Caramelized Onions and Swiss Chard Recipe - Don't Waste the Crumbs (2024)

FAQs

Should you eat the stems of Swiss chard? ›

Chard stems take a little longer to cook than the leaves, but the whole plant is edible and delicious. It's a little bit sweet in the stems (which have a slight celery-like flavor) and pleasantly bitter in the leaves. Some people prefer to remove the stems from the leaves and cook them separately.

The best type of pan for caramelizing onions is a wide, thick-bottomed cast iron or stainless steel pan. Although onions can also be caramelized with alternative cooking methods and containers, like a crock pot or slow cooker, nothing beats a sturdy sauté pan.

If the onions aren't deeply brown after 50 minutes and you'd like to speed things up, you can turn the heat higher to get more caramelization. Stir continuously to prevent burning.

Kidney stone:

Swiss chard contains oxalates that may increase urinary oxalate excretion and predispose some individuals to calcium oxalate stones. As a result, anyone with kidney stones should avoid Swiss chard because oxalates may increase symptoms in certain people.

Consuming a diet rich in a wide variety of vegetables and fruits has been shown to lower heart disease risk factors such as inflammation, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure ( 20 ). Swiss chard is an excellent source of potassium and magnesium, both of which can help maintain healthy blood pressure levels ( 21 ).

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.

Tip: use apple cider vinegar for white and yellow onions and balsamic vinegar for red 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.

Yes, you should cover the onions when caramelizing them. Covering the onions helps to trap the steam and heat, which aids in the caramelization process by softening the onions and allowing them to release their natural sugars. This results in a sweet and flavorful caramelized onion.

Usually caramelized onions start with thinly sliced onions, but you can also work with diced or chopped onions. To caramelize, just place a heavy pan over medium low heat and heat up some butter or olive oil.

Do you add sugar to caramelize onions? ›

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.

To saute is to brown the ingredient by quickly heating that ingredient by vigorously moving in the hot pan (in French, the term saute means "to jump"). Onions are high in sugar, so sauteed they caramelize some, but caramelized onions, as such, are made by a very slow process.

Salting caramelized onions is like the icing on the cake. They must have salt but don't make the mistake of salting the onions too early. Instead, salt them at the very end of the recipe. Salt makes the onions release moisture which can slow down the caramelization.

Using baking soda to caramelize onions

Stir it in at the end of cooking for about 1 minute. Adding it too early will break down the onion fibers, turning them into mush.

A few reasons could be that you sliced them too thick or too thin. You haven't cooked them long enough. Your heat isn't at the right temp, use between medium and medium-low. Adding too many onions at once can actually cause them to steam because of too much moisture, instead of caramelizing.

If using chard raw just remember to first wash. All leafy greens, fruits and vegetables should always be washed (especially if you plan on eating them raw) prior to eating unless they come in a package labeled “triple-washed,” “washed” or “ready-to-eat”. The stalks of swiss chard are also edible.

The large, firm leaves are mild, sweet, earthy and just slightly bitter; on the whole, it's a bit milder than spinach. The stalks -- which can be white, yellow, red, purple, pink, striped and so on -- resemble flat celery with a sweet taste slightly reminiscent of beets.

The stems can be tough. You can either remove them and discard, or boil and toss with butter: if some of the stems are tender, just sauté them first before adding the leaves, to give them more cooking time.