One for the (not-yet-extant) "I Hate Onions" Cookbook

[noahgibbs]

In a fair number of circumstances where onions are being used as "vegetable filler" and for texture (around a pot roast, in a soup, stuffed in a turkey,) celery is a really good substitute. You can also do something like celery root, but... Almost anything has more flavor than long-cooked white onions. Even celery is more assertive. Other veggie filler/texture tends to wind up being a much larger chunk of the final flavor.

Now for *red* onion substitutes, all kinds of things would be fine - celery, celeriac, fennel, radishes... Red onions have a lot of final flavor, so something with a lot of flavor makes a good substitute. It's white onions that are so mild that it's hard to find a similar mild-texture-no-flavor equivalent.

Though I should probably be trying jicama for that. It's nearly flavorless. Anybody know if it stays crunchy after cooking?

Comments

this is so relevant to my life

[beachglass]

I hate onions, they STINK and make me sick. and....
my husband loves them...he bought one tonight and I made him keep it in the garage fridge. the gaseous odors of the onion permeate the refrigerator environment and spoil other foods. :(

Re: this is so relevant to my life

[noahgibbs]

Yeah, anything you keep in the fridge with an onion starts to taste like onion pretty quickly :-(

Re: this is so relevant to my life

[beachglass]

yes. I consider onions to be a lethal, maybe fatal? vegetable. not to be toyed with.

[queen-elvis.livejournal.com]

I've put jicama in the microwave for 5 minutes and then under the broiler 5-10 more and still retained internal crunch. (This was for "jicama fries," AKA "an excuse for my four-year-old to eat ketchup.")

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Ooh! "Jicama fries" would also be a great excuse for me to start playing with jicama and figure out how to cook and flavor it. Thanks!

[mh75.livejournal.com]

Leeks may be too much like onions for you, but i often find them to be a nice alternative. Onions do often bring some sweetness to the table, if they are long simmered. I don't know off hand what replaces that.

Red onions are the devil.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm okay with leeks. Sometimes they're too onion-like. As far as the sweetness from onions, you can do a lot with carrots to replace it - they have a similar starchy sweetness that only comes out with cooking. Garlic does something similar as well.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

For my personal dislike of onions, garlic is worse. And i don't always love carrots (nor their texture). I suppose it all depends on the situation, though.