Red onion

Anthocyanin · less sulphur

Per 100 g

40 kcal Energy

1.4 g Protein

9.3 g Carbs

0.1 g Fat

1.7 g Fibre

Gluten-free Year round · stored for winter

Let’s cook with it → Invent something with it

What it is for

They give the character. Same technique, same ingredient, a different trio of spices — and the dish moves to another cuisine entirely. Most of their aroma molecules are volatile.

Where it catches you out

Volatile ones go in last, sturdy ones first. Mint and basil after the heat; bay and cinnamon right at the start.

The knack

Soak it in cold water for five minutes before it goes into a salad: the sulphur compounds behind the bite are water-soluble, while the colour and the crunch stay.

Storage and health

How to keep it, and who it suits.

Keeping it

One to two months somewhere cool, dark and airy. Not beside potatoes: the moisture onions give off sprouts them.

Gluten-free

A single-ingredient fresh vegetable, with no gluten in it.

Glycaemic index

This ingredient carries no meaningful carbohydrate, so it has no glycaemic index. On its own it will not move blood sugar; what you eat alongside it decides that.