What to use instead of yellow onion
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Slow-caramelised sweetness
Forty minutes of low heat drives off the water and breaks the onion's sugars into brown, jammy compounds. Yellow onions carry enough sugar and enough sulphur to end up sweet and savoury at once.
ShallotsRan out
1:1 by weight
Caramelise in about 20 minutes instead of 45 and finish silkier and sweeter. They burn if you leave the pan.
Leeks, white and pale greenRan out
1:1 by weight
Collapse into a soft purée in half the time with no strands left. Mild and clean, with none of the deep meaty note.
Red onionRan out
1:1 by weight
Sweeter at the start and jammier at the end. The pigment turns the whole mass a dull grey-purple, which shows badly on a pale dish.
Onion jam from a jarRan out
2 tbsp per 1 caramelised onion
Already sweetened and acidified, so pull back the sugar and vinegar elsewhere in the recipe. Smoother and glossier than anything you would make in a pan.
What doesn't work: Speeding it up with baking soda. A quarter teaspoon does brown them in 15 minutes, but the alkali also dissolves the cell walls, so you get a brown slurry with a faint soapy taste instead of soft strands.
Raw white onion in salsa, ceviche and tacos
White onions have a clean, sharp bite that drops away fast in acid, so the salsa keeps its crunch without leaving an aftertaste that hangs around for an hour.
Red onionRan out
1:1
Milder and sweeter, and it bleeds pink into the tomato and lime within 20 minutes.
ShallotRan out
1:1 by volume
Softer bite and a finer dice, and it disappears into the salsa instead of standing out as pieces.
Scallion whitesRan out
1:1 by volume
Lighter and greener, with a crunch that goes limp after a couple of hours in lime juice.
What doesn't work: Sweet onions such as Vidalia or Walla Walla. They carry more water and much less sulphur, so they dilute the salsa, go limp inside an hour and read as sugary rather than sharp.
Bulk and moisture inside a meat mixture
Grated onion releases its water into the mince and its enzymes soften the protein, so kofta and meatloaf stay juicy after the meat has tightened.
Grated shallotRan out
1:1 by volume
Sweeter and wetter, and it disappears entirely into the mixture.
Grated zucchini, lightly squeezedRan out
1/2 cup per 1 medium onion
Adds the moisture with none of the flavour, so lift the seasoning. Squeeze too hard and you have added nothing.
Onion powder plus waterRan out
1 tbsp powder + 2 tbsp water per 1 medium onion
Flavour without any bulk, so the mixture is denser and firmer and the patties shrink less.
What doesn't work: Raw onion left in dice rather than grated. The pieces shrink as they cook and leave voids behind, so kofta and meatloaf crumble along the gaps when you slice them.