White Onions vs Shallots vs Red Onions vs Spring Onions

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Spring onions are absolutely classic in salads. Especially the Jumbo ones. As are red onions. Shallots have taken over as my onion of choice for cooking, and I am thrilled beyond all belief to have discovered red spring onions.

All onions have their place - which onion do you use most regularly?

― Rumpie, Wednesday, 28 September 2005 08:14 (twenty years ago)

shallots are amazing for sautes and soups. red onions are gorgeous in salads. raw white onions for sandwiches and chili, please.

― faith popcorn (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

OTM

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

Red onions, either roasted or caramelised (I am so tired this morning I can't type or spell) are the stuff of wonder.

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

I have a lovely pasta recipe adapted from one that Liz posted on here originally: sauteed shallots, smoked salmon, capers and creme fraiche.

Red onions *are* great, though; I usually try to use them instead of white ones. Another thing I like making: a Spanish omelette. It's tricky to get the bottom done just right, but if it's spot-on the bottom of the omelette will be just well-caramelised onion and potato. Yum.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 09:28 (twenty years ago)

White onions when used as a flavour base in currys etc.
Red onions roasted, caramelised or in salads
Shallots in french omelettes
Spring onions chopped and added last second to stir-fry along with lime juice and coriander.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)

Mmmm. I'm so hungry now.

Red onions stain my hands when I'm chopping them up (the onions that is, not my hands)

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

So am I. But that's OK, cos it's lunchtime!

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

normal onions + spring onions, for stir fry.

are shallots just small onions?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

white onions for sandwiches? surely not.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

maybe i should try these poncey red onions one day (they seem incredibly poncey though). maybe i'll have it with sundried tomatos.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:27 (twenty years ago)

and cous cous

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

onion rockist

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

damn straight

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:32 (twenty years ago)

as long as they are not caramelized, onions are great

― terry lennox. (gareth), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:34 (twenty years ago)

We use white onions at least three times a week. I love spring onions for Japanese dishes as well as salads. I just throw'em in salads cause I like'em so much. You can also eat'em raw with miso. YUM. I rarely if ever use shallots.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:38 (twenty years ago)

nathalie knows where it's at

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:41 (twenty years ago)

And to think four years ago I couldn't even break an egg. Well, I'm exaggerating. Four years ago I could only make a chocolate cake. Without onions of course.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:43 (twenty years ago)

there are cakes you can put spring onions in though! (actually i dunno whether chinese "turnip cake" that counts as a cake cos it's actually savoury and steamed/fried, but so tasty)

http://www.galaxylink.com.hk/~john/food/cooking/canton/turnipcake.jpg

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, shallots are just small onions. I think. I wonder if you can get red shallots?

― Rumpie, Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

You can get red spring onions!

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

Yeah - I bought mine in Tesco but never got round to using them. they went all soft in my fridge :-(

― Rumpie, Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)

banana shallots have a pinky colour.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:41 (twenty years ago)

if you don't use it you lose it#

xpost

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:42 (twenty years ago)

red onions are delightful, but give me bad breath

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

dudes, scallion pancakes rule!

― carly (carly), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

chinese turnip cake? Tell us more, ken

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:00 (twenty years ago)

Also...banana shallots? Surely some joke.

RED ONIONS win the battle, by the way - in my house at least.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

It's usually red for me as they are soooo sweet, but since we've been getting a vegetable box delivered each week we have whatever they give us!

X-post

The red spring onions are so expensive!

― Panther Pink (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

oh it's like these cakes made of grated turnip and it turns out like a pudding and it's all steamed and served with like soy sauce and stuff (or you can fry them). tastiness. it's meatatarian (it also has like chinese sausage and prawns in them) but i don't know if the meat bits are essential.

http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/chinese/00/rec0017.html

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)

Ken, that pic makes me think of tempura soy *cakes*. YUM. One tends to put benito flakes on'em. Don't know about spring onion. GOD I AM GETTING HUNGRY AGAIN.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:20 (twenty years ago)

red onions don't seem to keep as well. i like 'em though.

