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From Caramelized to Fried

The Many Layers of Onions

By Kelly Burgess

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the Queen of Hearts calls for the beheading of the Seven of Spades for bringing her turnips instead of onions. And who can blame her? Can you imagine saut訮g turnips and garlic for pasta sauce? Fried turnip rings? Turnips on a sandwich? He should be glad he got off so lightly.

The fact is, very few cooks could imagine life without onions. They can be stored for long periods of time, are very good for you and can spice up even the blandest dish.

Jan Roberts-Dominguez, syndicated food columnist and author of The Onion Book, says that onions are becoming increasingly popular as the American diet becomes more ethnic and interesting.

"The American palate has changed for the better, and we have started embracing more robust flavors," says Roberts-Dominguez. "The growing popularity of the sweet onion and changing technology that enables us to have them almost year-round has added to this trend."

How fitting that such a valuable vegetable should get its name from a priceless jewel. Although its roots are too ancient to trace, we do know that the Romans dubbed it "unio," which means large pearl. In the middle ages, the English transformed that into the word "unyon" (phonics anyone?), which evolved into the onion we know today.

The name may have changed, but this many-layered delicacy has been a staple food for centuries. Long a food of the masses, it became popular with the upper classes when Stanislaus I, a 17th-century Polish king, developed a taste for French Onion Soup.

There are more than 300 species of onion, but you are likely to see only a few in your supermarket. Most common are yellow onions, Spanish onions (which are large, yellow onions), white onions, red onions, green onions, scallions, leeks, shallots and several varieties of sweet onion such as OSO, Vidalia or Walla Walla.

Want to see more?

• Try Jan Roberts-Dominguez's recipes for OSO Sweet and Caramelized Onions
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