#138: Deep Dives: Decoding Food Cravings and Choosing the Right Onion for Every Recipe

This week we're trying something a little different! We each picked a topic to deep dive into without telling the other person what it was, and we're sharing what we learned live on the podcast. 

Riley kicks things off with a deep dive on food cravings. What they actually mean and what your body might be trying to tell you. We talk through what common cravings like sugar, salt, carbs, red meat, and dairy could signal about your nutrient levels, and why kids might actually be the best at listening to their bodies.

Then Roni takes us through a breakdown of every type of onion and when to actually use them. If you've ever wondered why a recipe calls for a shallot instead of a yellow onion, or why your onion tastes "hot", we've got answers!

If you have a topic you'd like us to deep dive on, send us an email at podcast@plantoeat.com. We'd love to hear from you!

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Transcript

deep dives
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[00:00:00] I'm Riley and I'm Roni. And this is the plan to eat podcast, where we have conversations about meal planning, food, and wellness. To help you answer the question what's for dinner. 

Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we have a very special episode. It's a surprise for everyone.

Including for us.

We, we don't know, but we're hoping that this episode has lots of tips and tricks and little nuggets of information that are gonna help you in the kitchen. We are doing some deep dives on topics of our choice, and Riley and I didn't tell each other what we're gonna talk about today. So I'm gonna be learning along with all of you.

Riley's gonna be learning along with all of you as well. So let's just dive right in. Riley, tell us about your topic.

oh, I get to go first? I don't wanna go first.

gotta go first.

Oh, I'm nervous. [00:01:00] Okay. Okay I don't really know how to, like, segue into all of this. Okay, here's how I got to my deep dive, and then I'll tell you kind of intro what it is. So when we were talking through the dinner dilemmas, a lot of people's dinner dilemma was that, like, they couldn't... They didn't want a meal plan because, like, what if they didn't want that for dinner

that night? Which is interesting, right? Because as... It- it's interesting and it's definitely a personality type, right? Like, we... There's many people who ask that question and there's other people who don't think to even ask that question. They just meal plan and they're like, "We gotta eat, so there's gotta be food on the calendar.

We've gotta pick something. We've gotta purchase something." Um, so this idea around, like, cravings and food cravings and, like, what I'm gonna want this day, kind of started to pique my interest, right? Because to me, it's no big deal if I have... What do I have on the meal plan tonight? This, like, Thai, Thai noodle salad.

That's what we're [00:02:00] having for dinner tonight, but, like, we're just making it. Like, I don't feel overtly like I'm craving it, but I also don't feel like I'm not craving it, you know?

Yeah.

it tastes good and we're gonna... Everybody's gonna have dinner, you know? So this idea around, like, what your cravings are for dinner doesn't affect me a ton, but I also am okay with moving it around.

If I didn't want it tonight, I'll make it tomorrow night. These are the ingredients I purchased for the week. This is what we're having. So an interesting thing happened recently that really pushed me all the way into choosing food cravings as my deep dive, because my daughter got sick with a stomach bug, and she didn't eat for many, many days, and the one thing she wanted to eat when she did eat was carrots,

Oh, interesting.

so bizarre.

Like, I'm pretty sure my kids have never just been like, "I'm really would like a carrot," like, when they're not sick, you know? They will eat them. We eat them. I cook them and f- you know, serve them raw, et cetera, but [00:03:00] they're not just, like, carrot fiends, you know? Like, "I'm really hungry. I'm gonna grab a handful of carrots and go sit on the porch."

Like, that's not, that's not them. Okay, and then my other daughter got sick with a stomach bug weeks later And she also wanted carrots.

Oh, interesting

And so that sent me Googling. Yes, it sent me Googling. And what I realized in this process is, just how the body is one very interesting, right? Like, what it tells us we want, and, like, sometimes it's asking for energy, comfort, electrolytes, hydration, dopamine, maybe rest.

Maybe you don't want to eat at all and you just need a break. Or emotional regulation, and, like, sometimes cravings are about nutrient deficiencies and sometimes they're not. But, uh, but the carrot thing is what really sent me. These two roads led me to the same end, right? Food cravings. I'll talk about the, [00:04:00] the carrots for a second.

