What Can I Do With 30 Onions?

March 7, 2019 6:01 PM

I bought too many onions. I can make tons of onion soup, but what other dishes are there that use a LOT of onions?
posted by DMelanogaster to Food & Drink (41 answers total)

I really like a souffle with cooked-way-down onion jam. I make it for someone who can't eat cheese and it is an entirely good enough souffle on its own.

Dense onion jam frozen by the half-pint is handy to have around. Makes anything a nice appetizer while you're improvising dinner.
posted by clew at 6:06 PM on March 7, 2019 [10 favorites]

Honestly just slice them and leave them in your slow cooker all day to caramelize (bit of salt, butter and sugar with them).
posted by raccoon409 at 6:17 PM on March 7, 2019 [19 favorites]

You can sauté apples and onions together as a side like here.

You can cook medallions of pork and top them with fried onions. Slice the onions very thin and toss in a brown paper bag with flour (and maybe some spices? I don’t have the recipe handy) then fry in neutral oil.
posted by shothotbot at 6:25 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Chop some of them and freeze them.

Make some stock or broth. Make all the soups!
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 6:29 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Mujaddara is a great way to use several onions: saute and caramelize them, add some water and simmer until some of them start to break down into a sauce, cook with lentils and rice and spices. It's a dish with a lot of regional variation, so recipes can be pretty flexible.
posted by silentbicycle at 6:33 PM on March 7, 2019 [11 favorites]

Caramelize all of them. They keep well, and you can add them to lots of dishes. You can freeze them if you think you'll want them later than the next couple weeks. A mandolin would be useful here.

They're great in dal, soups, stews, or even on sandwiches!
posted by ananci at 6:34 PM on March 7, 2019 [9 favorites]

Caramelize, dehydrate, use on bike/hike trips.
posted by aniola at 6:36 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yet another vote for caramelising them in the slow cooker (slice, toss with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt, slow cook overnight, enjoy delicious house-smells-like-caramelised-onions experience). I usually freeze them in leftover yogurt containers and slice off frozen chunks of the amount I want, but probably ice cube trays would be a little less work in the long run.

I have not tried caramelise+dehydrate and now I'm pretty excited about that, so thanks, aniola.
posted by inexorably_forward at 6:43 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

My kids would seriously just do huge pans of caramelized onions. They love them.
Be kind to any housemates you have, though. I'm not a fan of onions, and the first time they did it was during the winter when it was much to cold to air out the house. I wasn't terribly pleased to come home to an onion-saturated house.
posted by stormyteal at 6:53 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Years ago a friend of mine competed in an insane contest called the Death Race in Vermont. One part of the race required eating a number of raw onions.

That's it. That's the answer.
posted by boghead at 6:53 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also, in my house winter onions keep a long time. If you can keep them out of warm steam you can just use them in the normal course of dinners.
posted by clew at 6:58 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Fill a pie crust to the brim with raw onion rings and then fill with your favorite Quiche Lorraine egg mixture, with or without bacon as you see fit.
posted by carmicha at 7:08 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Onion jam. Onion chutney.

If you caramelise or make a confit, then you can stick it on pre-bought puff pastry or rolled-out pizza dough, or make a gallette or pissaladière base.
posted by holgate at 7:10 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

When I did this (a 10kg bag was the same prices as the 2kg bag!!) I caramelised a load and froze the results in useful portion-sizes.
posted by pompomtom at 7:12 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

I really like the Belgian beer/onion/beef stew known as Carbonade Flamande. It calls for a huge batch of onions.
posted by mmascolino at 7:17 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Practice your knife skills, then freeze the results in small bags of ~1/2 onion each so you can pull out what you need when you're in a hurry or lazy.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:43 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Caramelized onions have been mentioned -- and it's great to freeze them. They take a long time to cook down, so you might as well make a huge batch. The simplest way to freeze them is to put them in freezer bags and squish down to a thickness of about half an inch. Then you can just break off as much as you want when you need them. If you're into portioning and freezing, you can use ice cube trays or muffin tins, and then put the frozen cubes/disks into freezer bags.
posted by wryly at 7:44 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Ok, we really need to know how many onions you were supposed to buy and how you ended up with 30. I'm picturing a hidden catapult that kept flinging onions into your cart.
posted by nakedmolerats at 7:50 PM on March 7, 2019 [6 favorites]

Doro Wat is an incredibly tasty Ethiopian stew which uses onions by the kilo.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 7:55 PM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Start a YouTube channel and eat them slowly like apples for weird reasons. And ad revenue.
posted by TheAdamist at 7:59 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

I just heard about Flammkuchen on the Serious Eats podcast, and decided to look it up. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks delicious.
Spanish tortilla just uses one onion, but it's a great food to always have in the fridge, for snacks, lunch, tapas, even breakfast.
posted by mumimor at 8:10 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Pasta alla Genovese
posted by introvertigo at 8:38 PM on March 7, 2019

Seconding flammkuchen (aka tarte flambée) - it's a glorious use of an onion.
posted by theory at 8:51 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Pickled onions - great on pulled pork, burgers.
Indian curries - look for those with dopiaza in the name, which means 'with onions.'
Cheese and onion pie - very British.
posted by shoesietart at 8:54 PM on March 7, 2019

Onion confit! I recommend this recipe. I don't have a slow cooker, so I do it on low in the oven. It's excellent.
posted by Lexica at 9:58 PM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Seconding Doro wat or other Ethiopian dish. The ratio I use is 3 parts onion to 1 part meat.
posted by vespabelle at 10:05 PM on March 7, 2019

Super yummy Chilean onion salad -

Slice -em up thin, pour a lot of salt on them and let them sweat for a bit. Dump in sieve, pour boiling water on them and break the onions up using your hands. Rinse with more hot water. Shake out excess water and squeeze fresh lemon juice on them. Done!

