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

FAQs

What are sumac onions? ›

Sumac onions, which consists of thinly sliced onions pickled in a marinade of sumac and lemon, are a Middle Eastern condiment. While raw onion is one of the main components of the side dish, it doesn't have a harsh taste. Instead, it has a lemony flavor, making it versatile enough to pair with a wide range of foods.

This easy popular Turkish salad called piyaz, or more accurately fasulye piayzi, is made with simple ingredients including white beans, tomatoes, onions, parsley and garlic. A light vinaigrette with fresh lemon juice and a good dash of sumac brings this satisfying white bean salad together.

Submerge Them in Cold Water

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.

This deep red spice is the main flavor maker in some traditional Middle Eastern dishes like fattoush salad and musakhan, but it is a versatile spice that can add depth and tang to many things including chicken, fish, and all sorts of salads!

Some uncommon Middle Eastern spices such as sumac, za'atar, and dukkah have become my go-to's. They're perfect on fish, salads, meats, and vegetables. Sumac is a red-purple powder that adds a lovely lemony flavor and gorgeous color. Za'atar is a lemony hyssop or thyme, sumac, and sesame seed blend.

Common ingredients used in Turkish cooking include lamb, beef, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and various herbs and spices such as parsley, mint, cumin, and sumac.

Both the Greeks and the Turks make tasty salads from a variety of raw fresh vegetables; the Greeks may add Feta cheese, while the Turks may spice it up with peppers. Both the Greeks and the Turks prepare stuffed vine leaves.

Menemen is their famous scrambled eggs, with tomatoes, peppers and, sometimes, onions. The seasoning is quite simple and often includes a dash of dried herbs (I used oregano) and a touch of heat from some chili flakes.

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.

What does vinegar do to onions? ›

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.

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.

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.

We've often heard the claim that soaking sliced or chopped raw onions in liquid can mellow their harsh taste by drawing out the pungent sulfur compounds known as thiosulfinates that are produced when the onion is cut.

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. Squeeze out excess water before using.

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.

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).

Small tree or large shrub; rarely grows taller than 40 feet (13.7m) Trunk is shorter, branching frequently. Trunks usually lean. Foliage emits a strong and often unpleasant nutty smell when crushed.

Is sumac spicy? Sumac isn't spicy like a chilli powder or hot paprika. It has a sour, floral tang that's a bit like lemon or limes but isn't quite as astringent.