So they contain beta carotene, which is, like, the precursor to vitamin A. And vitamin A deficiency can lead to... This is what I got on the internet. Yes, I'm not a researcher, I'm not an expert, but this is where I le- it led me, okay? It can actually extend stomach bugs because it has to do with, like, the lining of your gut and lining of your intestines.

And so I took that to say, okay, maybe my kids actually are deficient in vitamin A because their body is like, "We're using all of this up in this process of being sick." We didn't have a lot. It can extend stomach related illnesses, you know?

To not have as much vitamin A?

what?

To not have as much vitamin A extends it?

Um, yes. Like, if you are deficient in it and you have a stomach bug, it could actually extend it,

Okay. Okay

uh, extend the illness. a lot of people though think, when they think of food cravings, they're like, "I want salt. I want sugar. I want dirt," which is if you're craving dirt or ice, it's anemia. You- likely you need iron.

Like,

Ah, 

your body really... Like, [00:05:00] if Your body really does and can tell you what it needs. Now, we've also been conditioned to, like, want and think other things, you know? You go into a movie theater and you immediately want popcorn and a Coke or, you know, whatever your cravings are. Probably whatever you had as a kid at the movie theater.

You know, it's like, ooh, I'm want a little sweet treat after lunch. Like, that might mean though something else, but al- you know, like maybe you didn't eat enough lunch, or maybe you have a blood sugar crash, or like maybe that's your mid-morning treat 'cause you have a sugar craving and you're like... Maybe you're super stressed out.

That could also be a reason for a sugar craving. Poor sleep, you're sad. Like, our cravings actually can tell us a lot about what's going on with us. Unfortunately, though, we have also done a lot of things to, like, diminish the way we listen to our bodies just through existing in the world.

So we've lost touch with our body signals through dieting because we've basically forced ourselves to, like, I'm gonna do this instead of that. Rushing through a meal, and not paying [00:06:00] attention to how does this taste? Am I full? Am I not full enough? Like, does this nee- am I... Is there something else I want with this?

That kind of idea. If we ignore hunger, we can also change our signals because if you ignore hunger, then you might have a blood sugar crash, which might make then you want sugar to, like, resolve that problem. If we rely on caffeine, if we're eating distracted, kinda like the rushing one. And then if we're disconnecting from being full.

If you're just like, "Well, I just want the ice cream. Well, but I'm super full. Okay, but I'm gonna force myself to do this anyway 'cause I want it." Uh, we're gonna disconnect from some body signals. And/or followaging, following a really rigid food rule. Like, we don't eat that for breakfast. We don't eat that for dinner.

We only have this then, et cetera. I thought of you in that because you're like, "I love pie for breakfast," but a lot of people would say, "That is not a breakfast food." I think the kids are important to note with cravings, and I, I think you have to balance it, right? Because kids can be very picky and [00:07:00] particular. And kids have to, like, learn to like some vegetables because of, like, mouth feel and, you know, like, there's pickiness around food, right? But I think kids are really important to pay attention to because they probably are the most aware of what they're asking for, the most aware of what their body is asking for, because they haven't spent all these years ignoring it.

Which I think as a parent, it is pretty important for me to re- be reminded of that because if they're, like, wanting something, I have to filter it through that idea. Like, the, the carrot thing, I was like, "No, you're not gonna have carrots. Like, you're in the middle of throwing up. Like, I'm not gonna give you carrots."

Like, to me, that's not what I've ever been taught, right? Like, what's the, the BRAT diet? Like, bananas, rice, apples, T- what's the T? Toast. Yeah, yeah. Like, that's what you eat when you're sick. Or, like, what did you eat when you were sick, Roni?

Uh, like saltine crackers.

And ginger ale or

Yeah. 

Exactly, right. Um, and so, like, my mind almost, like, couldn't comprehend, like, the carrot thing.

But then because [00:08:00] I've been kind of already processing through the food cravings and, like, and how that relates to meal planning is why, like, when they wanted carrots, I was like, it piqued my interest, 'cause I'm like, "Oh, hold on a second. This is the most random craving." And this is what I was gonna talk about anyways, food cravings and what, how they are, how they affect us, so.

I'll run through a couple of cravings and what it could point to. So sugar cravings, I already went through that one. Um, chocolate cravings could relate to a need for magnesium, comfort, dopamine or hormonal shifts.

