Eights Onion Recipes to Make This Fall

This past summer, a bag of cipollini onions from Paul Krautmann of Bellews Creek Farm leapt into my market bag. Flat, white and disc-shaped, with a sloping indentation on top, cipollini could have been used for flying saucers in an Ed Wood movie. I decided to caramelize the smallest ones whole purely for the visuals. I didn’t expect the intense oniony flavor, the layered savory and sweet tastes, the pliant texture, the tidy bite. My regret was that I didn’t cook them all this way. Then I quartered the larger ones for a tomato and cucumber salad. No regrets. In fact, the cipollini experience spurred me to look for other locally grown onions.

Scallions appear at most farmers’ markets in the spring and fall. Sprightly and slender, the tops deep green, the white bulbs fat, the flavor clean, these beauties outshine their supermarket counterparts in taste and appearance. I found small spring bulb onions, both red and white, at several farmers’ markets. Kruse Gardens offered beautiful shallots, tightly corseted in light brown skins, firm to the touch and easy on the taste buds. Our Garden offered Candy, a brown-skinned onion the size of a Ping-Pong ball, the flavor sweet and sharp.

I didn’t find the big super-sweets or fall storage onions, so I asked local growers why. Krautmann educated me: “Onions have a day-length trigger. Unless that trigger is pulled, the onion [doesn’t develop properly]. No bulb will develop if you plant too early, too late or you miss that succession of day-length you need,” he said. In the Midwest, day-length is intermediate, and storage onions thrive in either short or long day-length climates.

Still, Tim Hess of Silent Oaks Farm is determined to add winter storage onions and potatoes to his offerings. He’ll need to start his field from seed in November (or no later than December) to harvest mature onions next fall. For this winter’s markets, Hess will grow scallions in his hoop house.

Luckily, area grocers carry good onions, from tiny pearls to giant whites. Storage onions are best in fall. Super-sweets arrive mid-April and sell through July, but Ken Whiteman of Ladue Market still had the popular sweets in October.

“Our customers are very loyal to the Vidalia,” said Whiteman. Vidalias look like a flattened large yellow onion, but the taste is sweet, not hot. “The Vidalia people came out with a sticker on each onion,” said Whiteman. “That marketing paid off, because customers recognize the name. Walla Wallas and Texas Sweets, too, but the bagged onions – they’re just everyday hot onions guaranteed to make you cry.”

Onions often play a supporting role in cooking, but for a tasting lunch, I wanted recipes using different kinds of onions as the main ingredient. Standouts included a roasted-onion tapenade with kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic. A walnut and red onion stovetop chutney with apples, red wine and vinegar turned a gorgeous deep pink. It even tasted pink.

I tried a confit of chunky sweet onions spiced and oven-stewed with butter and wine, but the texture was slippery, and it wasn’t a crowd favorite. The better confit was chopped red onions, cherries, golden raisins, balsamic vinegar, sage and red wine cooked down in a saucepan. A red onion “flower” baked with orange marmalade and cranberries tasted good but looked like a wilted water lily.

Six-onion soup cheated a bit, counting chives and garlic as onions. Leeks, yellow storage onions, shallots and scallions cooked in a chicken stock, then creamed, was a nice switch from the familiar French onion soup. A main-dish stuffed onion using ground beef and ditalini pasta in a savory egg custard tasted good but looked pretty pallid. I’d use tomato, peppers and maybe a tomato sauce over the top to add color next time.

Gerard Craft, owner and chef at Niche, added to my list. “Glazing and caramelizing is a no-brainer,” he said, “but onions are good for pickling, too. I use a little champagne vinegar, water, sugar, chili flakes and garlic.” When he can find them, Craft uses locally grown. “They have such flavor, especially the Claverach sweet yellow onions. We burn through them quick.” His last suggestion was so simple: a purée of caramelized onions, served with pork or chicken almost as a sauce. Simple, familiar, everyday onions deliver every time.