― cb, Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

The red spring onions are so expensive!
I've never seen them! So they're rare, too!
I hate it when restaurants give you salad with huge tire-sized slabs of red bermuda onion. I like them in almost paper-thin shavings. Otherwise they're too fierce. Love Vidalias. Chop them and soak them in lime juice for taco topping. Sweet as apples. And I always put caramelized onions (just the regular yellow ones you get in a net bag) in my burritos. Saute then steam in red wine with brown sugar until very soft. Mmmmm.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

I prefer spanish onions or vidalias to all this fancy pants going on in the thread title. Actually I almost never use white onions at all, that seems strange. Shallots are good in some recipes but generally it's spanish or vidalias. I almost never eat raw onions at all, I don't like it, sometimes red onion for like avocado salad or something.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

I don't really mind.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, shallots are just small onions.

No they're not.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

vidalias??

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

It's not worth it. xpost

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

http://www.vidaliaonion.org/

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

Vidalias are the best for salads.

Shallots for cooking.

I don't think I've used white onions in ages either.

Related goody - leeks. I've been making leeks vinaigrette and using them in stews for ages, but over the last year, I've started taking leeks, removing the most fibrous part of the green, quartering them length wise, sprinkling them with olive oil and fleur de sel and then baking them while the roast cools. When they get crispy, almost burned, I pull them and put them under the roast on the serving plate.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

Heh. Cheers Ally :)

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

Shallots are the best for sauces because they dissolve completely into velvetiness. Also for the hint of garlic they have. They aren't small onions, they are their own thing.

Walla Walla sweets are the best for onion rings.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:47 (twenty years ago)

I generally don't like onions in salads but vidalias are ok. If I have to use raw onions I generally prefer them to be vidalias, except for in my seafood gazpacho thingy in which I use spanish onions. But I try not to use raw onions, I generally don't like them raw.

I used to be best friends with a girl who would eat whole onions, like they were apples. Any type of onion too, she wasn't that picky about them.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Thank you Ally

Tell me that site is a piss-take.. I watched about 30 seconds of the vidwo before deciding that life was too short.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Man, I hate onions, raw or cooked. Love scallions, in fact I use them in place of onions for lots of things, and I'm thinking of trying to make peace w/ shallots. That's as far as I go -- try me again in 5 yrs.

But I'm dying to try the potato-leek soup from Art of FC, it sounds like the easiest thing and involves LOTS OF BUTTER.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

Big, sweet, juicy Maui onions are the best!

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

I have no idea what that site is about, it does seem totally ridiculous. I did not watch the video, the graphic design was enough for me to say "WTF"

Maui onions are good.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

my step-grandfather eats whole onions like apples, too - he lives on whole onions and peppermints. nice combo, huh.

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:13 (twenty years ago)

What's all this talk of shallots and scallions? Are you referring to green onions?

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

What are spring onions?

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

spring onions = English translation of "scallions"

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

Shallots!

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)

Green onions!

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

Booker T and the MGs!

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Oh, wait. Shallots are something different I guess.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

vidalias??
A large, very sweet white onion, slightly flattened, available only in the warmer months where I live.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

USE FEWER ONIONS PLS

THAT IS ALL

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 20:44 (seventeen years ago)

who u talking to? me?

― bear of the teddy (harbl), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 20:58 (seventeen years ago)

Don't think you can just "wash" yr mitts of the onion sin.

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:01 (seventeen years ago)

without onions your food is meh

― bear of the teddy (harbl), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:03 (seventeen years ago)

I am going to be burping up onions and frying people in all directions today with my dragon breath so when you get fried just remember it's yr own damned fault for loving onion.

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:04 (seventeen years ago)

you could've picked them out

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:07 (seventeen years ago)

or hell, just not ordered the french onion soup.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:07 (seventeen years ago)

(burrito w/raw onions)

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:09 (seventeen years ago)

I would rather shame you inveterate onion lovers than take constructive action.

