Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions Recipe | Vegan in the Freezer (2024)

FAQs

Can you caramelize onions and freeze them? ›

Caramelized Onions Recipe Tips

Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, they'll keep for a week. You can also freeze them for up to two months. I like to freeze caramelized onions in ice cube trays. That way, I can easily thaw enough for a single dish and save the rest for another use.

Caramelized onions freeze beautifully, and you should take advantage of that. Imagine a life where you can add deep, sweet umami to soups, stews, braises, burgers, and anything else with a quick trip to the freezer.

Directions. Rub bottom and sides of slow cooker with 1/2 of the butter. Toss onions and salt with remaining butter in a bowl. Cook onions on Low until browned and sweet, about 10 hours.

Not only do onions freeze exceptionally well, it truly is as easy as chopping them up and chucking them in the freezer. There is no need to cook them first, unless, of course, you'd like to be able to quickly add the depth of flavor that caramelized onions provide to a dish.

Let the cooked onions thaw in the refrigerator overnight before adding to soups, pastas and braises, or using as a burger topping.

If that happens, don't despair; the good parts can be salvaged and turned into caramelized onions, which can be preserved in the fridge or freezer for use later. Sarah shows Danielle how to cut onions into uniform slices (and also the right way to dice onions), then cook them slowly in oil until they turn golden brown.

Yup, those flavor-packed little strands of sweet cooked onions freeze beautifully, so why not make a bigger batch the next time you're caramelizing some for a recipe, or find yourself with a big bag of onions to use up.

Frozen onions are perfect for use in soups, stews, sauteeing with vegetables – just about any cooked application. You don't even have to thaw them! Onion Tip: Freezing changes their texture, so we don't recommend using frozen onions in fresh dishes like salsa or potato salad.

You can use either oil or butter to caramelize onions — but ideally, you use a combination of both! I like to use olive oil, and this cooking fat tolerates heat particularly well. Meanwhile, butter adds a distinctly rich flavor to the caramelized onions.

Our Test Kitchen likes to use butter when caramelizing onions, as it offers the richest flavor. If you avoid dairy or don't have butter, you can caramelize onions in other fat such as margarine or olive oil. Add the onion slices. It's okay if they overlap a bit here because they'll shrink as they cook down.

Why add vinegar to caramelize onions? ›

Tip: the vinegar serves to deglaze the pan, adds acidity, and brings this recipe together by boosting the tangy and savory flavors of the caramelized onions. If the onions stick to the pan, that's fine.

If you cook red onion with alkaline foods, such as nuts, lentils, and some vegetables, those anthocyanins revert to their blue hue. The same is true of red cabbage. To maintain the red hue, add a little acid, such as a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice.

For many dishes, particularly soups and stews, you really can just throw all the ingredients in. It can be nice to cook the onions beforehand, as the flavour is different to when you put them in raw, but experiment both ways as you may find you prefer one.

Before onions can caramelize, enough moisture has to evaporate out of the pan for the cooking surface to climb above 212 degrees. That alone takes a while, and once it happens, you're still committed to stirring and scraping so the onions' natural sugars break down evenly.

Yup, those flavor-packed little strands of sweet cooked onions freeze beautifully, so why not make a bigger batch the next time you're caramelizing some for a recipe, or find yourself with a big bag of onions to use up.

Caramelized onions will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge. The fat will separate from the onions, but a quick reheat in the microwave or on low on the stove combined with a bit of stirring will revive the texture.

One important thing to realize, though, is that frozen onions can then only be used in cooked recipes. The texture of a fresh onion will naturally break down during the freezing process, so you won't want to enjoy thawed onions raw. But, they will be delicious sauteed, caramelized, grilled or roasted.