Easy Turkish Sumac Onions Recipe (Turkish Onion Salad) (2024)

FAQs

What is Turkish sumac? ›

Sumac is a spice that is popular in the Middle East. It is related to the poisonous shrub by the same name, but the culinary variety is safe to use and easily identifiable by its vibrant red berries (poisonous sumac is white).

Submerging them in cold water takes away that intense, sharp bite from the raw onion. The cold water helps the enzyme that causes onions to have their pungent flavor to leach out. Similarly, storing onions in the refrigerator will help mellow them out when you go to use them.

White Onions

These onions are slightly sweeter, a bit milder in taste than yellow onions. They're a good choice for dicing and serving raw on sandwiches and salads or in fresh salsas.

I like red onions in salads, but not if they are raw. Sliced very thin and ether quick pickled in a solution of salt, sugar and vinegar, or sprinkled with salt and allowed to wilt before being rinsed and added to the salad, they're delicious.

The bright reddish-purple flakes are also a great garnish to use in places where you might use paprika to liven up the looks of a dish. We love sumac in marinades and rubs, in spice mixes for seasoning roasted and grilled meats. Try sprinkling a pinch of sumac over hummus and creamy dips, salads, side dishes, and fish.

It's made from the berry fruit of the Rhus Coriaria shrub, which were originally grown in parts of the Mediterranean basin, then spread to Europe. The berries are dried, then ground and sifted to get rid of the bitter inner seed. The coarse crimson-colored powder is then bottled as a spice to use in cooking.

Onions - soaking in cold water to soften the flavor

When preparing raw onions, soak in cold water before hand to remove some of the pungency and soften the flavor. However since soaking too long will dilute the flavor, soaking in cold water for 5 to 10 minutes is recommended.

The salt softens the onion's fibrous texture and mellows the sharpness of their flavor.

Baking soda makes the onions more alkaline, which speeds up the browning reactions necessary for properly caramelized onions. But it also weakens the pectin that holds the onion's cells together, turning what should be soft but distinct pieces of browned onion into a nauseating stew of pea-green mush.

You can get rid of the strong taste by soaking sliced onions in ice water for 20 to 30 minutes or by sprinkling them with an acid such as vinegar. Onions soaked in ice water will get very crisp while those sprinkled with vinegar will soften a bit, but they will lose the strong taste and become sweeter.

What is the best onion for salads? ›

Red Onions: The salad onion. While you can cook with it, it's less overpowering than white or yellow onions, making it ideal for uses that require raw onion. The colour fades as you cook them. Great for Greek salad, on burgers, etc.

Just peel and slice the red onion as called for in your recipe, then submerge them in a bowl of cold or ice water. Let them sit for at least ten minutes, stirring once or twice, before draining and using them in your recipe. For added flavor, you can also soak the onions in lime juice, lemon juice, or vinegar.

Sure, you can totally put raw onions in a salad without cooking them. Raw onions give a strong and tangy taste to salads, making them more interesting. But, be aware that raw onions can be really strong, and some people might not like that.

Then you just have to wait long enough for the vinegar to do its job, rinsing away the harsh sulfurous compounds, softening the onion, and giving it a pleasantly tart pop of flavor. If you use red wine vinegar, my personal favorite, the onions also turn an amazing hot-pink color.

Raw onions can add a nice bite to salads, from a green onion sliced and added to a simple green salad to easy creations based almost entirely on the sweetness of Vidalia onions.

Sumac has a fruity flavor almost like lemon. The sourness can balance the acidity of a dish.

The flavor of sumac can be likened to the tang of fresh-squeezed lemon juice; it's tart and sharp, but also contains a hint of sweetness, along with lingering floral notes. “It's a subtle tang with some fruitiness that you wouldn't get from lemon juice,” says food blogger Amina Al-Saigh.

What Can You Substitute for Sumac Spice? Given its tart, acidic flavor, sumac is best substituted with lemon zest, lemon pepper seasoning, lemon juice, or vinegar. However, each of these substitutes has a more overpoweringly sour taste than sumac and should therefore be used sparingly as a replacement for the spice.