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:10 (seventeen years ago)

i don't like raw onions very much either!

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:11 (seventeen years ago)

i usually just knock them out.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:11 (seventeen years ago)

Whatever LL cool schef.

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:11 (seventeen years ago)

I like onions so much sometimes I'll use multiple kinds (usually red/white/vidalia + scallion) in the same dish.

― venom boners are totally canon (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:14 (seventeen years ago)

Also my friend Jamie the other day shoved her face into my sweaty armpit and said "Nick you smell like onions, get on my sandwich".

― venom boners are totally canon (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:16 (seventeen years ago)

True story.

― venom boners are totally canon (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:16 (seventeen years ago)

when I was doing total Vaisnava cooking for about two years I never used onions and garlic. protip: you don't really need either to make totally delicious, wonderfully spiced meals, and a lot of cooks lean way too hard on these two ingredients.

on the other hand now I eat both and while I still think garlic is massive over-relied-upon, onions are just infinitely useful. I am very into the red ones these days but sweet onions are always gonna be my favorites.

― J0hn D., Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:17 (seventeen years ago)

I usually can deal with just a few onions. It's when they are slathered on like it's an onion dish that the whole onion love culture just crosses the line.

Shallots > Onions > Green Onions

Green onions that are grown in poop tend to taste like poop too so just avoid that whole enterprise ok?

― sheepie (libcrypt), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:20 (seventeen years ago)

It took me a long time to get over overgarlicking everything and I mostly restrain myself now because I love garlic so much that I want it to really MEAN SOMETHING, so I use it much more restrainedly now. Also I usually roast it instead of use it raw.

― venom boners are totally canon (nickalicious), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:21 (seventeen years ago)

first response to this thread 100% OTM (i used shallots in a cream sauce w/ravioli last night)

― most important concept of all -- THE CONCEPT OF LOVE (donna rouge), Tuesday, 25 November 2008 21:44 (seventeen years ago)

got some brussell sprouts roasting w/shallots even as we speak.

my local market has been passing off spanish onions as sweet onions, or trying to. now they're called "unseasonal semi-sweet" but I won't get fooled again.

― m coleman, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 23:23 (seventeen years ago)

four years pass...

i love onions.

― ian, Monday, 9 September 2013 18:48 (twelve years ago)

shallot is a king among onions. it is crossbred with a garlic.

― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Monday, 9 September 2013 18:51 (twelve years ago)

i live in a climate in which the red onions are too big & are poorly harvested, the area closest to the root usually made smushy & discoloured. it sucks. i love red onions so much. i feel like an advanced snack culture like perhaps japan's has maybe made red onions the centrepiece of a snack that i would love but do not have access to. so zingy.

― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Monday, 9 September 2013 23:28 (twelve years ago)

white > leeks = shallot > red > green

― forevermore (a maven) (Matt P), Monday, 9 September 2013 23:35 (twelve years ago)

Red onions are amongst the most visually pleasing of all foods.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Monday, 9 September 2013 23:37 (twelve years ago)

i love shallots. they make eveything better. and vidalia onions. mmmmm....

― scott seward, Monday, 9 September 2013 23:51 (twelve years ago)

white > leeks = shallot > red > green

― forevermore (a maven) (Matt P), Monday, September 9, 2013 8:35 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what is this vegetable algebra

― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Monday, 9 September 2013 23:53 (twelve years ago)

he meant to say:

white xor (leeks imp (shallot and red) ) > green

― Aimless, Tuesday, 10 September 2013 00:23 (twelve years ago)

three years pass...

ahem

― loudmouth darraghmac ween (darraghmac), Sunday, 11 December 2016 23:52 (nine years ago)

did we ever get this sauteed

― loudmouth darraghmac ween (darraghmac), Sunday, 11 December 2016 23:53 (nine years ago)

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