The Onion Family Alliums from root to tip

Where the slow-cooked and the sharp-and-fresh share a shelf.

From the allium family

Onions, leeks, shallots, and scallions — the quiet backbone of good cooking

Sweet and slow, sharp and fresh, or somewhere in between. The whole allium family, explored honestly — how to choose them, clean them, cook them, and understand what each one is actually for.

Five deep-dives Topic · Alliums
Start with caramelized onions
A mix of whole onions, shallots, leeks, and scallions arranged together on a light surface

About this blog

A grounded, patient look at the allium family — the vegetables most cooks reach for first and think about least.

The Onion Family is a cooking blog about the whole tribe: yellow onions and sweet ones, the muddy joy of cleaning leeks, shallots in a pan sauce, scallions scattered over almost everything. No trends, no shortcuts, no apologies for the 45-minute caramelized onion.

🧅

Onions

Yellow, white, sweet, red — each with its own character and best use.

🌿

Leeks

Mild and silky when cooked low. Worth the cleaning time, every time.

🫙

Shallots

More nuanced than onion, less aggressive than garlic. The cook's secret.

🌱

Scallions

Raw, cooked, or charred — both parts useful, nothing wasted.

The collection

Five deep dives into the allium family

Each one starts with a question that used to bother me at the cutting board and ends with an answer I actually trust.

Onion sliced into rings on a wooden cutting board
Technique

Slicing Onions Without Tears

Why onions make you cry, which methods actually reduce it, and the knife angle that changes everything. Plus: when cold onions help, and when they don't.

Read article
Deep golden caramelized onions in a heavy pan
Low and Slow

Sweet, Slow-Cooked Onions

Forty-five minutes at low heat, a wooden spoon, and patience. This is how onions become something completely different from what they started as.

Read article
Fresh leeks halved and cleaned, laid on a light surface
Method

Leeks: Cleaned and Cooked

Grit between the layers is the only real obstacle leeks put in front of you. Once you know how to clean them, everything else is straightforward and forgiving.

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Peeled shallots in close-up, pale purple and golden
The Subtle One

Shallots for Finesse

Shallots behave differently than onions in almost every way. Sweeter raw, more complex cooked, and worth keeping on hand even when you think an onion will do the job.

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A bunch of fresh green scallions on a light surface
Every Part Counts

Scallions from Root to Tip

The white end is different from the green end, and that difference is worth understanding. How to cook with scallions without thinking of them as mere garnish.

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At the cutting board

Three things worth slowing down for

Techniques that take a few minutes to read and keep paying off for years at the stove.

Onion being sliced into rings on a wooden board Prep · 3 min

Knife technique

The root-end rule

Keep the root end attached while you halve and slice. It holds the layers together and gives you clean, even slices instead of a pile of scattered rings. Cut it off last, after you've gone through the rest of the onion.

Cold onions release less of the enzyme that irritates your eyes. Twenty minutes in the refrigerator before cutting helps — though nothing eliminates it entirely.
Caramelized onions golden and soft in a wide heavy pan Cook · 45 min

Low-heat cooking

The patience rule for caramelization

The sugars in onions need time and gentle heat to convert. High heat browns the outside before the inside has softened; medium-low heat does it properly, layer by layer. Stir occasionally, not constantly. Let the pan do the work.

A pinch of salt early draws out moisture faster. A splash of water if they stick prevents burning without breaking the caramelization process.
Leeks halved lengthwise, cleaned and ready to cook Prep · 5 min

Cleaning method

How to clean leeks properly

Halve the leek lengthwise all the way to the root. Fan the layers open under cold running water, working from the cut side. Grit collects between every layer and rinsing a whole leek from the outside does almost nothing to remove it.

The dark green tops are not garbage. Simmer them in stock for depth, or slice them thin and soften them longer — they take more heat than the white parts but are perfectly good to eat.

In the kitchen

The whole family

From the field to the pan — each member of the allium family has its own character, its own cooking logic, and its own way of making everything around it taste better.