Mm.

Salt cravings could point to electrolyte loss, dehydration, too much, you know, like a lot of sweating.

If you're recovering from an illness, you may need more salt, pregnancy or stress, and so you might want pretzels, soup, broth, like salty broth, pickles, french fries, crackers. Um, a lot of people would probably think that this was a carb craving, but a carb craving could look like a salt craving, 'cause a lot of...

Think about a lot of carbs that we eat, uh, [00:09:00] like processed carbs that we eat are very salty.

Mm-hmm.

Goldfish, popcorn, you know, et ce- et cetera. So carb cravings could mean a need for quick energy, nervous system support, stress recovery, poor sleep, or undereating protein and fat. If you're undereating those two, your body might try to compensate with carbs, because if that's already what you're giving it, you're like, "Oh, if it asks for more of this, well, it'll give it," you know?

Or, "She'll give it to us," like if your body was talking to you And examples of that, toast, pasta, cereal, rice. So note the difference, I think, between the carb craving and the salt craving, because toast, pasta, cereal, and rice, those aren't overtly salty. Um, and so just, like, kind of like noting those two things I think are interesting.

Red meat cravings, certainly low iron, low B12, need for more protein, maybe low zinc, and it's common for women's cycles, pregnancy, postpartum, and athletes often crave those things. Um, you could also... Like we... It also said [00:10:00] anemia, could be that one, too, so. Fruit cravings could help support, like, hydration.

If you're dehydrated, you might want fruit. You might need more vitamin C. You might need some quick sugar, like quick glucose. And if you're sick, it could be because they're easier to digest. Um, and you might want watermelon, oranges, berries, or smoothies. Fruit one's kind of obvious. Dairy cravings are related to low calcium, low protein, low fat, and low satiety.

Um, so if you're, like, eating and you're, like, still hungry and you're not satiated with your meal, you might have needed more fat or more dairy in that. So... And I've already mentioned this one, but ice and dirt cravings are related to iron deficiency. It's actually funny, 'cause when you're pregnant they'll ask you if you're craving things that are not food.

Oh, interesting.

And sometimes it's, I mean, if you, if you were to say to your doctor, "I'm craving dirt," they're gonna immediately check your iron, and most likely you are very low in iron. 

Do we know what ICE has to do with that?

I actually don't know what ice has [00:11:00] to do with it, but it is a very common one if you just, like, crave tons and tons of

ice. And this is another one I think you could very easily become addicted to and, like, change your signals, right? Because I know a ton of people who, really like, like Sonic ice, you know, like the little pelleted ice, and then they'll buy the pelleted ice maker for their house, and then they, like, love the pelleted ice and then they eat the pelleted ice every day. Might not be related to anemia. Might just be that you've created a new, like,

sensory habit or something?

yeah, like oral fixation,

Oh, yeah. Uh-huh

like chewing gum or dipping, like those kinds of things that you just like the way that feels in your mouth. It basically becomes another one of those. Yeah. Let's see what else.

Um- If you are sick and craving certain things, it, there are reasons why that could be. Um, your appetite and cravings can shift really dramatically when you're sick, so it's because your body's relocated out... [00:12:00] Sorry, what am I trying to say? Reallocated, not relocated. Reallocated energy to your immune response, tissue repair, the need for hydration, and inflammation management.

Like, your body may not... It, it got a lot going on when you've been sick. And so your body's gonna gravitate towards foods that are easy to digest, that are hydrating, familiar, comforting, energy efficient, kinda like we talked about, easy to digest foods, nutrient dense, and soothing to the stomach. And so I think it's important to listen to your body, especially when you're sick.

You know, you know, you and I have talked a lot about how we used to binge, like, biohacking podcasts, and some of those were related to fasting 16/8 fasting, 48-hour fasting, fasting for a week, a month, et cetera.

And so sometimes, and some people do fast when they are sick, like naturally. They just don't want anything. They don't want anything to eat. I think it's really important to pay attention to that and, like, not force the food, because what we know about [00:13:00] fasting is that it produces autophagy, which is cell repair and regeneration.

And so that actually could be your body's, like, "This is what we need right now." It's like, "We're not gonna digest food. We're going to ourse- we're gonna do autophagy instead, and that's how we're gonna recover from this illness." And I think that a lot of us have been taught to eat during illnesses or...

