I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of what exactly I was going to talk about this week, and finally settled on my new best friend: an onion recipe from bon appetit.
Very specifically, it’s these slow-cooked bacon-emulating onions in Chris Morocco’s Healthy-ish breakfast sandwich recipe.
I made them as part of my meal prep last week and they truly changed my life - or at least my stance on red onions. They’re delicious, easy to make, and loaded with umami - a phrase I now innately understand after eating these onions. Cooking! It’s delicious alchemy.
More than enough people have talked about how great the bon appetit test kitchen is, and I don’t think I need to contribute to the mountain of praise already heaped on it. But honestly, their recipes fucking rule, and it’s hard to think of things that make me feel good that aren’t food-related. This weekly newsletter is barely over a month old, and I’m already running out of treats. It’s so much easier to complain! I love complaining! Why didn’t I start a newsletter about complaining? [insert something about importance of practicing daily gratitude blah blah blah here]
Not everything I’ve made from bon appetit has been a success. I bought a giant jar of tahini because I kept seeing it show up as an ingredient in recipes, and it’s taken me three different savoury recipes to realise that tahini is not for me.* And as a person of colour who's seen too many unseasoned chicken breasts, I usually just trust recipe testers of colour to not lead me astray. Still, I've tested enough recipes that I've started to appreciate getting ba newsletters in my inbox multiple times a day. I made this potato and egg salad as a Christmas Eve side dish, and it ruled - and I’m now much better at boiling eggs. I made this crispy glazed tofu for my work lunches last week and didn’t get sick of it once. Same with this amazing kale pesto.
And of course, there’s my new best friends: these fucking onions in this breakfast sandwich.
The sandwich itself is very delicious, but seriously: cook these onions and put them on everything. A couple of reasons why I love this recipe:
You chop your onions into big rings. I hate chopping onions with a literal teary passion. Minimal chopping is always a plus.
It's like three ingredients, and all of them are cheap ingredients I have in pantry at all times. The only thing I had to buy the first time was red onions; I bought a bag for like 3 bucks.
It's like 5 minutes prep and then 25/30 minutes in the oven! The most brain power it takes is setting a timer halfway through to flip the onions in the oven. I love a recipe even a dummy like me can follow.
I love caramelised onions, but those bastards have to be evenly chopped up thinly and you have to watch 'em slowly cook on a stovetop for ages. Make these onions instead, and then say thank you to me (well, to Chris Morocco) for introducing this deliciousness to you.
The recipe is linked above, but if you're lazy, here:
Preheat oven to 350°. Toss onion, soy sauce, garlic powder, and 1 Tbsp. oil on a large rimmed baking sheet to coat. Season with salt. Bake, tossing once halfway through, until onion is browned around the edges and very tender, 25–35 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes.
You're welcome.
Thanks for reading! Have a treat.
*I still have some left, so will give their gluten-free tahini swirl brownies a shot before I make my final decision on the ingredient.