The 9×13 Life: Sautéed Onions

Let your oven “fry” your onions for you. Do it in bulk and get it done now.

You’ll end up with lots of golden onions and not a pot to clean. 

We always hear that, in order to make our Yom Tov easier, we should sauté a huge pot of onions and freeze them, pulling out the frozen onions whenever we start preparing a recipe that calls for a sautéed onion.

The oven technique works so much better for me. With the oven, if I use a disposable baking pan, I don’t have to wash any pot.

I find that this method is more “hands-off.” Once I’m done slicing, I’m done. 

Just combine the sliced onions with oil and salt.

Mix it well. 

Then cover and bake. 

All you need to do in between is adjust the oven temperature once. 

This method will give you “sauteed” onions that are perfect for seasoning recipes (like gefilte fish, meats, mashed potatoes…), but these onions don’t have the charred characteristics of traditionally sautéed onions in a skillet. 

The onions will release a lot of water. If you want less water, you can uncover the pan at the end of the cooking period and let some of the liquid evaporate. Keep mixing while doing so. 

This recipe will yields about 1 ½ cups of fried onions. Double or triple as desired (you will need another pan).

You can divide into portions and freeze until needed.