Onions

Published at
May-June, July if we’re lucky

The standard rules for storing onions are to store them in a cool dark place and to provide good ventilation. Well stored, they will keep for a good long time. It’s just the onions you buy in the early spring that start sprouting little green leaves – they’ve been in storage for a while and are anxious to find some dirt and begin growing.

But Riverview tends to send us sweet onions which don’t keep as long as storage onions. If I’m correct, our onions are sweet onions, relatives of the Vidalia but can’t be called Vidalias because we don’t live in that part of Georgia.

I keep my onions on a 2-foot diameter wire tray. It has little feet that keep air circulating underneath and the wire provides lots of ventilation around the onions. I try to space the onions out so there’s as little touching as possible. That just keeps a rotting onion here or there from hastening decay in its neighbors.

Some folks hang up their onions in mesh bags, like the ones that onions in the grocery store come packed in. Others swear by dropping an onion down the leg of panty hose, knotting it, dropping in another onion and repeating the process. Then you just cut off the onion/onions you need and the rest are separated. I don’t know about you, but I gave up on panty hose a while back so that’s not a storage method you’ll see at my house.

Whatever you do, it’s important to check the onions every few days. Take out the ones that are getting soft and cut them up, using the parts that are still good.

Do you have a dehydrator? Onions dry really well and reconstitute easily. If you don’t have a dehydrator, go ahead and slice up your onions and arrange them on a cooling rack suspended over a rimmed baking sheet. Turn on the oven to about 150 (or even lower like 125 or 100 if you can) and dry the onions there. The lower the heat, obviously the longer they’ll need to dry, but that lessens the chance you’ll turn them into burnt onions.
You can also freeze onions if you puree them first. You can freeze them in ice cube trays so you can pop them out and put them in a freezer bag, just retrieving as many cubes as you need. I wouldn’t freeze whole onions, but I understand it can be done. You can also freeze chopped onions, but don’t expect them to be crisp when they’re thawed. They’ll work perfectly, though, in any recipe where you’re sautéing the onions first.

Any frozen onions are going to be best used within a month, but they’ll keep for several months. Just don’t leave them in the freezer for a year.

Green onions: I just don’t know any great ways to preserve green onions except dehydration (yes, you can dehydrate them and chop into small pieces for adding to all kinds of wonderful things) so I just try to use them up. I rinse them and refrigerate and then chop them into all kinds of dishes that would call for bulb onions. I also love them in potato salad – which maybe the way we eat the most green onions (what does that say about my household?). I bake russet potatoes, then dice them peel and all and mix them with chopped green onions, sour cream, yogurt and salt and pepper. Could eat a whole bowl full right now.

(2023) Gut-Nourishing Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing

I’m also adding a recipe from purelyplanted.com for Gut-Nourishing Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing which I know we will need both pre-and post-Thanksgiving’s crazy meals. Use your cabbage, daikon and greens from this week’s box to make that salad.

~Conne

(2023) Lentil Soup

We’ve returned from a ten day road trip to the Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) in Ontario. In addition to a week full of daily paddling instruction, their kitchen kicks out homecooked meals three times a day. I grabbed some of their recipe cards from the gift store. 

The boys have chosen the following recipe for this week. Looks easy, uses that single old leek, celery, and the tomato from yesterday that was a little bruised, and can get served with leftover rice and pan-fried okra tossed in cornmeal, my favorite okra treatment.

NOTE: The leftover lentils were delicious in a salad with Ceasar dressing, and mixed into ground beef for burgers and meatloaf.

(2022) Matthew Reeves’ Ratatouille

With so many peppers and that pretty eggplant, it’s time to make ratatouille. Down below is the recipe I’ve adapted from one provided by Matthew Reeves, who with his wife Maggie Reeves, hosts a drop-off for Riverview boxes. What I love is that there are almost no quantities given (just a size for one can of crushed tomatoes). Ratatouille really must have been created as a delicious way to use up summer vegetables and you can juggle quantities of ingredients to suit what you have… and what you like. We didn’t get zucchini this week (at least not in my box) but we got eggplant, yellow squash, lots of peppers, and garlic. You could use the red onion that we got today if you like, or maybe you have some yellow onions on hand. At our house, we’re not big rosemary fans, so we’re leaving that out.

(2021) Shakshuka

The box also prompted me to find this non-recipe recipe from the folks at Aluma Farm for Shakshuka. We have at least one version in the tomato recipe section of grassfedcow.com. But some may prefer this no-recipe approach using the tomatoes, the onion, and a pepper or two from the box. Add eggs, and it’s dinner. Add toast and it’s a delicious meal.

