, rich, buttery, piping hot with a hint of sweet. Sooooo good.

Bring the broth/garlic/onions to a simmer and turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes.  Viola! Onion Soup.

Crusty bread just waiting to take a dip in Onion Soup

Serve with stale or toasted bread and a grated hard cheese on top to soak up the flavor.  Gruyere again is traditional, but I like a sharp cheddar or a even some grated gouda.

Finished Onion Soup – ready for soaking up bread and melting cheese

-Lydia, French-ish moments are my friends