They're also yummy with boiled carrots and potatoes (peeled, chilled and cubed) - again with lots of lemon juice. Season w/salt and pepper.
posted by speakeasy at 3:16 AM on March 8, 2019

After freezing some raw, chopped onions for future use, I’d caramelize the rest, freeze some of those and make a pizza with caramelized onion, thyme, and fontina cheese.
posted by sarajane at 4:08 AM on March 8, 2019

Caramelise a bunch of them, like five . Blind bake some pastry tarted up in a shallow-ish tray or pie tin. When browned a bit, take the caremelised onions and make a layer, add some feta or goats cheese and thyme sprigs and whack it back in the oven til it’s all melty n fragrant from the thyme.

Every time I’ve made this at parties, it’s been a hit. Or as a meal add a nice green salad with some toasted pine nuts. I have eaten this at least once a month for the last decade. Yum.
posted by honey-barbara at 5:19 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: To answer the question, how did I buy 30 onions? they were part of a Fresh Direct order. Sometimes I make mistakes when re-ordering items. I guess a big bag of onions was already in my "cart" and then I added another by mistake.

I'm going to slice them in my food processor and caramelize, BUT the last time I caramelized onions in my slow cooker, I did it on a low setting for about 12 hours and they STILL had too much of a crunch (and weren't really caramelized). So I'm scared. This time I'll add sugar and see if it helps.

Thank you, everyone!
posted by DMelanogaster at 6:22 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I like to caramelize a bunch of onions in the slow cooker every so often and freeze them. Makes a great topping for salads and burgers and what not.
posted by Kurichina at 7:19 AM on March 8, 2019

I adore roasted or grilled onions, and they're easy enough to make. Slice into rings or chunks, toss with a bit of oil or melted butter, then bake or grill till soft and starting to blacken a bit. They're especially delicious with some balsamic vinegar or a good cranberry sauce added to the pan. They can be frozen, too.
posted by Lunaloon at 7:41 AM on March 8, 2019

As noted, lakes a long, long time to cook onions on low heat. I suspect that oven roasting is the answer but I have neither experience nor recipe.

In the Good Eats Onion Soup episode, Alton Brown put the onions in an electric frying pan, and said something like this: will they burn? That's the general idea!
posted by SemiSalt at 9:03 AM on March 8, 2019

Chicken yassa is tasty and will knock out five onions (or more if they're on the small side, I guess!)
posted by LadyNibbler at 9:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I was just randomly looking at the Serious Eats site, when this turned up: Re-Introducing Soubise: The Classic Three Ingredient Onion Sauce That Deserves a Comeback

I thought of it a few days ago when I bought a few too many onions for my tarte flambée recipe, and was trying to come up with of a good way to use them. Soubise, an old-school French sauce made mostly from onions, isn't all too common these days, but it should be. It's incredibly easy to prepare, works with all sorts of meats—from roast chicken to pork and even fish—and lends itself nicely to variation. (Daniel Gritzer)
posted by mumimor at 9:12 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Beer battered onion rings with dill dip may just be one of the best ways to put onions and a deep fryer to good use.
posted by OnefortheLast at 9:26 AM on March 8, 2019

Yeah, the slow cooker caramelizing takes FOR-EVER. I've had good luck draining the liquid as it accumulates from the slow cooker, as I go along (save for soup!). Last time I caramelized onions in the crock pot, it took at least 48 hours.
posted by sarajane at 9:40 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

You can roast onions and they get sweet and so good. My aunt would slice off the top, wrap in foil leaving the top open, add olive oil, roast like a potato. I do that sometimes, or I just peel & trim, quarter, toss with olive oil, roast at @ 325F.

Onions keep very well. I keep them on the counter in a wooden bowl. Sprouting is not harmful. I just bought 2 bags because I keep running out of onions, so I have 15 or so. Sauteed onions are the start to chili, soup, curry, etc.

I caramelize them in a large cast iron pan on low, with plenty of olive oil, thinking I will have them for a recipe, and they we eat them straight out of the pan.

Onion tart. Slice up several onions, saute with olive oil (butter) until very tender and golden, at least 20 minutes. I buy Pilsbury crust. Layer in some gruyere, onions, eggs beaten with sour cream, bake well. The onions get so sweet.
posted by theora55 at 11:08 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

pico de gallo - 1 onion 1 tomato 1 jalapeno juice of lime, salt, cilantro leaves
onion strings - slice a couple of onions very thinly, soak in buttermilk then lightly coat in flour and deep fry
fried potatoes and onions - 1 large onion sliced to 4 or 5 potatoes shallow fry
cut into qtrs and roast at high heat on a sheet pan with other vegetables.

and i will add to the pile on about caramlized onions. cause yum
posted by domino at 11:30 AM on March 8, 2019

I know this is too late, but I'm putting in this for future reference: Moroccan TV cook making pastilla. She uses a ton of onions and it is the most delicious Morrocan dish I know.
posted by mumimor at 9:48 AM on March 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: It really did take two whole days to caramelize the onions in my slow cooker. But they are goooooood.
posted by DMelanogaster at 6:58 AM on March 13, 2019