Monday, March 16, 2009

Dinner Theme: Caramelized Onions

So, these recipes weren't on the list, but for dinner on Saturday I decided to make two dishes built around one of my favorite things: deeply, deliciously sauteed onions. The menu was:

-- Potato and Smothered Onion Soup (Marcella Hazan's "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking")
-- Fresh Pear, Blackened Onion, Roast Beet Salad (no recipe, just awesomeness) with Cranberry-Mustard Vinaigrette (Heidi Swanson's "Cook 1.0").



The soup was really easy to make; aside from some labor intensive onion chopping and some (very fun) mashing of the potatoes once they're boiled, it pretty much takes care of itself. The onions provide a lot of flavor, and a little parmesan and parsley tossed in at the end are a good touch. (The soup could easily be made vegan; I already substituted oil for butter and veggie broth for meat with no deleterious effects, and I'm sure something similar could be done for the cheese.) As you can see in the picture, we also crumbled up some soy bacon to put on top--mmm.

The salad is one I put together this fall and really like: mixed greens, blackened onions, roasted beets, fresh pear, slivered almonds, and crumbled bleu cheese. The cranberry-mustard vinaigrette was a perfect compliment, tangy but sweet.

If you'd like the recipes, I'll happily post or send them!

2 comments:

Jocelyn said...

YUM! You need to come out to CA and cook for ME! :)

jovaliquilts said...

I will attest that this was a fabulous meal! Really excellent, and the house smelled so wonderful while the onions were cooking. Drove me crazy!