Quick Tasty Onion Fry with Soy Dressing

This side dish of quick tasty onion fry is perfectly suited for a work-night meal. It uses few ingredients, doesn’t need much cooking time and, with its delicate honey soy dressing, is so flavorful you’d hardly believe it can be put together so effortlessly.

You Need:

• Onions – 4 medium
• Nigella seeds (kalonji) – 1/2 teaspoon
• Sesame seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Chili flakes- 1/2 teaspoon
• Soy sauce – 1 tablespoon [buy here
• Salt – To taste
• Honey – 1 teaspoon
• Olive oil – 1 tablespoon

How To Make Quick Tasty Onion Fry:

Peel the onions. Slice them into thin rings horizontally. Retain only the even-shaped rings of the onion for this recipe. Use the ends and the core in some other dish.

I normally use the rest of the onion finely chopped in raita, or in curries that call for ground onions, as baby potatoes in onion fenugreek masala, or gobhi masala.

Heat a non-stick pan and drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan. Add the nigella seeds to the pan and when the seeds sizzle and splutter, add sesame seeds. Tip in the sliced onion rings next. Let the onion rings turn golden on medium-high heat. Keep turning the onion rings around so that they cook evenly and don’t burn.

When the onion rings have taken on a rich darker hue, sprinkle salt and chili flakes over them and toss. Finish with soy sauce and honey. Toss again to coat everything well with the dressing.

Quick tasty onion fry with soy dressing is ready.

Serve on the side with chapatis and a tomato-based accompaniment such as capsicum cherry tomato curry.

Notes:

The art of slicing

You might ask: Does it matter whether onions are sliced horizontally or vertically (i.e. root to tip)?

The answer is: to an extent. It makes a difference to the appearance of the dish and to the way the onions brown. Serious Eats has more on Knife Skills: How to Cut an Onion, and this Chowhound article has tips from Anthony Bourdain on cutting onions safely.

Recipe recommendations

For more onion-based side dishes, check out:

If soy dressing is your thing, try: