Category: Onions (Yellow, Red, Sweet, & Shallots)

This is wonderful winter comfort food made with the simplest of ingredients. It’s also a good way to use up stale bread, but fresh can be used as well. Just make sure it’s a hearty rustic loaf with a good crumb and crust. Here is a slightly fancier version made with Chard.  ... Read more »

  This is a delicious garnish/condiment/side for fish, meat, roasted vegetables, or simply on toast. You can change the ratios of vegetables to suit your needs and/or taste. It's easy to scale up and down and leftovers are delicious.   Serve as a side or on toasted bread or thin down with a little hot, pasta cooking water as a pasta sauce.   Variations Add a few chopped, oil-cured black olives Add 1 tablespoon, rinsed, chopped capers ... Read more »

This is a bit like a simplified French onion soup. The cheesy toast gets a nice kick from the thin layer of mustard which complements the sweetness of the onions and fennel.... Read more »

This is a simple, fresh salad perfect for either red leaf or butter lettuce. Quantities are a matter of taste and availability. ... Read more »

Most of the collard recipes in this collection are not for the long, slow-cooked kind. This one is and it’s delicious and more traditional. You can certainly add a ham hock to the pot or add some diced bacon with the onions and garlic. Serve with cornbread and beans if you'd like. ... Read more »

Sweet, spicy and silky. ... Read more »

I threw this dish together one night and it turned out to be a winner. You could fry or poach an egg to serve on top of this and call it dinner.   For this dish to work you need a large skillet and you need to cut the squash into really small pieces. I suggest 1-inch long little batons or some such. You want the vegetables to have enough room so they sauté/brown rather than steaming.... Read more »

--Inspired by the Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers   I love panades: stale bread and stewed onions slowly baked with stock and other vegetables and this winter squash version and this one with kale are also fantastic. This one takes quite a while to bake so might be a better weekend dish or prep it in the morning and put in the oven the minute you get home. You can use a combination of shallots and leeks rather than onions if that's what you have and you can use other greens--dinosaur kale is particularly good as well.   Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a side dish... Read more »

  This is a bit of an atypical way to cook chard since you cook it for a quite a long time. It is well worth it though—silky and rich.   Wash a large bunch of fresh chard. Separate the leaves from the stems and reserve stems for another use or slice them thinly and use them in  this dish. Cut the leaves into 1-2 inch ribbons. Slice a large onion and begin stewing it and the stems, if using, in some olive oil in a good-sized sauté pan. When the onion has softened a bit add the chard, season with salt and pepper, cover and stew, stirring occasionally for 20-30 minutes. The moisture from the leaves and onions should be enough to cook it, slowly, but if it gets too dry you can add just a little water. Remove from heat when the vegetables are silky and tender.   I’ve used this as a pizza topping with some feta, as a pasta sauce or just a side to whatever else I made for dinner. It's also wonderful with eggs.... Read more »

This is a nice variation to plain roasted vegetables. One of my favorite things to do with these, once roasted and a bit cooled is to toss them with lots of parsley and/or arugula or escarole. Then add a bit more lemon juice and olive oil and make a big salad out of it. Quantities are approximations. Use however many vegetables you want in whatever ratio you want.   You could also serve these on top of a bed of sautéed chard or kale.... Read more »

  This is a CSA Heavy Hitter, recipe that is delicious with a great variety of vegetables and handy to turn to when you have a random assortment of things that need using up. This is delicious with kohlrabi, celery root, winter squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, turnips and pretty much any other vegetable that takes well to roasting. The quantity and combination of vegetables is completely up to you and you can easily scale the below recipe up or down. I sometimes like to add chickpeas to the vegetables, adding another dimension and texture. With a simple green salad and maybe a fried egg this is my idea of a perfect meal.... Read more »

When I get a bunch of beets I often roast the whole batch and then have the pleasure of having roasted beets on hand to use, however, I want.   I also have a habit of toasting a slice of good, crusty bread and tearing it into bits and adding it warm to salads--often just for me, for lunch, but it's such an easy trick to add a little heft to salads. It also changes the texture and temperature just enough to make it interesting.... Read more »

  I like mixing diced boiled potatoes with a green salad and a creamy dressing. I make many variations but Batavian, Escarole, frisee or other more robust lettuces hold up particularly well here. You probably won’t need all the dressing for this salad. It keeps well for a few days so save for future use. And the tomatoes are completely optional.  ... Read more »

This is a quick, hearty and classic Italian salad. It’s strongly flavored with robust flavors from vinegar, capers and red onions. It’s best with good quality canned albacore tuna.... Read more »

Onions are the foundation for many dishes. They are one of those ubiquitous, modest ingredients that can be transformed into an elegant or simple dish without a run to the store. Onions are delicious in French onion soup, panades, caramelized on a pizza, in the classic German Zwiebelkuchen, or raw or lightly pickled on burgers, sandwiches and salads. The recipes below mostly feature onions. The list would be far too long if I included the hundreds of dishes in which onions are sautéed at the beginning!   Sweet onions are just that, sweet, juicy and less sharp than the storage onions. They release more liquid when cooked and don't keep as well. They are fabulous on sandwiches or in salads or quick vegetable sautés. You will likely see them with their fresh green stalks still attached in your CSA or at the market.   Red onions tend to be just a little milder than yellow storage onions and are pretty and delicious in salsas and salads and pickles as well as anywhere you would use yellow onions. Yellow onions are my staple and are the beginning of most sauces, curries, dals, stews, soups and stir fries. However, I substitute one kind for another in most anything so don't sweat the type too much. Shallots are also a bit milder than red and yellow ones and are often used in vinaigrettes or in pan sauces. They are also delicious roasted. You can also slice them thinly and fry them for a decadent, crunchy topping for fish, salads or rice dishes.   Spring onions or salad onions may show up in your CSA or be available at the farmers' market. They can be used much like green onions (scallions) where the whole stalk is tender and delicious.   Some people are sensitive to raw onions and a little can go a long way so start with moderation. Soak your sliced or chopped raw onions in ice water for 15 -30  minutes to reduce their sharpness a bit and make them extra crisp. It's a great trick for onions you're adding to salads or fresh salsas. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_EFCzIFBJk&t=13s[/embed]... Read more »

  --adapted from smittenkitchen.com   This dish is so, so good. I've simplified it a bit, eliminating an extra step or two so it's really a rather quick dish and  sophisticated to boot.... Read more »