And I think, you know, it's important to maintain hydration during illness, depending on what kind of illness you have. But, it's just a note to make that, like, paying attention, especially when you're sick, to what you want is important because it's probably when your body is screaming for the thing that it needs the most, and could help you kind of get back on the track of like, "Okay, this is what my body's actually needing from me, so I'm gonna listen to it and I'm gonna do this thing."

And I'm not talking about, like, ice cream, you know, after you've been having stomach bug. But I think this is gonna help me. This is what got me so interested. Like, I got... Like, I was thinking about doing cravings around planning, um, but this all, to me, was so much more... Like, this, like, deeper dive on the nuances of [00:14:00] what someone may want when they're sick or what someone want, may want when they're, have a different need inside of their body.

And so I never revisited the meal planning, but I think that all, it all relates back to meal planning, 'cause if you're sitting there at dinner and you're like, "Okay, what are we gonna eat?" 'Cause I don't meal plan, I just plan around my cravings. And you want... If you're, like, starting to notice, like, you want pasta every single day.

You might not be eating enough protein. You know, like, and, and if you... You know, so starting to pay attention to where your cravings are leading you. Um, okay, I want a big crispy green salad with tons of fruit on it. Are you dehydrated? You know? I personally still think that it's important to meal plan regardless of re- what you're craving, um, because of all the other benefits, time saving, money saving, energy saving, stress reducing, et cetera.

But I think it's important if you're, if so- if you're somebody who does plan around cravings or just think they can't meal plan because their cravings are too, daily on a whim, like it's important to pay attention to your body, [00:15:00] so.

I love it. What a cool topic. I have, I, I was expecting to have questions. I don't really have questions, but I do have a couple anecdotes to add to it, which is that it's actually funny. My, um, I just went out to lunch with my mom, and we were talking about this same thing, which was when I was little, probably five years old, I would sneak butter. we al- we like kept a butter, like a butter container out on, like a stick of butter on... What do you call those things? A butter, it's like a plate with a lid.

butter dish?

A butter dish.

Oh, I'm like, am I... Is this, should it be more complicated than this?

No, my brain just wasn't working. Yeah, we used to keep a butter dish on our dining room table, and I, I told my mom, I have a distinct memory of a lot of Friday nights growing up, we would have homemade pizza and movie night on Fridays, and I have a distinct memory of like sneaking into the kitchen while everybody [00:16:00] else was watching the movie and like taking a hunk out of the butter with my finger and eating it.

And my mom was like, "W- was, were you getting in trouble for eating the butter?" And I was like, "Well, I think so, but I think it's because I was like putting my hands in the butter," you know? But, and she w- and so we were talking about it, and I was just like, I, I think that I was probably just like needing fat or something, or maybe even salt, 'cause I think we always had salted butter.

And, uh, so it's in, so it's really, to me it's a really interesting idea, particularly when it comes to kids because looking back on that I'm like, "My body knew what it needed," even if I like quote unquote wasn't supposed to have that, you know? And like butter's such like a unusual thing for a child to just wanna eat like three tablespoons of butter, you know?

Mm-hmm. It is unique, but I think it's, I think the butter craving is super fascinating, especially around children, because Nourishing Traditions, um, who's the, who's the author of that book?

Uh, Sally Fallon

Yes. Like, she's a huge butter fan [00:17:00] for children because it's so good for the brain.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it's such a, stable energy source, so good for the brain, gives a lot of satiety. It's good for your hormones. Like, it's good for so many things. She's a big fan of kids eating butter.

Yeah, as high in calories when your brain needs a lot of calories

yeah. So I did a little quick look, and butter cravings reflect a desire for fat, calories, satiety, comfort, fat-soluble nutrients, um, nervous system regulation, hormonal support.

And actually, I'm really glad you brought this up because I just got an email from Dave Asprey, who is a biohacking guy. I know you know who he is, but for our listeners. I'm literally working on this thing, this whole, this podcast, what am I gonna talk about, all of that, and I get this email from him that says, "The silent defici- deficiency accelerating your aging."

