sprinklefingers

i can’t believe i’m going to say this, but, sometimes i just want a huge salad for dinner. 

generally i arrive to work at 4am. sometimes 4:15. or 4:17. in order to make this possible, my alarm goes off at 3:30am. at this time of the morning (which is, basically, still night,) the last thing i want to do is think about packing a lunch. because of this, right around 9am everyday i eat a cookie. and then perhaps a few bites of a tart. and then maybe a bit of pie. all of this adds up to trouble. delicious trouble, yes, but still trouble.

to make a loooong and butter-filled story short, because of all the eating i do at work, sometimes i just need a salad. 

thankfully the world of salad is so vast and so tasty - coming up with something perfect (and fast) is never difficult. sometimes i simply throw together some greens and a bit of veg and call it good, other times i get a bit more complicated. but one thing is true: the more effort you put into a salad, the more delicious it is. homemade dressings, roasted vegetables, grilled protein - all of it can add up to a dinner that’s much more than just a salad. 

one thing i love in salad is an onion. but a raw onion is sometimes too powerful for me. and a grilled onion? sometimes i just don’t want to fire up the grill. a roasted onion? same thing…after working an oven most of the day at work, i sometimes prefer my evenings to be oven-free.

thankfully the amazing michael ruhlman has an answer to my onion-in-salad conundrum: behold the blanched onion.

in all my years of salad eating, i have never thought to blanch an onion. blanching takes the sharpness out of the onion leaving behind the sweetness…and an onion of perfect texture for a salad. you really, really should try it. really.

blanched onions

you need: 

• 2 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• very icy ice bath

blanch the onions: 

1. bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. (hint: use more salt than you think you should, and your onions will be perfectly seasoned.)
2. add the onion slices to the boiling water and boil for one full minute.
3. remove the onions from the water and plunge into the prepared ice bath.
4. let the onions sit in the ice bath for two minutes, then remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
5. make a salad! use these onions! and if you don’t use them all, they’ll hold over in the fridge perfectly.