How to Caramelize Onions

How to Caramelize Onions

misrolegit       March 24, 2024

Caramelizing onions slowly brings out the deep, sweet flavors of their natural sugars.

Caramelizing onions, by slowly cooking them in a little olive oil until they are richly browned, is a wonderful way to pull flavor out of the simplest of ingredients.

Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

You Can't Rush It

Onions are naturally sweet; and as caramel comes from the simple cooking of sugar when you slowly cook onions over an extended period of time, the natural sugars in the onions caramelize, making the result intensely and wonderfully flavorful.

How to Use Caramelized Onions

You can use onions prepared this way on top of steak, or for onion soup, tarts, pizza, or onion dip. Or you can do what I did with this batch, eat it straight up. What are your favorite dishes to make that use caramelized onions? Please let us know in the comments.

By the way, I put together a time-lapse video of the caramelization process, to show how the onions cook down and caramelize over the course of an hour. Enjoy!

Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

Liquids for Deglazing

In Step 3, there's a suggestion to deglaze the pan with wine (red or white) or balsamic vinegar. It's not necessary, but it will add some additional flavor. You can deglaze with these other liquids, too.

• Chicken or vegetable stock
• Bourbon
• Marsala wine
• Port wine
• Light beer (dark beer might add too much flavor)
• Apple juice
• Cider

How to Deglaze a Pan

READ MORE:

How to Store Caramelized Onions

Refrigerate caramelized onions in a tightly covered container for up to 1 week.

Freeze caramelized onions in a freezer safe zip top bag or a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. Suggestion: Freeze portions of caramelized onions in ice cube trays. When they're frozen, pop the portions out and quickly put them in a freezer safe zip top bag and back in the freezer. They won't stick together, and you'll be able to grab as much as you need when you need it.

5 Ways to Use Caramelized Onions

• Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, Cranberries, and Brie
• Caramelized Onion Dip
• Scalloped Potatoes With Caramelized Onions
• French Onion Meatballs
• Caramelized Onion English Muffin Pizzas

FROM THE EDITORS OF SIMPLY RECIPES

How to Caramelize Onions

PREP TIME10 mins

COOK TIME45 mins

TOTAL TIME55 mins

SERVINGS8 servings

YIELD2 cups

Quantities depend on how much caramelized onions you wish to make. In this example, 5 large raw onions yielded about 2 cups caramelized onions.

Ingredients

• Several medium or large onions, yellow, white, or red

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Butter, optional

• Kosher salt

• Sugar, optional

• Balsamic vinegar, optional

Method

1. Cut the onions root to tip:

   Slice 1/2-inch off the stem ends of the onions and the roots off of the root end. Place the onions cut side down on the cutting board. Cut them in half through the root end. Peel back the peels from the onions.

   Lay the onions cut side down and make angled cuts into each onion, aimed at the center, cutting almost all the way, but not completely through the root end. Make the cuts to your desired level of thickness.

   The root end will help hold the onion together as you cut it, making it easier to cut. Then cut a V in the root end to cut out the tough root holding the slices together.

   How to Slice an Onion

   READ MORE:

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

2. Heat the olive oil and add the onion:

   Use a wide, thick-bottomed sauté pan for maximum pan contact with the onions. Coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil, or a mixture of olive oil and butter, if using (about 1 teaspoon per onion).
   
   Heat the pan on medium high heat until the oil is shimmering. Add the onion slices and stir to coat the onions with the oil. Spread the onions out evenly over the pan and let cook, stirring occasionally.

   Depending on how strong your stovetop burner is you may need to reduce the heat to medium or medium low to prevent the onions from burning or drying out.

   After 10 minutes, sprinkle some salt over the onions, and if you want, you can add some sugar to help with the caramelization process. (I add only about a teaspoon of sugar for 5 onions, you can add more.) One trick to keeping the onions from drying out as they cook is to add a little water to the pan.

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

3. Stir the onions every few minutes:

   Let the onions cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour more, stirring every few minutes. As soon as the onions start sticking to the pan, let them stick a little and brown, but then stir them before they burn.

   The trick is to leave them alone enough to brown (if you stir them too often, they won't brown), but not so long so that they burn. After the first 20 to 30 minutes you may want to lower the stove temperature a little, and add a little more oil, if you find the onions are verging on burning.

   A metal spatula will help you scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan as the caramelization proceeds. As the onions cook down, you may find you need to scrape the pan every minute, instead of every few minutes.

   Continue to cook and scrape, cook and scrape, until the onions are a rich, browned color. At the end of the cooking process you might want to add a little balsamic vinegar or wine to help deglaze the pan and bring some additional flavor to the onions.

   Store refrigerated for several days in an air-tight container.

   What's your favorite way to use caramelized onions? Let us know below and leave us a rating and review if you enjoyed this recipe!

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

   

   Simply Recipes / Cambrea Bakes

• COOKING TIPS & TECHNIQUES

NUTRITION FACTS(PER SERVING)
51	CALORIES
3g	FAT
6g	CARBS
1g	PROTEIN

 Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.

Flavored Lemonade Bar

Flavored Lemonade Bar

misrolegit       February 28, 2024

Use these delicious fresh fruit syrups and homemade lemonade to create a fun flavored lemonade bar! Perfect for summer time!

This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission on itms purchased directly through the links. Decor Steals also provided me with the galvanized tables in exchange for this post. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. Thank-you for your support!