(2020) Pikliz

Pikliz is a traditional accompaniment to griot, the braised and fried pork dish that’s pretty much the national dish of Haiti, but I’m told if you’re Haitian, you eat it with everything. It’s delicious enough that I believe it.

Consider this the summer slaw you’ve been dreaming of. Crunchy, tangy with citrus juice, just a little bit hot (with the amount of pepper we’ve included), it’s just the right side for rich dishes or anywhere you want something with a peppery punch.

When first made, the pikliz is pretty hot, but the heat mellows as it sits and we found the final result here perfect for folks who appreciate a little heat, but don’t want something overwhelming. Rock Steady’s Jacob Thomas notes that when his mother makes this, “she throws in all the hot peppers in there.”

(2020) Aluma Farm’s Veggie Pickles

Love that the Aluma Farm recipe helps you understand how much brine to make, depending on how many pickles you’re putting up. Really helpful for those of us pickling on the fly.

(2019) Mexican Shrimp Cocktail

Because there’s always room for one more recipe and I’ve got shrimp to cook, how about this one from “Live, Eat, Cook Healthy” by Rachel Khanna?

(2019) Celery and Green Onion Soup

As demonstrated by Chef Ryan Smith at the Freedom Farmers Market. If you have a juicer, then you’re set to make your own celery juice. Otherwise, consider substituting vegetable broth. The resulting soup is way more than the sum of its simple parts.

(2019) Spicy Cabbage and Sweet Onion Slaw 

For one more simple slaw recipe, I offer you this one. Provenance unknown! It’s Vidalia onion season and soon we’ll be getting some sweet onions in our box. That head of cabbage will actually hold up fine for a few weeks (refrigerated, of course) so you could wait to make this, or make it with a store bought Vidalia. Quantities of cabbage and onion are up to you.

(2017) Vegetable Crostini with Squash and Onion

This recipe was submitted by CSA subscriber Silvia Medrano-Edelstein, the chef instructor and founder of Word of Mouth Cooking Club specializing in kid’s gourmet meal-kit prepping camps and specialty events like kiddie mocktails and gingerbread houses. Her recipes don’t include exact measurements, but you can figure it out.

(2017) Creamed Onion Gratin

Every year we hear there are some folks who don’t know what to do with the onions in their box. While that’s never a problem at my house, maybe it is at yours? Try this recipe – no idea where it came from – and substitute whatever cheese you like in place of the Gorgonzola, if blue is not a favorite at your house.

Baking the onions like this is an easy way to caramelize them without having to keep stirring a skillet on the stove.

(2017) Summer Bread Salad

Craig Richards of St. Cecilia demoed this recipe at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. Love the combination of melon, cucumber and peppers.

(2017) Spring Onion Jam

Justin Burdett of Miller Union demonstrated this recipe five year ago (!!) at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. Who thinks about green onions for jam? Delicious. Juniper berries are available at Sevandanda in the bulk herb section (and probably other places) and you can just buy a few. Worth the less than 50 cent investment for this recipe.

(2017) Okonomiyaki

This recipe comes from Food 52. Okonomiyaki are Japanese pancakes with bits of shrimp and ribbons of cabbage and green onions. I love this combination of flavors. Worth the little bit of work to get this made.

(2017) Grated Veggie Slaw

Another recipe adapted from one developed by Whole Foods. I like the dressing which is a very traditional vinaigrette.

(2017) Buttermilk Green Onion Dressing

Sort of a takeoff of ranch dressing but with fewer herbs. You can add anything you like, of course, but finely chopped green onions (or the tender part of the greens from that big garlic head) are perfect. It might seem like overkill to have buttermilk, sour cream AND mayonnaise in a dressing, but it works. Sorry I don’t remember where the original recipe came from. Works for your lettuce or if you want a more traditional mayo-based slaw. Just increase the recipe as needed for your greens.

(2017) Beet and Mint Slaw

Love this recipe from Whole Foods. No need to cook the beets. Their recipe used fennel which of course isn’t in our box this week. You could add sliced radishes (sliced instead of grated like the beets so you can some contrasting textures). Hope you have mint in the garden because it really makes this slaw sing. I think I’ve mentioned before how much I like dried fruit in salads. Substitute golden raisins, chopped dates, dried cranberries or whatever you have on hand. And if you want a little crunch, chop up some pecans or add some sunflower seeds. Great for a Memorial Day picnic.

