Marinated Sumac Onions Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What does putting onions in vinegar do? ›

Then you just have to wait long enough for the vinegar to do its job, rinsing away the harsh sulfurous compounds, softening the onion, and giving it a pleasantly tart pop of flavor. If you use red wine vinegar, my personal favorite, the onions also turn an amazing hot-pink color.

Submerge Them in Cold Water

Soak them for at least 15 minutes (longer is even more beneficial), properly drain, and eat away! Submerging them in cold water takes away that intense, sharp bite from the raw onion. The cold water helps the enzyme that causes onions to have their pungent flavor to leach out.

Blanch red onions in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain in colander. Boil the vinegar with sugar and spices: While the water is heating in Step 1, in a separate saucepan combine the vinegar, sugar, and spices.

Just peel and slice the red onion as called for in your recipe, then submerge them in a bowl of cold or ice water. Let them sit for at least ten minutes, stirring once or twice, before draining and using them in your recipe. For added flavor, you can also soak the onions in lime juice, lemon juice, or vinegar.

Let the pickled onions cool to room temperature (about 20 to 30 minutes), at which point they should be sufficiently pickled for serving. Cover and refrigerate leftover pickled onions for later. Quick-pickled onions are best consumed within three days, but they keep for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.

Onions - soaking in cold water to soften the flavor

When preparing raw onions, soak in cold water before hand to remove some of the pungency and soften the flavor. However since soaking too long will dilute the flavor, soaking in cold water for 5 to 10 minutes is recommended. Squeeze out excess water before using.

The salt softens the onion's fibrous texture and mellows the sharpness of their flavor.

Put the onion in slightly lemony, salty water to reduce the soaking time. For a sweeter taste, soak it in cold water with 1 tsp each of sugar and salt. Then your onion will be ready to be added to salsa or burgers.

Red Onions: The salad onion. While you can cook with it, it's less overpowering than white or yellow onions, making it ideal for uses that require raw onion. The colour fades as you cook them. Great for Greek salad, on burgers, etc.

You can get rid of the strong taste by soaking sliced onions in ice water for 20 to 30 minutes or by sprinkling them with an acid such as vinegar. Onions soaked in ice water will get very crisp while those sprinkled with vinegar will soften a bit, but they will lose the strong taste and become sweeter.

Can you freeze raw onions without blanching? ›

There is no need to blanch onions. Freeze onions using one of the following methods: Dry Pack - Pour onions in freezer bags. Placing packages flat in the freezer helps the onions to freeze faster and makes it easier to break off sections as needed.

The sulfur compounds that give the raw onions their pungent, harsh flavor dissipate in the bowl of water, leaving the resulting onion with a more mellow flavor.

Red boiling onions, depending on the specific variety and the soil that they are grown in, are crisp with a sweet, pungent flavor when raw, but when cooked, they develop a tender texture and become milder in flavor.

Onions are perfectly safe to boil. Even if you undercook or overcook them, they are still safe to consume, as long as they are fresh.

Simmering should be obvious, just toss it in some water or stock. For steaming, either use a steamer basket or just put a small amount of liquid in a pan, heat it up to a simmer, place the onion in and cover it until cooked to your desired consistency. Those are pretty much your only fat-free options.

"Water, a quick pickle of cut onion in vinegar for a few minutes, or any kind of acid will also dissolve the enzymes and take the bite out of the onion," says Patel. And if you're really against using strong onions, stick to a milder variety such as white or Vidalia onions, shallots, or spring onions.

Setting out a bowl of vinegar in your kitchen either while cooking onions or after you're finished will help neutralize the smell. The only downside is you'll have to deal with the smell of vinegar instead.

Pickled onions can last in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. I like them best during the first week because they are the most crisp, but they're still yummy later on.

What happened? Red onions—as well as other red produce, including cabbage and cherries—are rich in pigments called anthocyanins. When they're cooked with acid, their color intensifies, but when combined with an alkaline component, they can turn a startling bluish-green color.