Oh

And so I'm like, what? What are we, what are we doing? Okay. And he said that fat-soluble vitamins are the thing that are aging us very quickly 'cause we are not consuming enough of them. We're all deficient in them. [00:18:00] And so he basically... It's, I mean, it's a sales email. But the Western diet leaves you low in vitamins A, D, K, and E, um, which I was really piqued in my interest in this because he mentioned vitamin A, and that's what I thought my kids were struggling with.

And they don't work by themselves. They, like, regulate each other, and so if you're low in them, like, they, you start to low in, go low in all of them because they work together. And he, so it's a sales email, but I wanna say that he's selling a product, and it is suspended in MCT oil,

Right

um, which is, they're fat soluble, and that allows your body to actually utilize the vitamins that you're consuming.

And there's just so much more to this entire idea than we can even almost comprehend as, like, regular people. You know, and like, the more that I know, the more I'm like, oh my goodness, it's all so connected. Like, we are deficient in vitamins, but we're not eating enough of this, and we're eating too much of that, and, like, this fat and that fat, or this fat versus that fat, and how fat impacts our vitamin, [00:19:00] like, our vitamin stores.

But how it, how we can even... If we were gonna consume a vitamin, like, is it doing us any good to just pop a vitamin D pill if we're not, if we don't have that, like, suspended in some kind of oil that's fat soluble that allows our body to utilize it, et cetera? It's fascinating to me

Uh, though this actually reminds me of, like, when I was listening to the Dave Asprey's podcast, he had somebody like Tim Ferriss or somebody on there, and they talked about this because Tim Ferriss was like, "Yeah, a lot of times when I take vitamin D, it, like, kind of makes me feel nauseous." And Dave Asprey was like, "Well, you need to make sure that you're taking it with fat."

Like, you shouldn't be in a fast, right? Like, that's Dave Asprey's thing, for those who don't know, is, like, he's really into the intermittent fasting. And so he's like, "You shouldn't be taking vitamin D if you're in a fasting period because it needs the fat in order to, like, in order for your, uh, body to absorb it."

So, like, if you're taking something like vitamin D that's a fat-soluble vitamin and it's making you feel sick, it's probably because your body is not able to actually, [00:20:00] like, absorb it and, like, use it the way that it was intended to be used in your body. So it's pretty cool

Yeah. I think the whole thing is so fascinating

Yeah. So the other thing that I wanted to mention related to this, I just saw this on Instagram the other day too, which was the idea of, like, you get done eating and you're craving sweets, which is ding, ding, ding,

Yeah.

issue.

I, every meal I want something sweet. And the lady was, on the Instagram post, was saying that a lot of the time that you might have eaten a very well-rounded meal and, like, you feel satiated or even like you said, like, you feel overly full. Like Thanksgiving, you feel overly full, yet you still want the pumpkin pie.

And Thanksgiving's a different story, right? Like, that's just, like, a whole made up thing in our head about, like, we need to eat all the things.

have to have the pumpkin

Exactly, I'm never gonna have pumpkin pie ever again in my life. I need to eat it today. Uh, but she was saying, like, if you're craving things after lunch or after dinner, [00:21:00] sometimes it's an issue that the meal you were eating didn't involve enough, like, oral stimulation.

So, like, there wasn't, there wasn't, like, enough variety of textures and flavors in the thing that you were eating, and so then you're like, "Oh, I'm craving this, like, sweet thing," to kind of like break up the, the feeling in your palate. So, like, that's super interesting too

So interesting. I felt like I couldn't go deeper in my deep dive, right, for the purposes of this podcast, but thinking about, I would love to look into more of, like, why we want when,

Oh yeah, for sure

Because I do think it's interesting, and I tend to want something sweet after lunch, in particular after lunch. Now my kids don't do well with dessert after dinner. Um, we're trying to ramp them down, not up.

Yeah.

And so we have shifted, like if we're gonna have dessert, we have it in the afternoon, and I don't know if it's that, like, habit shift that it's like, oh, well now it's time for a sweet treat.

Yeah

Have you seen that guy on Instagram that's like, [00:22:00] "Sweet treat"?

Yes.

