Salt Baked Onions with Truffle Butter – Let the onion lead

Let’s go for an appetizer without any fish or meat. Try this salt baked onion with truffle butter. Taste is amazing, and if you miss the meat it works great as a side dish as well.

Salt baked onions taste simply amazing, they are easy to prepare and it can be fun to serve something that is super cheap and still make it look good and taste great with a little bit of help from truffles. It works with all sorts of onions but I think that a standard yellow one is the best since it’s usually the cheapest one and very rarely get to be the center of a dish.

If you´re not into truffles the onions is great served with most other seasoned butters, like herbs or cheese. I have a full guide to making flavored butter that you can check out here. Also it´s great to serve as a side to grilled meats and stews.

Salt Baked Onions with Truffle Butter

Serves 4 as an appetizer

Onions
4 onions
2 handfuls coarse sea salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Truffle Butter
black pepper
salt
80g / 2.8 oz butter (at room temperature)
1-2 tsp truffle oil
1 tsp chopped truffles (optional)
1 tbsp vegetable oil

parsley

Without peeling the onions brush them with vegetable oil and sprinkle with loads of coarse sea salt. Roast in the oven whole on high heat until the onions are cooked through. Turn them a few times during the cooking. Check them by poking them with a thin knife to see if they are soft all the way through. It’s OK to let them cook a while after they are soft, just make sure you don’t let them under cook because then too much of the raw onion flavor will be left. Once completely soft remove from the oven and let cool for a while.

If you want to prepare this dish a little bit of time before serving it´s better to turn of the oven and let the onions stay in the oven until serving, the won’t overcook but they will keep their heat for quite some time.

Whip the butter at room temperature with the oil with a handheld mixer or a kitchen aid. Flavor the butter with chopped truffles and truffle oil. Different brands of truffle oil and truffles can have very different flavor and strength so it’s hard to name an exact amount. Start with just a few drops and let your tastebuds decide how much you should use.

Peel the onions and serve with the butter and a few leaves of parsley. Make sure you taste onions before serving to check if they are salty enough, if not just add salt before serving. Good luck.