Make yellow onions the star on your table.
Add this Southern-style cornbread stuffing to your holiday table. Warm up with the Normandy-style onion and cider soup with melting Camembert. Indulge with the best ever onion rings. And check out links to other onion recipes, research, and information.
Bon appétit!
Southern-style Cornbread Stuffing
From The Crimson Spoon: Plating Regional Cuisine on the Palouse (WSU Press, 2013) by former WSU executive chef Jamie Callison and Linda Burner Augustine (’83 Home Econ., Honors)
“This recipe was inspired by a long-time family secret recipe passed down from my great grandparents, grandma, and mom that uses both fresh and dried sage,” Callison writes. “They would be very happy that I am sharing it—enjoy!”
½ cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups onion, small diced
2 cups celery, small diced
6 tablespoons sage, finely chopped
2 tablespoons dried sage
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 teaspoons garlic, finely chopped
14 ounces (9 cups) unseasoned, cubed, dried bread
12 cornbread muffins (about 8 cups) cornbread muffins, broken into large pieces
4 cups turkey stock or unsalted or low-sodium chicken stock or broth
Kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly butter baking dish.
Melt butter in a large deep skillet. Add onions, celery, and herbs and cook until vegetables are translucent and softened. Add garlic, bread, and cornbread, and lightly stir to evenly combine. Evenly pour 3 cups stock over bread mixture, turning to moisten all ingredients, adding remaining 1 cup, if needed. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer to a baking dish and bake until golden brown and lightly crisp, about 30 minutes.
Yield: 16 cups/servings
Here’s Jamie Callison’s roast turkey recipe, from the archives.
Normandy-style Onion and Cider Soup with Melting Camembert
From “Roast Figs Sugar Snow” by Diana Henry
½ cup butter, plus 1 tablespoon, melted
3 pounds onions, very finely sliced
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
1 cup apple cider
2 pints chicken stock
Leaves from 3 springs fresh thyme
8 slices of bread from baguette, toasted
1 round Camembert
Melt ½ cup butter in a heavy saucepan and add the onions. Saute them gently, moving them around in the butter, until they start to soften. Add a splash of water, cover with a lid, and sweat the onions until they are very soft and starting to caramelize. This can take up to 50 minutes. You will need to add a splash of water every so often and turn the onions over in the buttery juices.
Take the lid off and turn up the heat to medium so that the juices can evaporate and the onions can caramelize. I often end up adding the sugar after a while if it is not caramelizing well, but sometimes, if the onions have a lot of their own sugar, you don’t need to.
When the onions are dark, add the cider, stock and thyme and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Ladle the soup into 8 heavy bowls that won’t crack in high heat. Put a slice or two of toast on each bowl of soup. Cut the Camembert into slices and lay them on top. Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter and heat under the broiler until golden and bubbling. Serve immediately.
Yield: 8
Courtesy National Onion Association
Best Ever Onion Rings
From the National Onion Association
3 large onions (about 9 to 11 ounces each), peeled and trimmed
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon paprika
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 cup nonalcoholic or regular beer
Vegetable oil
Cut onions crosswise into ½-inch slices; pull apart into rings. (Refrigerate broken or end pieces for other uses.) Combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper in large bowl. Stir in beer, beating with wire whisk until foam is gone.
Baked version: Toss onion rings in batter. Transfer to plate, letting excess drip off as you transfer. Heat about 1 tablespoon oil in large 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place about half the onion rings in single layer in heated skillet, cook until browned, turning once, about 1-½ minutes on each side. Repeat with remaining onions. Transfer to ungreased shallow baking pans or cookie sheets, arranging in single layer. Bake at 425 degrees for 6 minutes, or until crisp.
Deep-fried version: Heat at least 2 inches oil in deep fryer for 5 to 10 minutes or according to fryer directions. (If fryer has a temperature adjustment, set it at 375 degrees and heat until light goes out.) Drop batter-coated onion rings into hot oil (about 10 to 20 at a time). Fry 2 to 4 minutes or until crisp. Drain on paper towels before serving.
Variation: Add 2 teaspoons each of dried thyme, chili powder and ground cumin to batter. After baking or frying, sprinkle crispy rings with additional chili powder, ground cumin or bottled pepper blends, if desired.
Yield: 6 servings
More onion recipes
James Beard’s onion sandwich (New York Times)
Julia Child’s French onion soup
Caramelized onion ice cream (Star Chefs)
Oil-free caramelized onions (Minimalist Baker)
35 easy onion recipes from Delish
31 onion recipes from Bon Appetit
26 savory onions recipes from Food & Wine
50 onion recipes from Saveur
Grandma’s pierogi (From Adriana Janovich, Edible Inland Northwest)
The story behind Grandma’s holiday pierogies
More about yellow onions
Yellow onions (In Season, Winter 2024)
Planting, growing, and curing yellow onions
Protecting the onions: Research and cultivars from WSU