Smoked onions

You can smoke anything, but have you ever smoked onions? These smoked onions are wonderfully soft and taste great with roasted potatoes or a thick burger. You can also use them as a base in your French onion soup.

In general, you see that smoked onions are cut crosswise to make rings. We cut them the other way around because we think they absorb more smoke this way. The onion layers come loose sooner, allowing the smoke flavour to penetrate further into the onion. We could be wrong, of course, but it works for now.

We leave the onion’s root in place because otherwise, the onion will fall apart during the cook. You cut it off at the table.

You decide how long you smoke the onions. How soft do you want them, and how much smoke flavour you would like to give them? We tried several batches and liked them best when they had been left in the barbecue for about an hour at 120ºC (248F). We used apple as smoking wood. This gives a mild smoky flavour that goes well with vegetables.

After they have smoked for an hour, we put them back on the barbecue in a bath of butter, balsamic vinegar and honey. This makes them even tastier and gives them a nice shine.

These are our smoked onions. Serve them as a side dish with dinner or put them on a nice hamburger. If you will make these onions, let us know in the comments below. Or better! Tag @bbq.heroes so we can see what you made.