Spicy Sauerkraut

One more idea for fermented vegetables. This is adapted from a recipe in Saveur magazine. It’s sort of like a mild kimchi – a nice compromise. The sterilized container part is important. You don’t want any funky bacteria messing up your sauerkraut.

Asha Gomez’s Kerala Meets Brunswick Stew

Asha Gomez, chef-owner of Spice to Table and the late lamented Cardamom Hill, says it was Fat Matt’s Brunswick stew that inspired this dish, a riff on the beef stew her grandmother made in Kerala, India. I’ve adapted this from a recipe published in Atlanta magazine.

Escalivada

This recipe is from Eric Roberts of The Iberian Pig and was demonstrated at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market this summer. A lovely side dish, a lovely snack all by itself.

Slow-Cooker Brunch Casserole

Love the slow cooker in the summer. Easy meal and less heat in the kitchen. I don’t remember the original provenance of this recipe. Sorry. Don’t forget to use your favorite Riverview sausage. Perfect if you’re having Labor Day company.

Chicken and Onion Tagine

Are you overwhelmed with onions? I can’t imagine such a state, but I hear it happens to some folks who wonder what in the world to do with all those onions. Here’s a recipe from Saveur magazine,

Summer Squash Salad Sliders

Jon Wolf of The Terrace on Peachtree at The Ellis Hotel demoed this recipe at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market five years ago. It’s such a nice idea – raw, chopped vegetables as a slider – that I’m resurrecting it here. You could serve this as a simple salad as well, but it’s kind of fun to surprise people with a vegetable sandwich.

Layered Vegetable Torte

This one takes its inspiration from the New York Times. It will use the eggplant, squash, peppers, tomato, onion and garlic. There are a million vegetable torte ideas out there. I like this one right now because it calls for grilling the vegetables. That’s a way to keep the heat out of the kitchen as much as possible. And adds another layer of flavors to the dish.

Onion Potato Frittata

In a large ovenproof skillet, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil and then add the onions. Cook until they turn translucent, then add the garlic and potatoes and continue to cook until everything is tender. Season to taste. Remove the potatoes and onions from the skillet and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In Read More…

Spring Garden Hodgepodge

This recipe, adapted from “Vegetable Literacy” by Deborah Madison, is the perfect way to use so many of the bits in the box this week.

Potato Salad with Tarragon Pesto and Pickled Onions

Everybody has a favorite potato salad recipe, but maybe you’re ready to try something new. This one from seriouseats.com reminds us that pesto doesn’t have to be made from basil. And if tarragon is not a favorite flavor, try it with just parsley.

Dolma Mahshi (Iraqi Stuffed Onions)

This recipe comes from Aladdin’s Castle Cafe in Portland, Oregon. No pomegranate molasses? Any chance there’s tamarind paste in your pantry? That would work as a fruity but tart substitute. If you don’t have either, just skip it. Although it’s worth finding a bottle of pomegranate molasses. It makes a wonderful glaze for grilled meats and seafood among many other uses.

Marinated Kale and Chickpea Salad with Sumac Onions

There are a million kale salad recipes out there, and no doubt you’ve already got a few favorites. I like this one with its Middle Eastern touch of sumac. You can buy sumac at Sevananda or any store that carries Middle Eastern groceries. It has a nice tartness and pretty red color. Substitute another spice, like Spanish paprika, or herb, like thyme, if you don’t have any on hand and don’t want to find it. But the nice thing about buying spices and herbs at places like Sevananda is that you can literally buy just a teaspoon and try it out – no huge investment in a jar that will sit in your pantry for years.

This method of tempering onions is a great one to have in your repertoire. Cuts the bite but leaves you the crunch and the flavor.

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

This is one of my favorite cookbooks! If you like ranch dressing, you’ll love this. It’s exactly what you remember ranch dressing to be, without a lot of stuff that you don’t have in your kitchen. It amazed me the first time that I made homemade ranch dressing. We’re enjoying this tonight, with a huge salad with other veggies (radishes!) and ham, as soon as I finish writing this up.

Bread and Butter Pickled Onions

How did I miss this in the bounty of onion ideas we’ve been sending your way? Hope you still have a few onions to experiment with.

Caramelized Sweet Onions – in a slow cooker

We’ve posted a stovetop version of caramelized onions. Here’s one more way to make them, this time in a slow cooker. If you start them in the morning on a day when you’ll be home, you can just check on them periodically and they’ll be done some time before you’re ready to go to sleep.