FLAVORED LEMONADE BAR

There’s nothing better than a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. Especially if you can drink it while relaxing on the back deck with a good book! When I received this cute pair of round galvanized tables from Decor Steals, I knew they would be perfect for a little lemonade bar.

The one tricky thing with lemonade is finding that perfect balance of tartness and sweetness.  I definitely prefer mine on the tart side but I know that there are a lot of sweet lemonade lovers out there too.  So… I decided to come up with a little lemonade bar so people could create their own perfect blend.

This lemonade bar doesn’t take too long to put together and can be used for summer BBQs, parties, or just for a fun afternoon drink. The lemonade is flavored with simple fruit syrups that you can make up in pretty much any flavor you would like. If you haven’t made simple syrup before it’s basically just a sweet, concentrated liquid made by boiling water and sugar together. With the addition of fruit, the syrup takes on the flavor and color of the fruit. It can be used in other drinks as well or poured over cakes, ice cream or other desserts. It definitely makes for some pretty color!

HOMEMADE LEMONADE

If you’d like to create your own flavored lemonade bar, you’ll need to start out with some lemonade. Here’s the basic homemade lemonade recipe that I use. You can use any lemonade recipe you would like but, if you’re going to be adding the fruit syrups, you’ll want to use less sugar in the lemonade recipe so it doesn’t end up too sweet.

BASIC LEMONADE RECIPE

• 7-8 cups cold water
• 2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice {about 12-14 lemons}
• 1 1/4 cup sugar {increase this up to 2 cups + if you will not be adding the syrups}

If you’re short on time you can make lemonade with a powdered drink mix, but use a little less drink mix than usual so it’s not so sweet. Store bought lemonades can get pretty sweet if you’re adding the fruit syrups so you might want to water it down a bit or add less sugar to the fruit syrup recipe {listed below}.

To keep things cool {and pretty!}, I like to add some of these lemon ice cubes to the lemonade as well. Just add water and a lemon slice to a muffin tin and freeze! If you don’t want to water down your lemonade at all, you can fill with lemonade instead of water.

 

SIMPLE FRUIT SYRUP RECIPE

Simple fruit syrups are easy to make and add delicious flavor to your lemonade. Use a single flavor or combine multiple fruit flavors for a custom drink!

 Print

SIMPLE FRUIT SYRUPS

These delicious fruit syrups are perfect to add to lemonade for a custom flavor. The perfect summer drink!

 Course Drinks

 Cuisine American

 Keyword berry recipes, drink recipes

 Prep Time 5 minutes

 Cook Time 12 minutes

 Author Jenn Lifford

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh fruit raspberries and blueberries can be done whole, strawberries should be halved or quartered
• 3/4 cup sugar can adjust to taste depending on the sweetness of the fruit
• 1 cup water

Instructions

Method 1

1. Add sugar, fruit and water to a small sauce pan and stir over medium heat until it is just starting to boil.

2. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately 10-12 minutes until the fruit is soft and starting to fall apart.

3. Strain out the fruit, keeping the liquid.

Method 2 (quick method)

1. Add sugar and water to a small saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until sugar melts.   

2. Remove from heat and combine the fruit and sugar/water mixture in a food processor or strong blender until smooth.  If you do not like seeds or prefer it really smooth, you can strain these out but they didn't bother me.

3. If you're making up multiple fruit syrups using this method, just do one large batch of the sugar and water and then divide when mixing up the individual fruits.

For Lemonade

1. If you're using these fruit syrups for lemonade, add approximately 2 tablespoons of the syrup to about 1 1/2 cups fresh lemonade.  It's definitely a bit of a personal preference so add more syrup if it's too tart and add more lemonade if it's too sweet.

 

If you don’t want to worry about taking the lids on and off (but still keep the bugs out!), you can put upside down cupcake liners over the bottle tops.

These strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry syrups can be added to the basic lemonade recipe to create a custom flavored lemonade with just the perfect amount of sweetness!  You can also keep some extra water {or sparkling water!} and a little bowl of sugar on hand as well.

If you’re wondering about the cute milk jugs and wire crate, they’re also a Decor Steal that I picked up. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re no longer available but these glass bottles or Weck jars would work well. You could always put them in a little caddy or basket if you needed to move them around too.

When the tables are not in use for a lemonade bar, they work perfectly as a cute side table! I actually even bought another set. I am constantly moving items around in my home and switching up my decor, so I love versatile pieces that I can play around with.  The tables can be displayed nested together or used on their own, and they are the perfect size to display a pretty vignette!

You can find lots of pretty shots of how my friend Kristin from Ella Claire styled her tables here…

DECOR STEALS

If you haven’t heard of Decor Steals, you definitely need to check them out! They’ve been a long time obsession of mine and I’ve purchased so many of my favorite home decor pieces from them. From chalkboards, to decorative ladders, to cute farmhouse style signs, they always have something that I love.  Each day they offer a new daily “steal” on some amazing farmhouse and vintage inspired decor items at really great prices. Shipping is ALWAYS just $5 which is a great added bonus {Just a note to my Canadian friends: they do only ship to the US but if you happen to live close to the border, you can always deliver to a shipping company like I do.}  If you’re item isn’t currently in stock, you can always sign up for their email so you can be notified once it’s available again.

LEMONADE BAR PRINTABLES

If you want to dress up your lemonade bar even more, check out these free lemonade bar printables.

I hope you have some time to give this flavored lemonade bar a try this summer!

MORE SUMMER RECIPES

For more delicious summer recipes, just check out these posts