Onions can be divided into two categories: spring/summer fresh onions and fall/winter storage onions.

Spring/summer Fresh Onions
Spring/summer fresh onions are available in yellow, red and white throughout their season, March through August. Fresh onions can be identified by their thin, light-colored skin. Because they have higher water content, they are typically sweeter and milder than storage onions. This higher water content also makes them more susceptible to bruising.

With its delicate taste, the spring/summer onion is an ideal choice for salads and other fresh and lightly-cooked dishes.

Fall/winter Storage Onions
Fall/winter storage onions are available August through April. Also available in yellow, red and white, storage onions have multiple layers of thick, dark, papery skin. Storage onions have an intense flavor and a higher percentage of solids.

Storage onions are the best choice for savory dishes that require longer cooking times or more flavor.

The Color of Onions
Onions come in three colors - yellow, red, and white. Approximately 87 percent of the crop is devoted to yellow onion production, with about 8 percent red onions and 5 percent white onions.

Yellow onions are full-flavored and are a reliable standby for cooking almost anything. Yellow onions turn a rich, dark brown when cooked and give French Onion Soup its tangy sweet flavor. The red onion, with its wonderful color, is a good choice for fresh uses or in grilling and char-broiling. White onions are the traditional onion used in classic Mexican cuisine. They have a golden color and sweet flavor when sautéed.

Onion Sizes
Onions range in size from less than 1 inch in diameter (creamers/boilers) to more than 4.5 inches in diameter (super colossal). The most common sizes of onions sold in the United States are the medium (2 to 3 ¼ inches in diameter) and the jumbo (3 to 3 ¾ inches in diameter).

Reference: Bring on the ONIONS

Things Your Doctor Forgot to Tell

Let’s dig more about onions as natural home remedies. I have found astonishing things from the researches on onions.

Here below I will share with you the studies conducted by well-known universities:

1. Wageningen Agricultural University, the Netherlands

• The absorption of quercetin from onions is twice that from tea and more than three times that from apples.
• Daily consumption of onions may result in increased accumulation of quercetin in the blood.

Studies have indicated that quercetin helps:

-        to eliminate free radicals in the body,

-        to inhibit low-density lipoprotein oxidation (an important reaction in the atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease),

-        to protect and regenerate vitamin E (a powerful antioxidant),

-        and to inactivate the harmful effects of chelate metal ions.

2. The Queen’s University at Belfast, Ireland

• The content of quercetin in onions is estimated to be between 22.40 mg and 51.82 mg per medium-sized onion (100 gram).

3. University of Wisconsin-Madison

• The more pungent onions exhibit strong anti-platelet activity. Platelet aggregation is associated with atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke.

4. University of Bern in Switzerland

• Consumption of 1 g dry onion per day for 4 weeks increased bone mineral content in rats by more than 17% and mineral density by more than 13% compared to animals fed a control diet. This data suggests onion consumption has the potential to decrease the incidences of osteoporosis.

What are the significant components in onions that contribute to your health?

1.      quercetin have beneficial effects against many diseases and disorders, including:

-         cataracts,

-         cardiovascular disease,

-         cancer: breast, colon, ovarian, gastric, lung and bladder.

2.      phytochemicals known as disulfides, trisulfides, cepaene, and vinyl dithiins; thus,  these compounds have a variety of health-functional properties, including:

- anticancer,

- antimicrobial activities.

3.      source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and folic acid.

4.      calcium, iron and have a high protein quality (ratio of mg amino acid/gram protein).

Are you anxious to find out the good news about onions besides from the aforementioned information?

Onions are low in sodium and contain no fat.

This is great news for you who apply healthy natural diet. Thus, not only to avoid increase your fat in body, also it is a fabulous way for illness prevention and maintains your overall health.

Have you ever wondered why onions are able to lowering blood pressure and decrease cholesterol levels?

It is all because onions are low in calories yet add abundant flavor to a wide variety of foods. With only 45 calories per serving, onions are fat and cholesterol free, very low in sodium, high in vitamin C, and a good source of fiber and other key nutrients.

Furthermore, onions contain a variety of other naturally occurring chemicals known as organosulfur compounds that have been linked to lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Thus, it is proven that onions in the function of natural cure since as a part of natural home remedies.

Start now and do not delay any seconds for your daily intake with onions in your meals!

When an onion is pierced, a chemical reaction takes place, which releases sulfur compounds. These compounds may irritate the eyes and cause tearing.

To reduce tearing:

• Chill onion for about 30 minutes before cutting.
• Always use sharp knife.
• Begin cutting at the top, leave root end uncut as long as possible as it contains the highest concentration of sulfur compounds.

Antioxidant-Rich Onions
To reap the most benefit from onions, choose varieties with the most antioxidants. Here they’re ranked from highest to lowest (we’ve included shallots, which are related to onions). If you don’t recognize some of the names, don’t worry. Just know that sweeter or milder-tasting onions have fewer antioxidants than their more pungent counterparts.