It's... I said it like him and I, now I feel silly. Though he is very funny. But I don't know if it's that or if it's something else that I'm missing in my lunches, 'cause I probably need to put a little more thought into my lunches, to be honest

Yeah. I do think that there, there is a conditioning aspect of it though, because there have been times when I've been like, "I'm giving up sugar for 30 days." And like, you know, then going, going back on sugar after not eating it, the, I don't crave it in the same way, you know? So I do think there's like a habitual nature of it where you're just kind of like, "Well, I ate that spicy meal and now I need something sweet for it with, to, you know, to go with it."

Yeah. Well, and I think this is where I think it's actually cool how, how our bodies... I think it's incredibly cool how our bodies adapt.

Mm-hmm

But I think it's also, like, how do you, how do you allow your body to adapt and not inhibit the signals that it's giving or influence the signals to be negative?

Yeah

'Cause, you know, I don't, [00:23:00] like, I don't want to have my body saying, "We need sugar," when we don't. You know?, You know, like, I don't want that. I wanna be, I want my body to, like, be asking for the thing that it actually needs, and so then I'm paying attention to my body and what it needs, but

Fascinating. I love it. Great topic, Riley

Thank you. I'm so excited to hear yours. Tell me, tell me

Mine is so not as in depth as yours.

Oh, that's totally fine. You know, we didn't talk about this at all, listeners, okay? So

we didn't talk,

we didn't talk about it at

parameters even. We just said pick a topic

Yeah, I literally was like, "I can't..." Like five minutes before this, "I can't wait to hear what you're gonna talk about today."

Yeah, I know. Uh, okay, well, I'm talking about onions.

Onions. Fascinating

I have been thinking about this idea, uh, basically since we read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and one of the things, one of the main things that she talked about in the fat chapter is that different fats have different applications, and it, [00:24:00] that, like, totally makes sense.

But then I was thinking about it the other day because, like, a recipe called for a red onion, and I was like, "Why does this recipe call for a red onion instead of a white onion?" So my deep dive is like, let's talk about onions and when you use different kinds of onions. Oh, it was also related to shallots, 'cause I was like, "I'm not gonna buy a single shallot for this recipe.

I have a yellow onion at my house. Why would I use a shallot instead?" I know they're fancier, but I'm like, "Why would I spend... Why would I... Shallots are so much smaller." I don't know. I just was, I was, like, feeling frustrated at a shallot the other day, so

I'm jumping the gun, but do you now, will you, are you willing now to buy a shallot when you need a shallot?

I think so

Ooh, can't wait

Yeah. Okay. So I'm just gonna go through each type of on- each type of onion and the uses for them. So yellow onion is basically your default onion for cooking. If a recipe says use an onion, most likely they mean... And they don't d- specify a specific type of onion, they mean a yellow onion.[00:25:00] 

Yellow onions are like a balanced flavor onion, so they're a balance of an, of like a, kind of like a bite, you know, an oniony bite and sweetness. And they develop more sweetness as they cook, so they're really good for, like, low and slow cooking, putting things in the crock pot or braising or whatever, because they really develop sweetness over time.

They're not as ideal for things like raw salads or, like, topping stuff just because, they're not as good raw as some other types of onions. So best to be used in, like, soups, stews, you know, roasting vegetables, stir fries, casserole. If you're caramelizing onions, yellow onion is the onion that you wanna use. Okay, white onions. Sharper and brighter in flavor than a yellow onion, so they have more of that, like, punchy, onion-forward flavor. They're really common in Mexican cuisine and just recipes where you want a more noticeable [00:26:00] onion flavor. Because they're not as sweet, they're not as good for that slow cooking because they'll still taste like onions.

Like, it'll have a strong onion flavor rather than, like, that sweetness that you get from a yellow onion. So they're the onions that you find in salsa, pico de gallo, tacos. A c- a lot of times people will use onions if they're doing, like, diced onions inside of a hamburger, they'll use white onion because it's more oniony.

Or like a relish, you'd use a white onion. Okay, red onions are best used raw or lightly cook, lightly cooked, sorry. They're, they are, have, like, a slight sweetness to them, but they have a really crunchy texture, which is why they're good to use raw, and they're not as ideal for the low and slow kind of cooking.

So you use them in, like, salads, sandwiches, topping your burgers, put them in your grain bowls. When you make pickled onions, you use red onion because it maintains that crunchiness better, and then it's really popular in Mediterranean cuisine. [00:27:00] Shallots. They have a more mild and delicate flavor. You use a shallot when you don't want the onion to overpower a dish.

