Stash sauteed onions ahead

[primsong]

I posted this at homeeconomics101 and thought I'd toss it out to the rest of my flist in case anyone else finds it useful.

Just a tip if you happen to be, as I am, a person who really dislikes the taste of commercial dried onion powders or flakes yet still wants onion in their cooking.

I watch for sweet onions to go on sale and then buy 5-6 big ones at a time. Take them home and slice thin (you can slice them in your sink under a little running water and your eyes won't sting, btw) and then cook the whole heap in a big pot with a drizzle of olive oil. I cook it with occasional stirring and draining off excess liquid until they begin to carmelize.

Cool the resulting batch and then divide it up into about as many portions as you had onions. I keep them in either little tupperware cups or in ziploc sandwich baggies labeled "1 Onion, Sauteed" and pop them into the freezer. They keep great and when you need one for cooking it's a real time-saver to just pull one out and zap it in the microwave for a moment. The flavor is a big improvement and there's no more problem with onions sprouting in my pantry while I get around to them as a bonus.

Comments

[medicalmouse]

Oh, that's a great idea! I hate the flakes but the onions never last long enough to cook, and even if they do I only ever need 1/4 of one at a time and then the rest goes bad. Hmm, I think they might even be on sale this week - I'll have to try this out!

[primsong]

It was a vast improvement over my previous tendency to only use half of one and then lose it in the back of the fridge where it made other things smell like onion before turning weird and getting thrown out.
^_^

[pippins_scarf]

My co-worker does this as well. Personally, I use onion in nearly everything I cook, so they don't go bad. I also keep them in the fridge. I use one of those plastic onion keepers (that looks like an actual onion) and they do pretty well.