Ever caramelized onions before? Did it take you approximately 100 years? That’s how we feel too. We recently came up with some amazing Roasted Tomato Turkey Burgers and wanted to spend our time letting Ryan’s Really Good Roasted Tomatoes cook—not staring at a pan full of onions and waiting forever for them to brown. That’s why we decided to spill the beans on How to Quickly Caramelize Onions.
This method to quickly caramelize onions only takes about 15 minutes. The key is keeping your pan at medium high heat, then adding oil and making sure that high heat cooking oil is hot BEFORE adding onions to the mix. Learn How to Quick Caramelize Onions and you’ll see that even in a shorter time, you can get great color, flavor, and sugar development out of your onions.
to dice or to slice?
The answer is, it’s up to you! We’re dicing our onions to quick caramelize today because we’re going to mix them with ground turkey and Ryan’s Roasted Tomatoes to make our Roasted Tomato Turkey Burgers. Since we wanted to make sure all the ingredients in our turkey patties (including the Winter Tomatoes) blended well together, a smaller, diced texture was the best choice for us.
Consider what you’re most likely to use your quick caramelized onions for and slice or dice to your discretion. There’s no difference in the cooking process except for time: thicker slices will take a bit longer to brown than tiny diced chops.
choosing your oil
Since we’re speeding up the caramelizing onions process, we’ll be cooking with fairly high heat. That means your best option is to use a high heat cooking oil. Sorry olive oil…we love you, but you’re not the oil for the job this time.
Almost any vegetable oil will do for a high heat cooking job (grapeseed oil and avocado are solid options). Our personal favorite is SunCoco Oil. It’s a mix of sunflower oil and coconut oil, which means its got some awesome healthy fats in it. It’s flavorless—unlike unrefined, virgin coconut oil that tastes like coconut and is better for cooking sweeter dishes.
let’s get caramelizing – quick!
step one
Slice or dice your onions. As always, a sharp knife is safest!
step two
Heat your pan on medium high heat and add 1-2 tablespoons of the high heat cooking oil of your choice. Now don’t add your onions just yet! Wait until oil is hot before tossing those puppies in, then spread them in an even layer throughout the pan. Resist the temptation to stir right away and cook for 1-2 minutes.
step three
After 1-2 minutes, you can stir your onions around in the pan. You’ll notice they’ve already developed a little color. The caramelizing begins! Spread them in an even layer again.
Over the next 10-15 minutes (depending on the thickness of your cut), you’ll repeat this process. Spread in an even layer, wait 1-2 minutes, toss around the pan. Spread in an even layer, wait 1-2 minutes, toss around the pan. You get the idea.
During those 10-15 minutes, you’ll see the color develop. Gorgeous, right?! Once your onions are a nice caramel brown color and softened in texture, they’re ready. That means the sugars have developed and you know their extra tasty. Remove them from heat and transfer them out of the pan so they don’t overcook!
the onion of my eye
Why do we love caramelized onions so much? Because you can put them on pretty much anything. From burgers like our Roasted Tomato Turkey Burger to sandwiches and eggs, from greens to salads to soup. Basically anything you can do with a regular onion, you can do with a caramelized onion for a little extra flavor.
Now that you know How to Quick Caramelize Onions, get creative! We’d love to hear what you decide to put them on.