So they are, and they are good to use for sauces and for more, like, delicate dishes. So things like salad dressing, vinaigrette, an egg dish. They go well with seafood. They're very popular in French cooking. If you're gonna make a compound butter, you almost always wanna use a shallot just simply because it's not gonna overpower.

Or... And shallots is what you use if you're making, like, a crispy fried onion topping Finally, we have scallions or green onions. So that's a mild onion, almost has like a grassy flavor. It's not just a garnish, right? Like, I think a lot of recipes just use a green onion in a, as a garnish, but, um, the white part or the light green part towards the bottom is a stronger onion flavor.

Obviously, if you've ever tried that, like, you know that's more oniony. And then the dark green tops are [00:28:00] milder and more grassy. So you would, you would use them raw as toppings for, like, soups and tacos and fried rice, baked potatoes, eggs, dips. But you can also use them cooked in stir-fries, savory pancakes, dumplings, omelets, and noodle dishes. here's some real world examples of a recipe and what onion you should use and why. So chili or soup, you would use that yellow onion. It's a default onion. It softens nicely and becomes savory and sweet over the long period of cooking. If you're having tacos, you could use a white onion or a red onion.

The white gives a more sharpness, but the red would add sweetness and, like, a pop of color if you like that in your cooking. Salad dressing, you would do shallot, a shallot because it's less harsh than, as, particularly when it's raw, it's way less harsh than any other onion. [00:29:00] As a burger topping, use a red onion because it's crunchy, but it's also mild enough to eat when it's raw.

And then fried rice, green onions adds a fresh flavor, but it doesn't overpower the other flavors in the dish. And I mentioned this earlier, but caramelized onions use the yellow onion because it already has some sugars in it, so it's gonna caramelize really nicely and give, like, a balance of a sugary and sweet flavor.

So that's all my research about onions. The only... The thing that I... I understand all of these things. However, my argument against some of these things is I always feel like when I eat a red onion raw, it feels so powerful. Like, I was really surprised, actually, in my research about this, that, like, red onions are like, "It's mild, and it's sweet."

I'm like, "But I've had red onions before that, like, burned my mouth."

Mm-hmm.

And so the older the onion is, the m- the more spicy it can get. [00:30:00] So potentially, if you're getting a red onion, and it's like, "Wow, that was a really spicy onion," it could be older. Like, it could've taken a long time to get shipped to your grocery store or something like that.

But that's kind of, like, my pushback against this is I'm like, anytime I have a red onion in something, almost always soak it in some vinegar to try and, like, lessen the punchiness of the, of the onion flavor. I also don't like my breath to taste like onions, so I don't often eat raw onions anyway.

Yeah. I do the exact same thing with raw onions, except I put them in... I just put them in water about an hour before I want to use them, because I like... It, it does m- make them, like tempers that bite

I think it might've been in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat that she says you can put 'em in vinegar and it'll help take some of that, whatever the compound is that, that gives it the bite. Um, and then she's like, "And then if you're making a salad dressing or something like, then you can just use that vinegar in the salad dressing," and it kinda has like an added flavor to it t- that way too

[00:31:00] When we were reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, you might not remember the answer to this, and I'm putting you on the spot, but there was something that you don't cook with an onion because it'll, like, not allow it to caramelize.

Oh, tomatoes.

Tomatoes, that

So yeah, so if you want, so if you have a dish that has onions and tomatoes in it, you'll, if the recipe author wrote it well, it'll call to, like, saute or caramelize your onions first before you add the tomatoes, 'cause there's something in the tomatoes, I don't know if it's the acid or something else, that will prevent the onions from cooking further

Yes, that was it. It's very important.

Uh-huh.

It is important, but yeah, it's one of those things that you, that you don't know, and as like a beginner cook, you might just be like, "I don't have time to like wait for these onions to cook before I put all the stuff together," right? If you're trying to like make things quick, and then you're like, "Ew, these onions are just like raw and crunchy."

Yeah. It would make you very frustrated if you were making something and you're like, "But why are these onions raw?" Like, that is, that's pivotal.

