Sweet and Sour Onions Recipe

Name: Sweet and Sour Onions
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 to 1 1/2 pounds boiling or pearl onions; Kosher salt; 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter; 3 tablespoons cider, malt or white wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon honey

A perfect holiday side dish from Hank Shaw. Enjoy! ~Elise

This is a lovely way to eat smaller onions. I learned this recipe from Italian cookbooks, where they call it onions agrodolce, but the concept of sweet-and-sour onions is pretty widespread.

Basically you cook the onions part way either by roasting or boiling—we boil them here—and then finish them off in a pan with oil (or butter) something sweet (in this case honey) and something sharp, usually vinegar.

You can totally play with flavors. Switch up oils and fats—walnut oil, duck fat, sesame oil, etc—and sweeteners (honey, brown sugar, agave nectar, and so on) and you will get all sorts of different results. All are good.

Sweet and Sour Onions

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 35 mins

Servings 4 servings

These onions are just as tasty at room temperature as they are hot.

1 to 1 1/2 pounds boiling or pearl onions
Kosher salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter
3 tablespoons cider, malt or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey

Peel the onions:

The hardest part about this recipe is peeling the onions. If you are using pearl or small cipollini onions, blanch them in boiling water for a minute or so and then plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking. Slice off the root and stem ends, and the papery skin should slip right off.

If you are using the larger boiling onions, as we did here, just slice the stem end off the onion and peel as you would a normal onion.
Boil the onions:

Bring a pot of salty water to a boil, and boil your onions for 4 to 10 minutes, or until they are tender. Smaller onions will need less time. You want them al dente, not soft, because they will cook a bit more in the frying pan. Drain the onions well and set aside.
Fry the onions:

Get a frying pan hot over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Let the olive oil get hot for a minute or two and add the onions. They will spit a little because they are full of moisture. Let them sizzle until you get some browning on a couple sides of the onion, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Add honey and vinegar mixture to pan:

Meanwhile, mix the honey and vinegar vigorously until the honey dissolves. Add it to the frying pan. It will spit and sizzle violently. Turn the onions to coat with the mixture and turn the heat down to medium. Sprinkle salt over everything.
Boil down to a syrup:

Let the vinegar-honey mixture boil down to a thick syrup. Turn the onions often to coat evenly.

Serve hot or at room temperature, with a little sprinkling of a fancy salt like fleur de sel, if you have some.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
183	Calories
10g	Fat
22g	Carbs
2g	Protein

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories	183
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 10g	13%
Saturated Fat 1g	7%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 85mg	4%
Total Carbohydrate 22g	8%
Dietary Fiber 2g	9%
Total Sugars 12g
Protein 2g
Vitamin C 9mg	44%
Calcium 39mg	3%
Iron 1mg	3%
Potassium 293mg	6%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

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.