Take the Bite Out of Raw Onions with This One Simple Step (2024)

FAQs

Take the Bite Out of Raw Onions with This One Simple Step? ›

Just peel and slice the red onion as called for in your recipe, then submerge them in a bowl of cold or ice water. Let them sit for at least ten minutes, stirring once or twice, before draining and using them in your recipe. For added flavor, you can also soak the onions in lime juice, lemon juice, or vinegar.

After you have cut your onions, try putting them in cold water. Soak them for at least 15 minutes (longer is even more beneficial), properly drain, and eat away! Submerging them in cold water takes away that intense, sharp bite from the raw onion.

The Trick for Taking the Bite Out of Onions

In culinary school, I was taught to soak onions and other alliums like shallots in an ice bath—a bowl filled with water and ice—for 10 to 20 minutes to tame the bite and mellow the flavor while crisping up the texture.

There's no greater pleasure than biting into a slice of a raw red onion and tasting its stinging sharpness.

Onions - soaking in cold water to soften the flavor

When preparing raw onions, soak in cold water before hand to remove some of the pungency and soften the flavor. However since soaking too long will dilute the flavor, soaking in cold water for 5 to 10 minutes is recommended. Squeeze out excess water before using.

Drinking water after meals can wash garlic or onion remnants from the tongue or between the teeth. It also stimulates the production of saliva, which helps to remove some of the odor-producing bacteria from the mouth.

Chill Your Onions Before Cutting

In On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee suggests letting the onion sit in a bowl of ice water for 30 to 60 minutes before cutting into it. The cold slows down the LF factor, making it easier to chop tear-free.

Soaking the onions helps dilute their sulfur content, taking away that pungent, raw bite and leaving you with a pleasant, milder onion that still has some snap to it. Cuisine At Home also recommends maintaining ultimate crispiness by double-dipping the onions in buttermilk and seasoned flour.

Then you just have to wait long enough for the vinegar to do its job, rinsing away the harsh sulfurous compounds, softening the onion, and giving it a pleasantly tart pop of flavor. If you use red wine vinegar, my personal favorite, the onions also turn an amazing hot-pink color.

In addition to limiting your intake of fats and sugars, eating onion can get your blood sugar- and your weight- on the right track. So here is a simple, powerful health-enhancing recommendation. Eat an onion every day. One medium-sized onion equals approximately one cup of onion when chopped.

What are the side effects of eating raw onions? ›

Eating onions, especially raw onions, can have a few side effects, including: Gas and bloating. The same substances in onions that feed the healthy bacteria in your gut can be hard for some people to tolerate. Onions are among foods that sometimes cause trouble for people with irritable bowel syndrome.

Onions are hard to digest largely because they contain fructans, which are not absorbed well in the small intestine. In fact, as fructans ferment, they can cause a great deal of digestive distress in the form of bloating, gas and diarrhea. I recommend avoiding raw onions if your digestive system is sensitive.

Onions may cause symptoms of gastrointestinal upset, such as heartburn, bloating, abdominal discomfort, nausea, and vomiting, in susceptible individuals, which may aggravate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in affected individuals. These symptoms are relatively more common when eating onions raw rather than cooked.

Just peel and slice the red onion as called for in your recipe, then submerge them in a bowl of cold or ice water. Let them sit for at least ten minutes, stirring once or twice, before draining and using them in your recipe. For added flavor, you can also soak the onions in lime juice, lemon juice, or vinegar.

These powerful antioxidants inhibit viral replication and reduce oxidant markers in the lungs, making them particularly effective against respiratory illnesses. Onions are also a good source of the prebiotic fiber inulin. Inulin feeds healthy gut bacteria that serve an important role in the immune system.

Preparing onions often causes a chemical reaction that results in tears for most people. Some people are more sensitive to onions than others. Try chilling onions in ice before cutting to help reduce their sting.

I take it you've added too much raw onion to your chicken salad? A couple of things I use to tone down the sharpness of raw onions are vinegar and salt - I'll marinate the chopped onions in a mix of vinegar and salt for 10–15 minutes before adding them to salads.

Tips to reduce the digestive upset of onions

Another way to reduce the severity of the mentioned symptoms is to cook the onions. Furthermore, you can take digestive enzymes to help to alleviate some of these gastrointestinal disturbances caused by raw onions.