Yeah

okay, so my next question for you is the one onion you did not mention, which I use a lot at my house, is a [00:32:00] sweet onion 

right, I didn't mention sweet onions specifically. They're a type of yellow onion, so like in the United States we have like Vidalia onions or Walla Walla that come from Washington, and they are sweeter, so they're extra good for things like caramelization and that like low and slow cooking.

I think a good example is like, well maybe most people haven't made this, but if you're doing like a sweet onion and bacon jam, you would use a, um, a sweet onion. A lot of people use sweet onions for French onion soup. So I mean, basically I think it's, they're basically just like a type of yellow onion.

So I guess that's why I didn't mention them specifically, but yeah, they just have more of that natural like sweetness, sugar to them I guess.

Sure. Well, the only reason I ask is because I use them so often, and, like, at our grocery store they're in separate spots. Like, pick a sweet, pick a yellow, pick a white. Growing up I used to... We used to have tons of, like, wild growing onions in the yard,[00:33:00] 

Oh, yeah

and I used to make pretend soup with them and make my brothers eat it.

but I feel like, um, it's just kind of fun to find a green onion somewhere just growing wildly. We were at... We went to this garden locally to pick peonies, and there's a flower that they have, in it. I, I don't know if it's a flowering onion, but it is a little pom-pom looking flower, and the...

Everything growing with it is an o- is onion. Smells like onion. Looks like a green onion

Yeah. Uh, I feel like I know what that is, but I don't know, I don't remember it right off the top of my head. I just did a quick search to give you a little more information about the sweet onions. So they are higher in sugar and they're low in sulfur. So I guess maybe the sulfur is the thing that gives the onion the bite.

Mm-hmm.

They also have thinner skins and a higher water content, so if you have sweet onions, you wanna make sure you refrigerate them.

Hmm,

I refrigerate all of my onions, but some people do keep them in, like, the pantry. Yeah.

Cool

Uh, I also think that at least around [00:34:00] here, I feel like sweet onions are only in se- season certain times of the year.

Like, I feel like you can't find... Or they're maybe only sweet, really sweet a certain time of the year. So I don't know. I just know that there's certain times of the year when there's, like, lots of sweet onions, and then sometimes I feel like they're hard to find

Yeah. Um, red onions, uh, are very beautiful, and I have grown in my enjoyment of red onions over the course of my life. There is a place for them, just, uh, just a light, light onion. I'm a light raw onion girl. Like, I don't like a lot, just a little, just a tiny bit, and it's... They're so beautiful, so

Yeah. I like the color of red onions too. Really, they're like purple, right? I, I heard this thing a few months ago, I don't remember if I told you about this, but that, like, purple is the least common color that people eat when it comes to fruits and vegetables. So, like purple cabbage, blackberries, you know, there's, like, [00:35:00] eggplant.

There's, like, the purple kind cauliflower. I think red onions would probably fall under that category too. And they have this type of polyphenol, which is called I'm gonna totally botch this, uh, anthocyan- cyaninis. Uh, anyways, it's like a, it's like a antioxidant that's, like, basically only found in purple fruits and vegetables. So it's important that we get purple colored fruits and vegetables in our diet because, it has this special compound. So, yeah.

That was fun.

That was fun.

We should do it again

Yeah, we sure did. We learned some interesting things

I was not expecting you to talk about onions.

I had no idea what you were gonna talk about, but I liked your topic a lot. I feel like we could, we could just start a whole separate podcast and talk about food cravings and, like, the way that nutrients interact in your body

Totally. Yeah, I went through a lot of topics to get there.[00:36:00] 

I

to just, like, stop making lists of ideas that I had and just pick one

But I did the same thing. Yeah, well, yeah, so we've had this idea for a podcast for a couple months, and now we're finally acting on it. And yeah, I went through a lot of different, a lot of different ideas too.

Yeah, I finally just had to say, "Okay, just pick one and just do something," and just... And then the, the, the kids craving carrots just kicked me there. I was like, "Okay, this is it. This is weird, and this is what I'm gonna do."

Yeah, it's such an interesting connection

It is.

All right, well, we thank y'all for listening. And as always, you can leave a rating or review for the podcast. We always appreciate that and love hearing from you guys. And if you liked this idea of us just talking about random stuff related to food, we'd love to know.

If you have anything you want us to do a deep dive on, let us know. And I think that's it, so we'll talk to you again in two weeks [00:37:00]