I don't want to say I'm lazy or anything; I prefer to think of myself as practical and efficient.
Yeah, let's go with that.
So even if I really like something that tends to be complicated or take a long time, I will always try to find a way to simplify the process so that I can incorporate it into my regular cooking more easily. Caramelized onions are just such a case.
As the name suggests, caramelized onions are packed with sweetness. When added as an ingredient to a recipe they can add a flavor punch that raises the taste experience of even a mundane dish to a higher plane. Which is why you’ll find them called for in all kinds of recipes, from grilled meats to salads to grilled cheese sandwiches. Caramelizing turns the humble, everyday, yellow onion into a gourmet-level ingredient.
But there’s one problem with them: they take forever to prepare. Yeah, you'll find so-called quick recipes that include caramelized onions as an ingredient, but they always seriously underestimate the time they take to prepare.
There is simply no such thing as a quick recipe using caramelized onions.
Truth be told, it can easily take an hour on the stovetop and almost constant attention besides. You can shorten the time a bit by putting them on a cookie sheet in the oven, as shown in the pictures below, but it still is going to take 45 minutes.
That’s a lot of time to dedicate to one single ingredient in a recipe, particularly when you have to add that cooking time to all the other prep steps