8 Delicious Ways To Use Caramelized Onions You (Probably) Never Thought Of

Caramelized onions are a labor of love. You have to go through the eye-watering process of oh-so-thinly slicing up your onions. Then, you gently watch over them for as much as an hour or more, as they slowly cook down into a culinary masterpiece on your stovetop. Sure, some (even expert chefs) will tell you that if it's taking you that long to cook your caramelized onions, you may not be cooking them the right way. That said, others continue to staunchly argue that true caramelized onions take 40 minutes at the absolute minimum.

However long it takes you to achieve onion-y greatness, though, whether you're using a trick to caramelize onions faster or just going the old-fashioned route, what do you actually do with a big batch of caramelized onions once you have them? And this is an ingredient that's worth making in batches. Caramelized onions will last for a few days in the fridge, but you can separate them into smaller portions in an ice cube tray and they'll last for up to three months in the freezer. So, once you've made that big batch, squirrel some leftovers away, because we have some ideas as to what you can do with them. Here are some truly delicious and unique ways to use caramelized onions.

As far as sloppy Joes go, they're pretty simple. They are reliably a food that just about anyone will eat, as the flavor profile is so basic. A tomato-based sauce (typically involving ketchup) meets a few other condiments perhaps, depending on your family recipe, and you slather it on some ground beef, maybe with some cooked bell peppers if you're getting fancy, and then plop it all down on a bun. Cheese is optional.

However, if you're bored of basic sloppy Joes, you can kick the flavor profile up a notch by incorporating some caramelized onions. You can either mix the caramelized onions into your cooked sloppy Joes beef and sauce mixture, or you can use the caramelized onions as a topping. If you really want to go all out on the caramelized onions, though, nix the beef and make what some Redditors theorize would be called a sloppy o: onions caramelized in Manwich sauce, and served up on a bun with nothing else.

If you love baking up a good savory bread, caramelized onion bread is an easy enough endeavor. You can make a basic yeasted loaf or sourdough, whatever your preference. If you go the former route, you'll find that you need minimal ingredients, as, beyond your caramelized onions, it's basically just a mix of flour, salt, yeast, and water. For a sourdough loaf, you'll just need that crucial sourdough starter, and you might find that the bread needs longer to rise.

Don't care for all that time you have to spend waiting for homemade bread to rise? Opt for a yeast-free quick bread. With no rising required, it's just a matter of mixing all of your ingredients, pouring the batter (because it will be more of a batter than a dough) into a loaf pan, and letting it bake. A great quick bread recipe that could incorporate caramelized onions? This dark beer, onion, and mustard bread that's begging to be served with a side of kielbasa.

It sounds ridiculous at first, but just stop a moment to think about all the random, savory high-end novelty ice cream flavors that have hit store shelves in recent years. Jeni's was responsible for one of these flavors several years ago, with the brand's Everything Bagel ice cream. Van Leeuwen has multiple such flavors in its repertoire, and even produced a limited-time onion ice cream in honor of the "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" movie premiere.

If the premise intrigues you, you don't need to hunt down an elusive pint of onion-flavored ice cream at the grocery store. If you have some caramelized onions on your hands, you can make your own at home, right now — no ice cream mixer even required. Use the freezer method and combine your caramelized onions with heavy cream, milk, sugar, and salt; bring the mixture to a boil; let it steep; and then blend it until smooth. Add it to a metal pan and freeze until it's firm, stirring occasionally. You can even make dairy-free onion ice cream, by using soaked cashews, almond milk, and your sweeteners and/or flavorings of choice, likewise combining all of that with your caramelized onions in a blender before freezing.

Making hummus at home couldn't be easier (as long as you're avoiding the main mistakes that can ruin it, such as using jarred chickpeas or subpar tahini). If you've managed to master your own homemade hummus recipe, enhance the flavor profile further by incorporating some caramelized onions. Literally all you have to do is add the caramelized onions to your food processor or blender at the same time that you add in all of your hummus ingredients.

That said, if you already have hummus made (or store-bought) and caramelized onions on hand, you can do as Sabra does. The well-known hummus brand sells its own caramelized onion option, but rather than blending the onions directly into the hummus, the onions sit in the middle of the hummus, so you can scoop as much or little onion-y flavor onto your pita chips or crackers as you like.

If you've yet to discover the magic of savory cookies, then you are doing your taste buds a disservice. No, a savory cookie is definitely not just a cracker. Think the soft and crumbly texture of a typical cookie, but with all the savoriness of a cracker. That is the amazingness that a savory cookie offers up. There are all types of savory cookies — some incorporate cheese, while others rely on herbs like rosemary or tarragon. Others bring in vegetables like tomatoes and, in this case, onions.

Other than the ingredients necessary for a distinctly savory flavor profile, savory cookies come together just like any other. You're going to need butter, flour, and an egg or two to make a basic cookie dough. Then, you'll leave out the sugar and rely on savory ingredients for your flavor. Just keep in mind that the caramelized onions can impact the texture of your cookie dough, so you may need a little more patience as you work with it.

Onions and nachos are no strangers to one another, but rather than just tossing a handful of chopped green or white onions onto your platter of chips and cheese, why not give your nachos a makeover with caramelized onions? You can, of course, just make this one simple change to your typical nacho combo and keep everything else, all the other ingredients the same — the caramelized onions will go great with either ground beef or chicken — but why not do more?

For example, think about all the other ingredients that caramelized onions work well with. You could make a caramelized onion and bratwurst nacho platter, with sliced, grilled bratwursts for your protein and a squirt of brown mustard. You can even double-down on the caramelized onions and utilize our caramelized onion sloppy Joes idea above, and then use that as your protein for some sloppy Joe nachos, with extra caramelized onions as an additional topping.

Maybe you love the flavor of caramelized onions, but you don't think their texture will really work well under all circumstances, in every recipe. Enter, caramelized onion powder. If you're looking for a culinary project, making caramelized onion powder on a sleepy weekend afternoon is a great way to harness this distinct flavor in a versatile powder form.

You're going to need some special equipment, though. A dehydrator or freeze dryer, plus a blender or food processor, are key. First, you'll make your caramelized onions like usual. Then, basically, you just pop them into your dehydrator or freeze dryer, let the appliance do its thing, and then toss the results into your blender or food processor to pulverize. However, you're not done just yet. You have to put the powder back into your dehydrator or freeze dryer, just to be safe, as any remaining moisture will make the powder go bad, faster. If you use a dehydrator, you can expect the first dehydrating session to take about eight to 10 hours.

As you're looking for new-to-you ways to use caramelized onions, consider how other home cooks around the world may be enjoying caramelized onions on a regular basis. One Middle Eastern favorite is mujaddara. If you're not familiar with it, this dish is basically rice and lentils, topped with caramelized onions and accompanied by spiced yogurt or a sauce.

This is a fairly simple and affordable dish, too, so there's even more to love. You'll cook your lentils and rice (either separately or together — you'll just have to keep cooking times in mind, as you'll need to add one or the other to the pot first, depending on the type of rice and lentils you buy). While they're cooking, you can caramelize your onions. For flavor, you might use garlic and bay leaves, cumin or allspice and cloves. Once everything's done, you spread out the rice and lentils in your serving dish, top it with your onions, and then choose your accompaniments.