Onions are the national taste-enhance for literally everything. With their succulent flavors and the ability to enhance the taste of almost everything, onions are a staple kitchen ingredient in the average American home.
Grilled onions are particularly easy to make and go well with everything. With different techniques coming up, many chefs and maestros are trying to grill onions in foil for more relevant results and taste.
In this article, we look at the techniques you can follow to grill onions on foil and what’s the best method to do so. Stay with us as we take you through the sweet and sour world of grilled onions.
How to Grill Onions?
Sliced, cut into slivers or diced, onions are the perfect side dish to your grilling fiesta. The char-grilled color of well-cooked onions can complement a steamy BBQ or your new steak recipe. These grilled onions go well with pretty much every recipe and can accentuate the authentic taste of your ingredients.
You can add the right combination of sauce, herb and seasoning to get the best out of your grilled onion recipe and make sure that they give your taste buds the true taste of happiness and satisfaction.
Using a Foil
There are multiple ways to grill an onion without taking away the true essence. Adding foil to the onions before you grill them can help maintain the true essence, besides adding some extra flavors. Adding a foil will ensure that your onions get soft like butter and feel like they are caramelized without any extra seasoning.
The onions dump their bitterness for a sweeter and milder flavor that feels good in the mouth. You can also use the foil as a compartment to add in some extra flavors in the form of butter or parmesan cheese. Dump in the added goodness and see the onions swirl in the madness of taste and luxury.
The foil you add to your grilled onions can also be used to help keep them safe and secure in the fridge. A plastic wrapping will ensure that everything is up to a point and there are no faulty additives. Grilled onions follow a different technique than caramelized onions but can help generate pretty much the same results.
Caramelized onions are usually heated generously at a medium-to-low-heat setting. Caramelizing an onion can take around an hour, as you properly charr the external coating of the onion. The indirect source of heat used for caramelizing the onions can lead to sweet results that taste pretty great.
When you are grilling the onions, you aren’t burning or charring them but are adding flavors through the direct source of heat.
How to Grill Onion with a Foil?
We now come to the actual process of grilling onions with foil. You can start by spreading a large sheet of aluminum foil on your kitchen counter. The sheet should be placed with its shiny side facing upwards. When you have spread the sheet out, you should add the onion and the extra ingredients right in the center. As we have mentioned above, you can add parmesan cheese and other flavors alongside the onions to add some extra flavors to the mix.
Once the onions and all the extra flavors have been added to the mix, you can pull all of the sides of the foil up and fold them into a seal. Make sure that you crimp the sides appropriately and create a solid pouch with no space for the heated cream or cheese to make its way out of the pouch. You should also leave some room for steam to gather inside the foil so that the onions exude the charred smell of coal without actually acquiring that feeling.
Once you have added your foiled onion to the grill, you should let it be there for a short while. Ideally, we believe that your onion should be left to grill for at least an hour. You should use red onions for the grilling purpose because they have a jammy texture that can maintain its integrity without getting all mushy on the grill. Yellow onions are particularly guilty of going all mush once they are left in the grill for too long.
Once you have grilled your onions, you should best store them in a well-ventilated place. Once you have peeled your grilled onions and have half-eaten them, you should keep them in the refrigerator.
Grilled Onions Benefits
Grilled onions from inside the charcoal grill can be good for you. To start with, onions tend to have several vitamin C components present inside them. The vitamin C present inside onions can accumulate inside your body and lead to several positive outcomes, including reducing your body’s inflammation.
Onions are also connected to weight loss, as they take the hunger pangs away from your body. Eating onions as a side dish alongside the main course can help relieve some of the hunger pangs you have and keep you full for longer. Additionally, onions are good in taste and come out pretty decent from the grill.
You can make your onions tastier by grilling them on the grill. Additionally, you can pre-cook onions for your BBQ by grilling them beforehand and adding a couple of tablespoons to the mixture. The tablespoons will make sure that the onions preserve their taste.
6 Tips for Grilling Onions
We understand that not many readers will have prior experience with grilling onions. Knowing this, it can be pretty hard for them to grill onions the way they want. In line with this, it is highly recommended that you follow the tips that we have mentioned below:
- You should start by cutting the slices of your onions at least half an inch thick. Thick slices get the best results and will be good to grill. One onion should be cut into a maximum of 7 pieces.
- When you are cutting wedges, you shouldn’t completely cut through the bottom or root end of the onions. Cutting the root end will cause the entire onion to fall apart. You should have around five wedges from one onion.
- You should spray some light oil on the onion before adding it to the foil. Then, you should also rub some olive oil on the sides. This will ensure that the onions don’t stick with the foil. You can also apply your seasoning right about now.
- You can grill at a light temperature for around half an hour or an hour now. Keep checking with your tongs, and remove the onions when you feel they are soft.
- You can also place your onions in grill baskets and flip them over using tongs. Grilling an onion with a foil leads to a more succulent result.
- You can grill your onions beforehand for a large gathering to ensure enough space for the real stuff. Finally, you can pre-heat them when it is time.
Grilling onions on a foil can be a rather cumbersome process, especially since you cannot see the color of the onion and when to remove them. Keep half an hour in mind, but the process can go on for longer. To make things easier, keep checking with tongs and remove the onions when they seem soft.
