Recipe | Baked stuffed onions

The festive period tends to mean lots of entertaining, so at this time of year I’m always on the look out for easy yet super-tasty dinnner-party dishes. The latest seasonal recipe from Kym Grimshaw of Bristol-based food blog On the Plate fits the bill perfectly – juicy baked onions stuffed with a delicousy creamy, herby filling and topped with smoked bacon.

They make a fantastic side dish, perhaps as an accompaniment to a Sunday roast or – dare I say it – Christmas lunch. Kym tells me they work particularly well with roast chicken and kale, which certainly sounds like a tempting combination. If you’re catering for vegetarians, just leave out the bacon.

Ingredients 

• 9 onions
• 5 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped
• 75g of parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 75g of fresh breadcrumbs
• 3tbsp of crème fraîche
• 180ml of dry white wine
• 1/2 bunch of thyme
• 50g of butter
• 1tbsp of olive oil

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas 6. Prepare the onions by cutting the ends off the top and bottom so that they are flat on both sides. Peel the skin off the onions.
2. With a sharp knife, score a cross in the centre of each onion, piercing down to the bottom and out to the edge, just leaving one or two of the outer layers. Score a circle around the cross and again right through to the bottom as you do this.
3. Scoop out the flesh of each onion using a teaspoon until you have a hollow cup, trying to keep the bottom intact if you can. Finely chop half of the scooped-out flesh and reserve to one side.
4. Place the onions in a large pan. Pour over boiling water from the kettle and bring back to the boil over a medium heat. Once boiling, simmer for 15-20 minutes until the onions are tender but are still holding their shape.
5. While the onions are blanching, heat a frying pan and add the butter. Sauté the reserved onion flesh along with the bacon and the leaves from 6 sprigs of thyme for 6-8 minutes. Add half the wine and simmer until reduced.
6. Remove the frying pan from the heat. To the pan, add the breadcrumbs, the crème fraîche, the parmesan and a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
7. Carefully drain the blanched onions, reserving approximately 75ml of the cooking water for later. Place the onions hole side up in a roasting tray, nestling them quite close together, and then divide the stuffing mixture between them.
8. Pour the remaining wine along with the reserved water around the onions. Drizzle the tops of the onions with the olive oil and nestle the rest of the thyme sprigs in between them. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Kym will be back with her final recipe of the year next month, and it promises to be a particularly good one! In the meantime, there’s plenty of food inspiration over at On the Plate.

Photography by Kym Grimshaw