Aromatic
Red onion
Also called purple onion, Red Onions
A purple-skinned onion with wine-red rings, grown mainly for eating raw, pickling, or catching lime in ceviche. Cooked long, it turns grey-pink and you have wasted what makes it different from a brown onion.
Origin
Red types were selected in several places once ordinary onions were already common.
Flavour
Still pungent raw, usually less sulphurous than a brown storage onion, with a faint sweetness. The colour promises more drama than the taste delivers.
How to use it
Slice thin. A ten-minute soak in cold water, or a brief toss with salt and lime, tames the burn for ceviche, tacos and lomo saltado. For a quick pickle, cover slices with vinegar, a pinch of sugar and salt; they turn neon and keep crunch. Do not use red onion as the only onion in a long brown stew — you want the sugar of brown onions, and the colour goes muddy. If a recipe says onion and you only have red, it will work in a sauté, but expect a milder, wetter result.
Storage
Cool and dry like other storage onions. Use within a few days of cutting.
Recipes using it
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