It is hard to imagine cooking without onions. They lend their unique, sharp flavor to soups, stocks, sauces, salads and main dishes. Onions can be baked, boiled, roasted, creamed, caramelized or grilled. Cooked onion marmalade, pickled onions, fried onion rings and onion soup are all popular incarnations. They are found raw in an onion sandwich and thickly sliced as a hamburger garnish.
Onions contribute depth to salsas, pizza, pasta sauces, casseroles and stews.
It must have marked me for life, for I have never ceased to love the hearty flavor of onions. It's all in the family Thousands of species of onions, or alliums, have been identified, with most of the common bulb onions classified as Allium cepa . And there are many relatives and cousins in the allium family, including garlic, chives, leeks and shallots. Mild spring or green garlic is another allium worth seeking out in some farmers markets. As for regular onions, growers divide them into two categories, fresh and storage, according to Tanya Fell, a spokeswoman with the National Onion Association.