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Caramelized Onions

1 hr + 5 min

Side

One-bowl / one-pot

10 ingredients or less

Budget-friendly
Caramelized onions add the most amazing flavour to dishes. Sweet, sticky, and savoury. Great on nourish bowls, in wraps, on burgers and pizzas. Almost everything tastes better with the addition of caramelized onions.

Servings

(2 Tbsp per serving)

Total

1 hr + 5 min

Prep

5 min

Cook

1 hr

Free from

Soy symbol

soy

Peanut symbol

peanut

Treenut symbol

tree nut

Sesame symbol

sesame

Gluten symbol

gluten

Ingredients

  • 4
    medium yellow onions
  • 1 Tbsp (15ml)
    vegetable oil
  • ¼ tsp
    salt
  • 1 Tbsp (15ml)
    water (optional)

Directions

  1. Slice the onion thinly and as uniformly as possible so that all of the onions cook evenly.
  2. Add the oil to a heavy-bottomed pan on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, drop the heat to medium* and add the onions. Add as many onions as fits in a single layer in the pan, but try not to overfill.
  3. Stir the onion in the oil, and then let sit to cook for 50 - 60 minutes, stirring once every 10 minutes. Don't over-stir. About halfway through cooking, add the salt. This helps to draw any additional water out of the onions.
  4. If the pan is looking very caramelized on the bottom, consider adding a splash of water, only if needed, to deglaze the pan.
  5. When the onions are golden, remove them from the heat and enjoy!

Notes

  • * Ensure the heat of the pan is not too high. The longer the onions can caramelize at a lower temperature, the better.

Storage

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Let us know what you think

Nutrition info

Focusing on numbers can harm our relationship with food. Instead, our philosophy is to Nourish the Cells & the Soul. For specific nutrition needs due to a medical condition, consult a dietitian or physician. While we strive to provide accurate nutritional information, we cannot guarantee its accuracy. See our disclaimer for details.

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Edith - Jan. 4, 2025, 5:38 p.m.

(I realized my comment accidentally left out the rating. This is a five-star recipe!)

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Edith - Jan. 3, 2025, 1 a.m.

Wonderful. Thanks for the tip to keep the heat down. They came out perfectly, and some will go into the freezer for future use.

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Soizic - May 26, 2022, 5:45 p.m.

Nice ! I had lots of onions so I used a pan and a Dutch oven, and the results varied a lot between the two (and I have induction so it wasn't a difference in heat), which was interesting.
The pan made them cook quicker and it risked burning more often or cooking unevenly. But delicious browning.
The Dutch oven made them melt a bit more, less browning but less chance of burning, and more even, I'd say.

PUL small logo PUL Team - May 27, 2022, 6:34 a.m.

Hi there, Soizic, thanks a bunch for sharing your experience with the different methods! We find ensuring the heat of the pan isn't too high quite essential in this one. Perhaps one day we'll give it a try in a dutch oven 😃

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KeErica Brown - April 15, 2021, 2:54 p.m.

In step 3 are the onions supposed to be left to sit in the oil for 50-60 minutes or is that a typo?

PUL small logo PUL Team - April 20, 2021, 6:56 a.m.

Hey KeErica! It's indeed supposed to be 50-60 minutes in step 3. You can caramelize them more quickly at a higher heat, but we chose to follow a more classic method of having a lower heat to caramelize the onions 🙂

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