Truly Caramelized Onions

Hello! Here I am with a truly caramelized onions recipe. A few years ago, onion gate happened. For those who aren’t familiar, there were many recipe writers were accused of flat out lying (or at least intentionally or unintentionally misleading readers) about how long it takes to make caramelized onions. You know…the ones who say it can only take 5-10 minutes when it’s obviously not true nor even possible.

Because I love truly caramelized onions, I took it upon myself to test how long it really does take to make truly caramelized onions in my own kitchen with my own ingredients and equipment. These truly caramelized onions would be great as an additional filling for these lentil and spinach empanadas.

Here’s is what my two sliced onions look like after cooking for 15 minutes. Very light cream color. To me, I consider these onions as on par with sauteéd onions that I would put in a soup.

At 30 minutes, they start to look more golden but still not caramelized.

At 45 minutes, they are straight up brown and pretty caramelized.

This is my standard for truly caramelized onions for my burgers, pizza, potatoes, etc. I don’t like them as toppings otherwise unless they’re just straight up fresh. I like my caramelized onions to the point where they’re almost charred. I also don’t want them broken down into a jam.

It was all a simple process for me to get my truly caramelized onions. I simply sliced two large yellow onions into ¼″ inch thick slices and cooked them over medium heat in a medium pan, uncovered, with a surface area that was fully covered in olive oil. I made sure to use a nice palmful of salt to sprinkle over the onions. I also happen to have an induction range which does tend to be more powerful and heat at a faster rate.

My truly caramelized onions is that it’s going to always take at least 45 minutes. Some other bloggers have found that it takes them at least double that amount of time but with different variables (like adding other ingredients such as water, baking soda, balsamic vinegar, etc). To be fair, we all use different ingredients, different pans, heat levels, etc.

But there is never going to be a day where it takes me only 5-10 minutes, heck even 30 minutes, to truly caramelize onions. It’s simply a slow process and that’s just the way it is.

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