Winter brings out the flavor depth and versatility of this underground bulb.
The secret to cooking with onions for cold-weather flavor is caramelization, an investment of close attention. “It’s incredible how sweet onions are,” says Louisiana-based chef Melissa M. Martin. “Once you start cooking them they caramelize so quickly.” Winter is the perfect season for making onions the star of your kitchen, when you’re looking for “any excuse when it’s cold to put your oven on.” The chef devoted a whole chapter to this versatile allium in her cookbook, Bayou: Feasting Through the Seasons of a Cajun Life (Artisan, 2024), which shares recipes and inspiration from her long-standing tenure as chef-owner of her restaurant, Mosquito Supper Club.
TRY A TARTIN
Onion tarte tatin, Martin says, is “a beautiful way to cook an onion in the oven and have it caramelize and become this umami taste of sweet and a tiny bit bitter.”
ROUX SUBSTITUTE
Martin cooks 5 pounds of onions for 90 minutes to use as the base for the rich, dark color and flavor of her jambalaya and even gumbo—no roux necessary. “You start filling almost your whole pot and cook them down until they’re extremely caramelized, almost like you burn them, till you have this dark, concentrated onion flavor,” she says.
BETTER BUTTER
In Bayou, Martin includes a recipe for an onion compound butter that she pairs with cornbread. Onion not only adds sweetness to the butter but, she says, “infuses this level of richness.”
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Emily Havener
Emily Havener enjoys writing about food almost as much as she enjoys eating it. She has been food blogging and developing recipes since 2008, and her particular areas of expertise are finding creative ways to use leftovers and never making a recipe the same way twice. She’s always up for raw fish of any kind and a good gin cocktail or a glass of orange wine.