• Shallots
• Western white
• Western yellow
• Imperial Valley sweet
• Northern red
• Vidalia

How To Store

Store onions in a cool, dry place, not in the fridge, and not near potatoes. Potatoes give off moisture and a gas that causes onions to spoil faster.

Cooks Tips

The more tears they cause, the more health benefits onions have. To stem the flood while you’re chopping, try chilling onions for about a half hour before cutting, and slice them from the top, leaving the root end intact; it has the strongest concentration of eye-burning compounds.

Be sure to wash onions well before chopping, especially if you’re going to eat them raw. Onions grow underground and can harbor nasty bacteria.

Menu Magic
Like garlic, onions can be added to just about anything. Here are just a few suggestions.

• Add onions to almost any stew or stir-fry.
• To get a bit of raw onion into your diet, combine chopped onions, tomatoes, avocado, and jalapeño peppers for a blood sugar-friendly chip dip. Finish with a splash of lime juice.
• Sauté chopped onions in olive oil and add to corn, potatoes, or peas.
• Add chopped scallions to rice dishes.
• Add sliced onions to green salads.
• Use chopped onions to add crunch to any sandwich salad, such as chicken, tuna, or egg salad.
• Make fruit chutney with peaches, mangos, pears, apples, or apricots and plenty of chopped onion. Serve with meals as a condiment that won’t upset your blood sugar balance.
• Roast some onions to serve as a savory side dish. Cut the root and top from a large onion. Place root side down on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake for about an hour at 400°F (200°C). When it’s done, remove it from the oven and make a deep crisscross cut in the top. Season with flavored vinegar, herbs, sea salt, coarse-ground pepper, and olive oil.
• Enjoy French onion soup, but go easy on the bread and cheese topping. Try adding a few whole grain croutons instead.
• Use caramelized onions to add wonderful flavor to any vegetable and pasta dish. To caramelize an onion, thinly slice onion, then heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, covered, 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove cover and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Perfect Portion: 1/4 cup
Onions have very few calories, so add them cooked or raw to as many dishes as you can think of. Minced raw onions offer the greatest health benefits.

Source: Reader’s Digest

Vegetables and onions, what a perfect of combination for your natural home remedies!

No worries, this recipe will not be the last part of how you can optimize onions in your daily meals. There will be much more to come for you to enjoy. So do keep coming back to Our Home Remedies unless if you want to loose the valuable information on how you can maintain a “healing kitchen” as your natural home remedies.

Good luck on your venture to try it out below recipe!

Grilled Vegetables in Balsamic Tomato Sauce with CousCous

Recipe by: Christopher O’Hearn

Photo by: SunFlower

“The sweetness of grilled vegetables is balanced by a tart tomato sauce, which mixes perfectly with simple couscous. Preferably use a heavy grill pan. If you don’t have one you can use a baking tray beneath an oven grill, or even roast the vegetables in a hot oven and then transfer them to a pan for the last part.

But you will get more of the char-grill flavor if you use a pan. If you want to make more or less couscous, just use the same quantity of water as couscous. This dish keeps well, as the flavor of the vegetables seems to grow stronger. It is just as nice served lightly warmed for lunch as hot for a dinner, or uses it as a cold dish in a selection of salads.”

PREP TIME  20 Min

COOK TIME  15 Min

READY IN  35 Min

4 servings

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 zucchini
• 1 small eggplant
• 1 large sweet onion
• 3/4 cup frozen broad beans
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup couscous
• 1 cup vegetable stock

DIRECTIONS

1. Remove the seeds from the pepper, and chop into strips about 1 to 2 inches long. Cut the eggplant crossways into rounds about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick, and cut each one into 6 to 8 even chunks. Peel the onion, and chop into 8 portions. Trim the zucchini, and cut into thick slices.
2. 
3. Heat grill pan over a high heat with a generous splash of olive oil. When it is very hot, add all the vegetables to the pan. Press down occasionally to get grill lines across them. Turn occasionally to prevent burning. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are evenly browned and cooked through.
4. Stir broad beans into the vegetables. Add chopped tomatoes, and vinegar. Simmer for a few minutes while the couscous is prepared.
5. Place couscous into a medium bowl. Add boiling vegetable stock, and stir with a fork. Keep lifting the couscous occasionally to prevent it sticking. It only takes 2 to 3 minutes to become soft. Place couscous in a large bowl or serving platter, and serve the vegetables on top.

Source: Allrecipe

Welcome to the second part of using onions in recipe. You may be wondering, why I put burger this time as the following recipe to optimize onions intake?

I believe burger can be healthy as long as we know how to replace the high calories ingredients with the lower ones. You can replace the ground beef with vegetarian meat, either you can buy them at the supermarket, or you can even make it yourself.

