Caramelized Onions

When you cook without animal products, you get to use creativity to coax savory umami flavors out of plant based ingredients. This recipe is one way to really deepen the flavor of a dish. I have added caramelized onions on top of pizza, pasta, sandwiches, potatoes, and rice. They add such a wonderful complex depth of flavor that makes it totally worth the time it takes to prepare them.

Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

2 onions
1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut off both ends of each onion and then slice them down the center. Place the onion cut side down on your cutting board and thinly slice the onions into half moons. Put the onions in a rectangle baking dish and toss with the olive oil to evenly coat. Bake for about 40-60 minutes, stirring every 15-20. They are done when they are golden brown, and even starting to blacken a bit on some of the ends. I find they do better when on the bottom rack of my oven, and when I start to stir them more frequently towards the end (about every 10 minutes). Babysitting these onions is worth the effort, because they totally transform and get a wonderful depth of flavor.