Onions?

I never really thought about writing a Vegetable of the Week post about onions. They seem like such a supporting actor, and I forget about them.

But honestly, they're one of my favorite ingredients - one of the few things I buy every single week.

I was inspired to write this post by a non-recipe that I made up Sunday night out of desperation. Henry was glued to me all afternoon. Every time I put him down, he screamed. When I held him, His Tiny Highness was in heaven. So, of course, I did nothing but hold him, until it was 5:40 and I realized I had no dinner plans ready. My menu planning started on Monday (slight oversight there).

So I caramelized some onions - I sliced them thin and sauteed them long and slow in olive oil until they were light brown - and served them over some nice fat rigatoni, with some extra olive oil, fresh Parmesan cheese, and lots of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. It was insanely good. We ate almost a pound of pasta it was so good! I just served it with a tomato/mozzarella salad.

My usual onion non-recipe is French onion soup - just caramelize the onions and add beef broth, simmer, then add some bread/cheese on top in individual bowls and finish off under the broiler. Voila! One of my very favorite foods!

There are many variations of onion, ranging in flavor from spicy to sweet. Onions come in yellow, red, or white varieties. Yellow are the most versatile for cooking, while red onions lend themselves to raw use. Honestly I don't buy white onions unless I'm chopping them up for Mexican food. Different varieties of onions also create different levels of reactions in your eyeballs. Onions release an enzyme that irritates your eyes, causing pain and tearing - making it a lachrymatory agent (like tear gas!) If you refrigerate the onion for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it, and cut the end off last, you can reduce this effect.

You don't generally think of onions as being particularly nutritious, but they actually do contain antioxidants that have been shown to help fight off diseases such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. They're also a good source of fiber.