Dry-Sautéed Onions
Sweating onions and vegetables is simple to do without using oils or fats
Gently softening onions in a small amount of fat is the very first cooking step in many soup, stew, sauce, vegetable, grain and legume recipes. There’s probably no reason for me to say this, but I’m going to anyway; it is the most important step in making many of your recipes. The process has a name - it is called sweating. There are two ways to go about this: gently softening vegetables to change their texture and begin mixing flavors or completely caramelizing their sugars to add a touch of sweetness and color to whatever you are cooking.
Most students of cooking are taught to add fat - usually a combination of oil and butter to the hot pan - before adding the onions or vegetables. This is wrong! The hot pan will heat the fats and oils too quickly, causing them to produce harmful elements - or worse burn. Fortunately, sweating onions and vegetables is simple without using oils or added fats. It’s a standard method to incorporate if you are looking to cut back or eliminate the use of fats and oils. But really, this is how all cooks should learn to cook in the first place.
Here are my suggestions for sweating:
Option 1 (this is for soups, sauces and stews)
Heat a heavy bottomed pot or pan over medium heat. Add the onions to the pan. You should hear a sizzle at this point and that is good because it means your pot or pan is hot enough. Add a small pinch of salt to the onions (I use 1/2 teaspoon per onion) and stir well. The salt will penetrate the onions, releasing their natural water into the pan. Keep cooking the onions over medium heat until all the water has evaporated and the onions turn translucent. At this point, you may need to add a bit of water if the onions begin to stick too much and take on color. Remember, you are just looking to soften the onions at this stage and remove their raw flavor rather than caramelizing them and adding sweetness. The entire process will take about 10 minutes to complete…so be patient!
Option 2 (this is to create color, say for a brown sauce)
Heat a large stainless steel pan over medium heat. The pan has reached the correct temperature when a few drops of water immediately swirl in the pan like mercury balls. Add the chopped onions and immediately season them with salt to help release their water. Allow the onions to gently stew in their juices until they begin to stick on the pan. Release the onions and by adding 1-2 tablespoons of water and gently scraping the pan with a spatula. Continue with the same process until the onions reach a nice golden color and their juices become brown. This will take 15-20 minutes, so again - be patient.
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