Use your caramelized onions to top any piece of grilled meat, stir into sour cream or yogurt to make onion dip, sauté some potatoes and top with onions, stir into steamed squash, use them as a condiment on any sandwich …. they’re really versatile. And delicious.

Caramelized Sweet Onion Tarte Tatin

This is a really simple recipe with a huge wow factor. If you keep a box of puff pastry in your freezer, you’re golden. You do keep puff pastry in your freezer, don’t you? It’s adapted from a recipe I first saw in Southern Living. For the prettiest tart, use the smallest onions you’ve got on hand. But really, it works with any size onion, just cut the onions into quarters or even eighths. The idea is to line the bottom of the skillet with onions in a pretty pattern so when you turn it upside down (after it’s cooked, of course), it’s a gorgeous pattern of rich, brown, buttery onions with crisp pastry on the bottom. Easy. Delicious, Impressive.

Pickled Onions

Feeling overwhelmed with members of the onion family? A miserable year for a number of crops has been a fantastic year for onions and garlic. I hear there are more in our future. There can never be too many onions or too much garlic for me.

Onions are easy, easy, easy to pickle and they’ll keep for months. They’re a traditional topping for tacos, but they’re great on any sandwich or chopped up into a salad. Red onions are the traditional onion for pickling but who says you can’t use white ones?

Caramelized Sweet Onions

For use in Caramelized Onion and Swiss Popovers, or anywhere else that strikes your fancy (grilled cheese sandwiches, a topping for burgers, with grilled steaks or pork chops, in quiches or tarts…use your imagination and have fun with them!)

Caramelized Onion and Swiss Popovers

Speaking of gorgeous onions, how great that the onions have not succumbed to the torrential downpours? Love this recipe from Southern Living’s May 2013 issue. Hope someone out there likes to bake besides me and the Mellow Bellies Rogue Baker.

This recipe will use up a bunch of onions and they are wonderful in more than just these popovers. Use them in sandwiches, top anything you grill, stir them into sour cream and make what a friend calls “Czechoslovakian Onion Dip” (the joke being that it’s so exotic that it’s far beyond the old standard French onion dip), put them on any kind of flatbread as a crostini ….. the possibilities are endless. It’s a great thing to have in your refrigerator.

Onion Pie

A recipe from www.tasteandtellblog.com, based on one they found on the Food Network website.

Easy Lemon Basmati Rice with Green Onions and Parsley

Hmmm …. guess I’m on a green onion binge. Well, here’s one more idea.

I’m spending a lot of time at my main job looking at magazines that focus on health. I’ve really come to appreciate little Prevention magazine and you’re also going to be seeing a lot of their recipes this year. This one comes from their book “Quick and Healthy Low-Fat Cooking.”

Pickled Spring Onions

First, a warning. You’re going to get lots of pickle recipes this year. Not sure why, but I’m on a pickling binge. And you can pickle anything. Really. These are going to be refrigerator pickles – really just seasoned vegetables that you can keep refrigerated for up to a month or so. Lots of health benefits from pickles and fermented vegetables, so I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Justin Burdett of Miller Union demonstrated this recipe at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market just about a year ago. Put up some of those pretty green onions you got today. Won’t be long before they’ll just be a fond memory.

Justin called for champagne vinegar, which sounds a bit more decadent that it really is. It’s pretty reasonably priced, but you could substitute white wine vinegar or even apple cider vinegar and still get good results. He also cools the brine before pouring it over the vegetables – that keeps the green onions from turning olive green right away and preserves the fresh flavor a little more. Since the green onions are tender, they don’t need even the little bit of cooking that happens when you pour boiling liquid over your vegetables. And it also means these are absolutely, positively refrigerator pickles. No sitting around at room temperature for these savory bits.

Joe Truex’ Spaghetti with Scallion Sauce

Finally – CSA season is upon us. I’ve missed the surprise of the weekly box – such fun to guess what might be in store for us every Wednesday.

Today’s box gives us two big hints for boxes to come – a beautiful bunch of spring onions or scallions or green onions (call them what you will) that will grow to become beautiful big storage onions in later boxes. I’m thinking these are sweet onions, although they’re not Vidalias since we don’t live in that neck of the woods.

