Onions are the humble workhorse of the kitchen pantry, adding savory flavor to so many dishes — lunch, breakfast, and dinner. But which onion is best for your recipe? Here's what you need to know about these incredibly versatile vegetables.
White vs. Yellow vs. Red Onions: What's the Difference?
Yellow Onions
These are a good all-around onion, great for cooking and flavoring dishes. By far, they're the most popular onion sold in America and versatile enough for just about anything. Yellow onions are a smart choice for caramelizing, which draws out their natural sweetness.
White Onions
These onions are slightly sweeter, a bit milder in taste than yellow onions. They're a good choice for dicing and serving raw on sandwiches and salads or in fresh salsas.
Red Onions
These onions are colorful and spicy-to-mild flavor. Because of their bright color and crispy texture, they're great for salads, salsas, and other fresh recipes. They're also excellent sliced for sandwiches. With cooking, the color fades, but they're still delicious cooked.
Sweet onions get their own category. Vidalia onions are a particularly mild yellow onion grown around Vidalia, Georgia. Crunchy and sweet, they're excellent served raw in salads and salsas. Walla Walla sweet onions are another brand of sweet onions, grown in Walla Walla, Washington.
The Bottom Line: There are a few subtle difference between yellow, white, and red onions. But the bottom line, you'd be fine substituting one color for the other, no problem.
Maui, Vidalia, and Walla Walla: pale yellow or white; sweet and mild flavor
Green Onions or Scallions: immature onions with white bottoms and green tops; mild flavor
Most onions are available fresh year-round. However, some varieties of sweet onion are more seasonal.
How to Pick and Store Onions
Choose firm onions with dry, papery skins. Avoid onions that have brown or soft spots or onions with any emerging sprouts.
Store whole onions in a cool, dry spot that's out of the sun. Onions can keep for months. For partially used onions, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or in a sealed container and refrigerate. The onions will keep for several days.
Why Does Chopping Onions Cause Stinging Tears?
Slicing through an onion releases sulfuric compounds that sting the eyes. The root end contains the most sulfuric compounds, so chop it last. Here are two no-more-tears ways to cut an onion.
How Do You Grow Onions?
Onions like cool weather, and can be planted and harvested earlier than most garden vegetables. They need sun and fertile, well-draining soil. There are two types of onions: long-day and short-day varieties. Ask the friendly folks at your local garden center which type grows best in your area.
At the grocery store they're likely labeled by color (white, yellow, and red), but at a farmers market, you may see proper names, like Australian Browns or Red Zeppelins. In terms of pungency, white are generally the mildest, red the sharpest, and yellow somewhere in between.
Yellow Onions: The general cooking onion. Usually relatively cheap and plentiful, they're the go-to onion when cooks get cooking. The flavour is strong but mild, with an onion flavour that isn't overpowering. They often have a bit of sweetness to them, they caramelize nicely and they hold up well when cooked.
Tiess says an easy way to remember which onions to use in recipes is that white onions are best in raw preparations and yellow onions are best for cooking. "The rule of thumb is to use white onions for raw preparations like pico de gallo, or as a topping for chili," he explains.
Red onions have twice as much quercetin as white onions and a staggering 14 times the amount of that in garlic. Studies suggest eating onions may help reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure, managing cholesterol levels and reducing inflammation.
Sweet onions are larger than yellow onions, with a light skin. As the name suggests, sweet onions have sweet flavor due to a high sugar content, making them great for sauteing and caramelizing. Sweet onion varieties include Walla Walla, Texas Sweets, Maui, and Vidalia.
But sometimes, the onion makes all the difference. Here's our rule of thumb: use white onions raw, yellow onions for cooking and red onions for pickling or grilling.
Yellow onions are typically the more favored for a burger, especially if it's sautéed with mushrooms. Yellow varieties like Vidalia onions are sweeter than most, giving a pleasant counterpoint to the salty of the burger and other condiments.
A sweet yellow onion, a touch of fat from rich butter, and a low and slow cook time bring a simple can of tomatoes to their peak in this iconic sauce from Italian cooking expert Marcella Hazan.
Beyond their color differences, red and yellow onions have some different culinary attributes as well that make red onions superior for certain dishes. "Spicier than yellow onions when raw, red onions add a kick to salsas, sandwiches, and salads," Weinstein says.
Flavor: Red onions are generally milder and slightly sweeter than white onions. They have a crisp and crunchy texture and a mild tangy flavor. White onions, on the other hand, have a stronger and more pungent flavor. They can be quite sharp and have a slightly bitter taste.
Only found in red or purple onions, anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants and pigments that give these onions their reddish color. Quercetin. An antioxidant flavonoid, quercetin may lower blood pressure and improve heart health ( 19 , 20 ).
These onions are colorful and spicy-to-mild flavor. Because of their bright color and crispy texture, they're great for salads, salsas, and other fresh recipes. They're also excellent sliced for sandwiches.
The mildest of all the onions, it's flavor profile is best for salads and sandwiches. They are beautifully soft, and add the perfect amount of flavor when eaten raw.
As the MyFood Blog notes, white onions are a milder variant. Like the red or 'Spanish' version, they are a good choice for salads and other meals that require raw, uncooked onion. Brown onions, meanwhile, have a more pungent flavour and are best suited for cooking.
All types of onions are good for you, but this dark reddish-purple variety, sometimes called purple onion, has especially high levels of quercetin and other helpful plant compounds known as flavonoids.
Summer Onions are both categorized by variety and by season. Vidalia, Walla Walla, Cipollini varieties are inherently sweet onions. These varieties have become extremely popular and for good reason. They are good cooked but they are very mild and are excellent eaten raw.
You can cook any onion you prefer on a grill, but my personal preference is a large, sweet onion like the Vidalia onion. These taste amazing when grilled, and they stay sweet and crisp with an added caramelization when grilled. If you can't get a Vidalia onion, any other sweet onion will do.
Introduction: My name is Annamae Dooley, I am a witty, quaint, lovely, clever, rich, sparkling, powerful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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