Frizzled Onions Are The Perfect Way To Give Soups And Salads A Salty Crunch

While no green bean casserole is complete without the delectable crunch and aromatic zing of frizzled onions, their taste and texture are the perfect addition to countless other dishes. Fried onions are a crunchy, light, and airy textural contrast to soups and warm salads or an added layer of crunch to raw salads.

Crunchy fried onions are readily available canned at any grocery store, requiring no messy frying or tedious prep work. That said, you can make your own frizzled onions with more control over how you season them. 

To make frizzled onions on the stove, you can soak onion slices in buttermilk to tenderize them for an hour before dredging them in a mixture of flour and seasonings. They'll fry into flavorful, fresh, crispy versions of themselves in a couple of minutes over medium heat.

You can also make your own frizzled onions mess-free in the microwave or air-frier. Both of these appliances don't necessitate breading; you can simply toss the onions in oil and let the machine do the rest. While the onions are still hot, you can season them with salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you have in mind.

There are really no wrong applications when it comes to soup and salad recipes as they'd all benefit from frizzled onions. You could add them to a bowl of pozole or pho in addition to a wide variety of garnishes like radishes, pork rinds, bamboo shoots, fresh chilies, and chopped cilantro, which are already a part of Mexican and Vietnamese traditions.

Sprinkle fried onions over cream-based soups like potato, corn, or butternut squash for a burst of aromatic crispiness to complement the richness of their savory, creaminess. If you're an onion lover, you could add yet another layer of onion to French onion soup by topping croutons and melted cheese with fried onions. An umami-rich soup like beef stew or mushroom barley soup would also pair well with the zing of fried onions.

Because fried onions are the quintessential topping for green bean casserole, you know they'd work with creamy salad dressings and cooked vegetables alike. You could add them to a Cobb salad with bleu cheese or ranch dressing or add them as a delicious topping to a cooked green bean salad or a tuna nicoise. Of course, they'd also taste amazing over a German or American potato salad. The sky's the limit!