How to Sauté Onions: Easy Sautéed Onions Recipe and Tips

While these two types of pan-cooked onions may appear similar, some key distinctions exist between them. Caramelized onions are soft, sweet, deep golden-brown onions cooked over low heat for an extended period (from 45 minutes to multiple hours).

The slow cooking process caramelizes the natural sugars in the onions, creating a sweet flavor and very tender texture. Some chefs and home cooks add a little sugar to enhance the onions’ natural sweetness or water to prevent the pan from drying out during the long cook time. These are the kind of onions found in caramelized onion dip and French onion soup.

Alternatively, sautéed onions are slightly soft, somewhat brown, and sweeter than raw ones, but they have a more sharp flavor than sweet caramelized onions. Instead of cooking the onions slowly over low heat, sautéing involves cooking food quickly over high heat.

There is no shortage of delectable ways to use these tasty cooked vegetables. Some of the most popular uses of sautéed onions include:

1. 1. Dips: Stir sautéed onions into French onion dip or your favorite creamy dip recipe.
2. 2. Grilled meats: Use sautéed onions as a tasty vegetable topping to garnish grilled meats, like steak and chicken.
3. 3. Pasta dishes: Stir sautéed onions into pasta sauce, like vodka sauce or brown butter sage sauce.
4. 4. Salads and grain bowls: Keep sautéed onions on hand as a quick and easy salad topping option.
5. 5. Sandwiches: Add depth to any sandwich—like a grilled cheese, Philly cheesesteak, or patty melt—with tender pan-fried onions.
6. 6. Soups and stews: Sautéing onions is often the first step to building a flavor base for soups and stews. Once you’ve sautéed the onions, add other vegetables and then deglaze the pan with broth or stock.
7. 7. Toasts: Upgrade your toasts and crostinis by adding a layer of sautéed onions to a base of avocado, cream cheese, or other savory spread.

These tips will help you make the most of this simple dish:

1. 1. Choose your onions wisely. While you can use any type of thinly sliced onion for sautéed onions, milder yellow onions—which have a lower moisture content—or white onions are your best bet. More pungent varieties, like red onions, will retain some of their sharpness after sautéeing.
2. 2. Experiment with additions. Depending on the intended use of your sautéed onions, feel free to work in the flavors of your choice, like dried herbs and spicy ground peppers. Add balsamic vinegar to your onions for additional sweetness or red wine vinegar to build on the ingredient’s complexity.
3. 3. Store sautéed onions properly. Once cooked and cooled, store sautéed onions in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days for easy access when assembling sandwiches, salads, and more.