I used to hate onions. Now we're best friends.

Youthful inexperience and fussiness were no match for the incredible power of onions.

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Peoples’ tastes change over time. We may not entirely know why they change, but as we get older, a mix of biological and cultural factors change our food preferences. Some of the things we liked when we were kids may suddenly become totally unpalatable, and some of the foods we used to hate, well, turns out they’re not so bad after all. Maybe it’s a matter of repeated exposure or maybe you have a genuine “Aha!” moment and realize you do like a particular food, but no matter how it happens, there are undoubtedly foods in your life now that you never would have deemed worthy of consumption at another point in your life.

I had a long list of food enemies growing up. They were mostly fruits and vegetables -- foods that people around the world love and have eaten since time immemorial -- but they were simply too dangerous for me. The thought of eating something I didn’t like was inconceivable. What was I supposed to do, calmly go on with my day after tasting something I wasn’t crazy about? Absolutely not. It didn’t matter whether I had already tried it or not. My mind was made up. I don’t like those veggies on my plate, and I didn’t need to do a silly thing like trying them to know it.

As it would happen, I was wrong. I still don’t like some of the things I was afraid of when I was a kid, but for every one I don’t like there are dozens that I’ve grown to like, if not love. And I don’t think there’s been a single turnaround bigger than how I feel about onions.

I hated onions. Hated them. I could not even think of a universe in which I could put them into my body. Nevermind the fact that onions are one of the most foundational cooking ingredients in nearly every type of cuisine around the world. The rest of the world was wrong, and I was right. Onions were gross and to be avoided at all costs. I mean, come on, they make you cry when you cut them! They’re practically screaming at us not to eat them, and like fools, we wouldn’t listen.

One of my strongest childhood memories regarding onions revolves around meatloaf. My Mom, like literally millions of people before her, made meatloaf with diced onions mixed in. I know my mother is reading this, so please accept this apology for the headaches I must have caused you at the dinner table. Mixing diced onions into meatloaf is incredibly common, but for whatever reason, the thought of biting into a soft, chewy piece of meatloaf only to crunch into a piece of onion was enough for me to think we needed to call an ambulance. This carried on for basically my entire adolescent life, with me raising a stink every time dinner prominently featured onions and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to convince my Mom I needed a different dinner than everyone else. Mom, thank you for not driving me out into the woods and dumping me. I’m sure you were tempted, and I would have deserved it.

But as I got older and started cooking for myself, I kept reading recipes and thinking “Damn it, there’s onions in practically everything!” And they are for a reason. Onions are essential building blocks of flavor, and if you’re trying to make a halfway decent soup or sauce, they’re going to be in there. I think part of my issue with them was that raw onions do have a strong, astringent flavor that can overpower the rest of a dish. I still don’t love raw onion, but as I kept cooking, I discovered that onions taste… great. They’re savory and build a deep umami flavor, while also bringing a subtle sweetness. Once they’re cooked down and incorporated into the dish, they move into the background and provide the foundation on which the other flavors can shine. It’s tempting to say you can make a good dish without them as an aromatic, but if you have ever tried to make a soup or sauce without them, you miss them when they’re not there. The powerful richness of caramelized onions is one of my favorite flavors in the whole world, and I think you’ll find precious few sandwiches that wouldn’t be improved by adding caramelized onions. 

Any recipe that says you can caramelize onions in 15 minutes should immediately be disregarded. An hour after this picture was taken, these onions were suitably caramelized.

Over the years, onions have gone from being my number one culinary villain to an indispensable part of my pantry. We probably go through three or four of them a week, and onions are usually one of my first selections when I’m thinking of assembling a new dish. They’re usually the first thing I think of when making a pizza, as well. I’ve also started giving onions and any other veggies a quick saute before they go on the pizza. It’s an extra step, but it’s well worth it to bring out the extra flavor rather than just pile them on the pizza raw. Our last pizza was Italian sausage with sauteed onions and mushrooms (another former culinary enemy, but that’s for another time), and it was just sensational.

I don’t think 12 year old Peter would have envisioned a future where I cook with onions so happily. He also didn’t envision a future beyond playing N64 and getting upset about sports, but that’s what we call personal growth.