When there’s a will, there’s always a way to be healthy and keep the juicy meals for our appetite. As for cheese and sauce, try to find it with the non-cholesterol written statement from the producers and examine carefully for its ingredients. Perhaps, you can also find a special section in the supermarket for vegetarian and experiment with any replacement that will suite accordingly to your taste. Maybe you have other tips? Please share it with us by leaving your comments below.

Biggest Bestest Burger

Recipe by: Susan Payzant

Photo by: kimbernic

“Honestly the best burger you will ever eat, I promise! Big, juicy, quick and easy! Great with fries. This is my husband’s absolute favorite!“

PREP TIME  20 Min

COOK TIME  20 Min

READY IN  40 Min

4 servings

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
• 6 slices American cheese
• 6 onion rolls

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to broil.
2. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, salt, ground black pepper and basil; mix together well. Then add the bread crumbs, cheese and teriyaki sauce. Mix this together well and divide into 4 to 6 large, round balls.
3. Place the hamburger balls onto a broiler pan, evenly spaced. Press down on each ball, either with your palm or with a spatula, until a perfectly round patty is formed.
4. Broil for 8 minutes, turn each patty over, and broil for 8 minutes more. (Note: The outside of each patty should appear almost burnt.)
5. Turn off heat and place cheese slices on each patty. When cheese is melted, remove from oven and serve on onion rolls.

Source: Allrecipe

Yay, onions! As you have been aware the significant role of onions in your day to day intake, there are many ways to make onions more irresistible for your appetite.

What can you do better to include onions as part of your daily meals?

Yes, I will share with you three recipes using onions as natural home remedies and for the taste, it’s unbearable!

Of course, at certain point you might have to adjust the recipes accordingly to suite your taste without forgetting to maintain the healthy aspects.

This time it would be mixed with a soup as part one and the rest… pssst wait for the surprise!

So stay tune for the next recipes.

Tomato Barley Soup

Recipe by: Nancy Olsen

Photo by: Muffin Mans wife

“I LOVE soup! This is one of my favorites. It has lots of vegetables and is full of flavor. I usually throw in some chopped cabbage. To make this a vegetarian recipe, use vegetable broth for the chicken broth.”

PREP TIME  20 Min

COOK TIME  40 Min

READY IN  1 Hr

6 servings

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1/4 cup uncooked barley
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the onions, celery, carrots, garlic and oil and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, or until all vegetables are almost tender.
2. Then add the water, fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, barley and ground black pepper.
3. Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes, or until barley is tender.

Source: Allrecipe

Today, I will start inspecting around your kitchen for natural home remedies. What is the most easy and simplest thing can be found in your kitchen? Yes, it is onion.

Do you know that onion not only function to make the food more delicious?

I believe you can grab at once these onions in your kitchen. Doesn’t your kitchen have them yet?

Onions as natural home remedies are the most used ingredients in your daily cooking. Their unique flavors make it as essential ingredients in your cooks. It could be served as mixed with pizza, omelets, salad, burger and even in a soup.

Let’s check it out the components inside onions that have play significant role to your health.

• Researchers from University of Bern, Swiss found growth plate chondrocytes (GPCS) inside onions. This crucial component, GPCS, is effective to prevent osteoporosis. GPCS works by preventing bone mass reduction, including calcium. For that reason, onions are claimed to have significant role to avoid osteoporosis.

• One of few published studies in humans, from India, dates back some 30 years, but it found that people with diabetes who ate 2 ounces (60 g) of onions a day experienced a significant drop in blood sugar levels. Researchers credit these effects to the sulfur compounds in onions as well as their flavonoids. These powerful antioxidant compounds also help fight some of the side effects of high blood sugar, not to mention heart disease.

• One study found that people who ate the most onions, along with other foods rich in flavonoids, had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease. Thanks to their sulfur compounds which help prevent dangerous blood clots and lower high blood pressure. Since sulfur compounds are strongly anti-inflammatory, onions may also help relieve the pain and swelling of arthritis. Plus, onions even seem to boost HDL, the “good” cholesterol.

• Onions are one of the richest food sources of chromium, a trace mineral that improves the body’s ability to respond to insulin.

Bear in your mind now, onions hold crucial part in your health as follows:

1)     preclude weakened bones

2)     avoid osteoporosis

3)     decreasing blood sugar levels

4)     lowering the risk of heart disease

5)     prevent dangerous blood clots

6)     lowering high blood pressure

7)     boosting you HDL, the “kind” cholesterol

8)     improve your body’s ability to respond to insulin

9)     relieve the pain and swelling of arthritis

Therefore, it is strongly suggested to eat an onion each day. It is a must also to have onions in your kitchen as the simplest natural home remedies.

Chefs usually cut onions into slices by shaping them circles, coating the onions with seasoning, cover it with flour and then fried it. Having this eating habit is a wise thing to prevent those abovementioned potential dangers to your overall health.

Just do it from now on!

Reference:

Trubus Magazine No.456, Nov 2007

Reader’s Digest