And garlic scapes – those little pigtails. It’s the sign of a true CSA connoisseur if you recognized them right away. We’ve had recipes for garlic scape pesto and probably garlic scape pasta, check the Riverview recipe archives. For me, this year, I’m slicing mine into salads with that lovely head of lettuce and arugula. Love, love, love them. And looking forward to the heads of garlic those scapes presage.

And kale! And eggs! Maybe this means it will be a banner year for eggs as well.

I’ve been wanting to share this recipe for ages. Two years ago, Joe Truex prepared this for his demo at the Morningside Farmers Market. Ann Brewer who’s been running those demos since the dawn of time tries to coordinate her demos with what I’m featuring in the AJC’s weekly “In Season” column. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This was a case where Joe was NOT. HAPPY. (so I am told) with the ingredient Ann had decided he would feature (which of course was all my fault since I had decided to feature green onions). But once he prepared the dish, he fell in love with it, and it became a special at the old Watershed location. No telling that he’s still making it, but now you can make it at home.

Baked Squash Sticks and Sweet Onion Dip

This recipe came from King Arthur Flour. If you still have an onion from earlier this season, you’re golden. If not, Vidalias will still be at the market for a few more weeks.

Greens and Onion “Souffle”

This recipe is great for using up some more of those greens. It will work with your beet greens, radish greens, turnip greens or chard. I wouldn’t use the collards, they just need a little more cooking to be tender. An adaptation of a recipe from Rebecca Lang’s “Quick-Fix Southern: Homemade Hospitality in 30 Minutes or Less.” Greens and onions are such natural companions.

Onion Bhajis

The first recipe I’m sharing is one I learned at the cooking class. The class was led by Gulshan Singh who teaches the most accessible Indian food I know. As much as I cook, and I cook a lot, I always learn something new from her. Tonight’s class was full of recipes featuring onions. Here are some lovely onion fritters – delicious served with yogurt mixed with a little chopped cucumber and some cumin and salt. Saute some of your greens in a little olive oil to serve alongside the fritters and you’ve got a wonderful dinner in very little time.

Onion and Ham/Tasso Tart

Did you see this recipe Deborah Geering published in her blog for Atlanta magazine? It was listed as “Vidalia Onion and Tasso Tart”. I’ve adapted just a smidge. Her notes:

“Taqueria del Sol chef David Waller shares this seasonal recipe featuring Georgia Vidalia onions and tasso, a smoked, cured pork product popular in Cajun cooking. Serve the tart for brunch or a light supper with a green salad. Note that the tart’s crust must be prepared in advance. Lard gives the crust’s dough a flaky texture. If you prefer, you may substitute solid vegetable shortening, butter, or a combination of both.”

Now the onions in our box aren’t Vidalias, but they are sweet onions so they’ll work perfectly here. Easy enough to substitute whatever ham you can get for the tasso. Or eliminate it. Or use bacon …. or Riverview sausage ….. or …….

Cucumber and Onion Salad

This easy recipe is adapted from one prepared by Seth Freedman, the East Atlanta Village Farmers market chef. It’s really a quick pickle and will keep in your refrigerator for up to a week, with the cucumbers and onions softening and becoming more pickle-like the longer they sit in the brine.

Pasta with Sausage, Onions and Lettuce

If you’re thinking you’d like to do something with that head of romaine beyond fixing yet another salad, remember that the leaves make fabulous wraps for grilled anything. Or for spring rolls. I came home from the beach a few weeks ago with a bag of wild Atlantic shrimp. I poached the shrimp and then made spring rolls, using shredded romaine in place of the traditional rice noodles. When it came to eating the rolls, I laid each one in another romaine lettuce leaf, and added a few leaves of mint and basil, dipped the whole thing into a spicy Vietnamese dipping sauce and enjoyed.

I also love the idea of slightly wilted romaine lettuce. See what you think about this recipe.

Baked Squash Sticks and Sweet Onion Dip

This recipe came from King Arthur Flour. If you still have an onion from earlier this season, you’re golden. If not, Vidalias will still be at the market for a few more weeks.

MellowBellies Frittata

And here’s one more recipe for greens – a frittata. Bake it in a pie plate and cut into wedges for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. Bake it in a square pan and cut into bite size pieces for a pre-dinner nibble. It’s good at room temperature, hot or cold, and accommodates whatever greens you want to put into it. The recipe will also accommodate whatever cheese you have on hand. It’s hard to go wrong here. I’ve included a method for steaming greens in the microwave. I prefer to do that instead of heating up the kitchen with lots of boiling water. But you should use whatever method you prefer.