Now that spring is fully here, spring onions are everywhere! And believe me, you’re going to want to use them for this recipe.
Spring onions are sweeter and more mellow than regular onions, but their greens are more intense than those of scallions. When you grill them, however, their flavor goes up to a whole other level and they become incredibly sweet, yet still a little pungent. It’s incredible!
I was inspired to make something almost like calçots; a traditional Catalan dish where green onions native to the region of Catalonia are charred over a fire then peeled and eaten with romesco sauce. My wife Ariana absolutely loves calçots so I wanted to recreate something similar. I knew spring onions weren’t like calçots though, so I wanted to make the spring onion version of this preparation. I grilled instead of charred the onions, then served them with a dipping sauce I made using their green tops.
The result was these spring onions that have a bold, deep, smoky, and herby flavor all at once. The flavor is incredible, and it is so simple! You really can’t go wrong with it.
If you can’t find spring onions, you can use large scallions.
Instead of the dipping sauce, you serve with some dollops of tahini and some oregano, thyme, and sumac.
You’re going to need:
Grill or grill pan
Tongs
High-speed blender
Make these spring onions as a side, the main star of a dish, or you could even chop them and spread them on crackers. Dip them into hummus, romesco sauce (if you want to go the traditional route), or even eat them in a tortilla with some refried beans. Yum!
12 spring onions, greens cut off and reserved and halved lengthwise
Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Sea salt, to taste
7ml olive oil
250g spring onions tops, roughly chopped
120ml extra-virgin olive oil
140ml vegetable broth
10g za’atar spice
Freshly-squeezed lemon juice, to taste
Preheat the grill or grill pan on high flame. In a large bowl, season the spring onions with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Place spring onions in the grill, face-down, then flip them after 3 minutes. To help weigh them down for maximum contact with the pan, put something heavy on them like a smaller pan or pot. Repeat this process so that each side gets cooked twice, for a total of 4 flips. Remove from heat and set aside.
In the meantime, make the dipping sauce. Place the spring onions tops, olive oil, vegetable broth, za’atar, and a pinch of salt into a high-speed blender and blend for 30 seconds on medium-high speed. Taste and season with salt and lemon juice.
Serve grilled onions on plates with the dipping sauce either on the side or spooned on top.
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