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.
Spring Garden Hodgepodge
Onions
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.
Roasted Delicata Squash and Onions
Source: www.eatingwell.com
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?