How to Caramelize Onions

Yesterday, I posted a recipe for my Caramelized Onion Dip and thought you might want to see how to caramelize onions at home. In my research, I used this tutorial from the kitchn. Here’s how it worked out for me.

As much as I love to cook, I had never caramelized onions until now. It took a couple tries but it’s surprisingly easy to create this decadent-tasting creation. (I was stingy with the olive oil on the first try. Learn from my mistakes. Don’t be stingy with the oil.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a stainless steel or cast iron sauté pan over medium heat. Add the sliced raw onions. I used two large sweet onions.

Stir the onions around in the pan to coat with the oil. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Do other things. Revisit the onions about every 10 minutes to make sure they are not burning.

They are getting there. Scrape up any of the little brown bits that form on the pan.

For the two large onions, it took about 45 minutes to get to this…

The onions are done. Deglaze the pan with a little vegetable broth, white wine or water. Cool.

I added a sprinkle of kosher salt to the cooled onions and stored them in the fridge. I used the majority of the caramelized onions to create the dip and added the leftovers to omelets and on roasted green beans later in the week.

I am overly excited about these caramelized onions. I know. But it’s my new favorite addition to the table. Who knows where they will show up next? Pizza, pasta with mushrooms…

P.S. Carla Hall from the The Chew suggests adding baking soda to your onions to make the onions caramelize quicker. Ever try that? Maybe I’ll try it next time.