A generous bunch of fresh green scallions
Scallions — both ends useful
Onion sliced into rings on a cutting board
Yellow onion, properly sliced
Shallots peeled and close up, pale purple tones
Shallots — the understated one
A bowl of French onion soup with golden broth
Where it all ends up — French onion soup

What cooking does

One onion — two completely different things

The same yellow onion, raw and caramelized. Same vegetable, completely different food.

Raw onion (100 g)
40
calories
4.2g
natural sugars
Sharp
bite & aroma
89%
water content
vs

45 minutes
medium-low heat

Caramelized (from 100 g raw)
~30g
remains (water evaporated)
3×
sweeter by taste
Deep
rich, jammy flavor
Dark
amber, soft, silky
The onion is the truffle of the poor — the anchovy of the vegetable world. Humble on the shelf, essential in the pan, irreplaceable once you understand it. The Onion Family

From the kitchen

Things cooks learn, eventually

The first time I made properly caramelized onions — actual ones, 45 minutes, low heat — I sat down and ate them straight from the pan. I have never used a recipe that claims 10 minutes since.

Home cook, four years in

I used to throw away the dark green leek tops. Enormous mistake. They go in every stock I make now, and the difference in depth is not subtle.

Kitchen curious since 2019

Shallots changed how I think about vinaigrettes. A finely minced shallot in acid for five minutes before you add the oil — the bite mellows completely. Nothing else does that the same way.

Salad obsessive

Getting started

How to work through the allium family

Start where you feel comfortable and build outward. There's no wrong order.

1

Learn to slice an onion cleanly

Root end last, halved pole to pole, thin even slices. Once the knife work feels automatic, everything else in the family becomes easier to approach.

2

Make caramelized onions — the real version

Set aside 45 minutes on a quiet afternoon. Medium-low heat, a heavy pan, a wooden spoon. Salt early, water if they stick. That's the whole method.

3

Clean a leek properly, then cook it gently

Halve lengthwise, fan under cold water, check between every layer. Then braise, sauté, or add to a soup. Treat them gently — they soften fast and forgive little overcooking.

4

Swap a shallot in wherever you'd use onion

For pan sauces, vinaigrettes, and anything raw or lightly cooked. Notice the difference. Then start keeping them around on purpose.

5

Use the whole scallion

White parts in the pan, green parts scattered on top — or both cooked, or both raw. The two ends behave differently enough that treating them separately makes every dish better.

Questions & answers

Things people wonder about alliums

Can I substitute shallots for onions?

Yes, in most cases. Shallots are milder and slightly sweeter, so you may want to use a bit more — roughly 3 medium shallots for every small onion. They cook faster than onions, so watch the heat.

Why are my caramelized onions still pale after 15 minutes?

Because they need 40–45 minutes at low heat, not 15. That's not a rounding error — it's a genuinely different process. The color and sweetness develop slowly through the Maillard reaction and sugar conversion. Adding sugar or balsamic vinegar early shortcuts the flavor in ways you'll notice.

Are the dark green tops of leeks edible?

Yes, but they're tougher and need more cooking time. They're excellent in stocks and broths where they have time to fully soften and release flavor. In soups or braises where they'll cook for 30+ minutes, they work fine sliced thin. Don't add them to dishes where the leek is only briefly cooked.

What's the difference between spring onions and scallions?

In most American usage, they're the same thing — a young onion harvested before the bulb develops. In some regions, "spring onion" refers to a more mature plant with a small but distinct bulb. For cooking purposes, treat them identically unless the recipe specifies otherwise.

Does chilling an onion really reduce tears?

It helps. Cold temperatures slow the release and spread of the volatile compound (syn-propanethial-S-oxide) that irritates the eyes. Twenty minutes in the fridge, or cutting near an open window, reduces the effect — it doesn't eliminate it. A sharp knife also helps because it crushes fewer cells as it cuts.