Onions Shouldn't Make You Cry

Onions! Onions! Everywhere!!

The other day, my boss hefted a 50-pound bag of brown onions into the shop. My job was to put them on the shelf, the easy part, and replace the older ones. Which, of course, I couldn't just throw away.

Now, what to do with 10 onions? I love myself some onions, but since they were already a little bit older, I knew I wouldn't be able to store them for long enough to cook them all. At least… not in their current state!

Enter the dehydrator, stage left.

It’s not QUITE as easy to dehydrate onions as I thought it would be. They are a little touchy… and apparently my dehydrator doesn't heat evenly… and you need a piece of special equipment… and you really should do it outside… onions are smelly! But, OTHER than all that, it’s really easy. Here’s how:

Dehydrating Onions
Ingredients:

• Onions, peeled and diced or sliced 

Directions:

1. Once all your onions are cut up, my pieces were about ¼ inch, get your dehydrator ready. 
2. Insert Clean-A-Screens (non-stick screens for your trays, available here), into each of your dehydrator trays. Set the temperature to a lower setting, if you have that option (I don’t, and I think mine runs a little warm). About ½ an onion will fit on each tray. 
3. Spread an even layer of onions onto each tray. Don’t let the pieces stack on each other or be too close together, because they all just get stuck together, and it is hard to separate them. Turn on the dehydrator (I used my patio plug outside). 
4. Every couple hours, rotate the trays. Maybe mix them around a bit if you notice some getting browner than others. The outer edges of my trays cooked WAY faster than the inside. The process takes about 8 hours… give or take 2 hours, depending on the size and sweetness of your onions. Sweeter onions brown faster, so keep a close eye on those. And DON’T let them get brown-brown! They get bitter, and burnt tasting… trust me… I know. 

Once cooked, put them into a glass jar. Keep the lid off till they cool completely, then seal them up!
Add them to anything. Soup. Dip. Re-hydrate them in a bit of water to sauté with. Eat them right out of the jar… yeah… seriously… they’re tasty. Mine had a nice sweet, caramelized flavor, I think due to the higher dehydrating temperature.

And that’s it! My jar is full of about a cup and a third of onions – and it took 5 raw ones to make that much. I actually cut my onions up the night before, kept them in the fridge, and then dehydrated them the next morning. It doesn't seem so labor intensive when you break the work load up.

Have fun! And, I hope you enjoy!