November 21, 2012

Onion Flowers

Onion Flowers

When I saw these onion flowers in LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine, I knew I had to make them. They were so pretty and I’d never seen anything like them before, but they sounded so easy to make! Growing up, I always hated onions with a passion, but now I’ve learned that onions can actually be quite sweet and delicious - but only when cooked, I still pick out raw onions!

These flowers are made by simply slicing an onion into eighths, without cutting all the way through the onion so that it stays intact on the bottom, but the ‘petals’ fall down when baking to create a beautiful flower shape. The other ingredients are basic – just olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper – but the roasting gives the onions a really nice flavour, too!

Onion Flowers

I admit that the first time I made these, I wasn’t completely successful – all of the petals fell down without anything remaining upright in the center, which is really what gives these a flower-like look. But I realized that my mistake was slicing a little off both ends of the onions. What you should do is slice a bit off the root end of the onion so that it can stay in place, but leave the stem end intact (see the helpful diagrams at the Soup Addict if you need help determining which end is the root and which is the stem!).

There are also some helpful step-by-step photos on making these at The Project Table if you need help after reading the recipe, and there’s also a Youtube video with video instructions! (but notice how one of the onions in that video has a bit too much sliced off the top, and that one didn’t turn out as well after baking)

Onion Flowers

As you can tell from the pictures, I tried making these with both red and yellow onions, and while I liked the taste of both, I do think the red onions look a little prettier! If you want to have a mix of colours at the table though, try using a few yellow onions in addition to red!

Onion Flowers

Once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll realize that these are really easy to make, and they make for an elegant side dish to serve at a special gathering or holiday meal.  I realize that it’s probably too late for my American friends to incorporate these into their Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, but there are still plenty of holiday meals coming up, or you can make them any other time you want to impress your family or guests!

And while us Canadians have already celebrated Thanksgiving long ago, I’d just like to wish my American readers a very happy (and tasty!) Thanksgiving!

Onion Flowers

Recipe and Instructions can be found at the LCBO's Food & Drink website.  

I followed the directions exactly, but I added extra balsamic vinegar before serving and omitted the capers because I didn't have any.
Also, you may need to pull the 'petals' apart a little after baking to make them more flower-like! 
One more note is that while it's best to serve the onions whole for presentation, your guests may want to divide them in half at the table, as a whole onion may be a lot for some people to eat!

15 comments:

  1. I love these photos - they remind me of water lilies.  I think this is the tastiest way I've ever eaten onions - roasting them with the balsamic vinegar sounds simple but brings out so much flavour!

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  2. Natalie, this is so pretty!! I love roasted onions and this just adds an whole extra element of beautiful presentation! :)

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  3. These are SO cool! I'm gonna have to try this out sometime.

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  4. These are fantastic! :) Beautiful presentation.

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  5. these looks beautiful and delicious! i can't wait to make these to bring to a friendsgiving luncheon this sunday! thanks for sharing! 

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  6.  Thanks, let me know how it goes!

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  7. These remind me of those flowers you sometimes see floating in the water in restaurants or hotels if they have those mini ponds. So gorgeous!!

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  8. Wow, these are so beautiful! I'm definitely curious to try this now, although I have a feeling they won't look as good as yours. ;)

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  9. These are just BEAUTIFUL. Wow... I love how artistic food can be. Really... these are gorgeous.

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  10.  I'm sure yours would look even better!

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  11.  Me too, I had no idea onions could look like this before!  Thanks!

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  12. Hi.  These are really beautiful.  Thank you for posting.  However, I have a question regarding the color of the red onions.  I just looked at the original link posted, and those onions look such a dark purple; yet yours looked almost pinkish like a pickled onion type of pink.  Is it just a different type of onion, cooking time, color of vinegar, or photo quality?  Thank you very much for your time and recipes.

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  13. Great question, I hadn't noticed that before!  I didn't edit the colour of the photos, but they do appear slightly lighter in colour than they would be under different lighting conditions, because I photographed them in the sunlight so that the sun would shine through and illuminate the 'petals', which made them look a little lighter and brighter.  They will probably be darker and not as bright pink looking under regular lighting, though I still don't think mine were quite as dark as the original picture - not sure why that is, as I did everything the same as the original recipe!

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  14. I love food art!! Your photos are wonderful! I totally want to make these what a fun idea, thanks!

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  15. This is so pretty. I have to agree, the red onion looks prettier.  Great centrepiece for a dish.

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