A number of weeks earlier than Thanksgiving yearly my household inevitably asks if anybody would object to swapping the standard inexperienced bean casserole for some type of sauteed haricot vert kinda factor. One thing a bit “brisker” and “lighter” and “respectful of beans as precise residing produce.” And each single 12 months I nix these plans. Not as a result of I’m a traditionalist, however as a result of I’m certainly one of a rarified few who assume inexperienced bean casserole is the very best Thanksgiving facet. Yeah, mac and cheese is nice; the beans are higher.
By no means one to show down a second of vegetable-induced introspection, when final 12 months’s alternate occurred, I requested myself what it’s, precisely, that I really like a lot concerning the casserole? It’s clearly not the beans, and the mushroom soupiness is simply high-quality. It was then that I spotted the very best factor about inexperienced bean casserole is definitely the fried onions all through. Why, I questioned, don’t I simply put them on every part? And now I do.
After I say “fried onions,” I don’t imply, like, onions that I sliced and battered and fried myself till they turn out to be crisp little wisps of candy onion taste. I imply the pop-top can with the shelf-stable morsels of chemical onion-ish crunch which have as a lot in frequent with an precise onion as Funyuns — one other magnificent creation. On high of a inexperienced bean casserole, they add simply sufficient salt and texture however most significantly taste to distinction all of the creamy beaniness. Blended into just about the rest, they’re simply magnificent.
The impressed scribes behind the can’s label, conscious of the restricted Thanksgiving marketplace for their product, consistently goad individuals to seek out extra makes use of for onions, exhibiting photographs of onion-topped burgers, and recipes for numerous dips and salads. So I took their ideas as gospel, and opened myself as much as a brand new world the place canned fried onions are a pantry staple. And oh, how I lived!
I swapped croutons for onions, stuffed sandwiches with onions, topped mac and cheese with onions, and crammed my tacos with them. I put onions on my eggs, my soups, my stir-fries, my Brussels sprouts, my meatloaf. All the things, I imply every part, was improved. That’s as a result of fried onions aren’t pure crunch like panko — flavorless bread shrapnel that provides texture and nothing else. They usually aren’t pure umami, fats, and salt both, like, say, a bacon bit. There’s dimension to fried onions. Nor are they only crispy — they’ve some give, various layers to your tooth to discover. However once more, I can’t stress this sufficient, they’re additionally simply scrumptious. I’m now to the purpose the place I eat them plain as a snack — like bitter cream and onion chips, maintain the bitter cream.
Do my rings match anymore attributable to sodium consumption? Not each day. Is the roof of my mouth sometimes shredded? Certain — however ache is feeling and feeling is life. This 12 months I’ll once more be requested to make the inexperienced bean casserole, and I’ll once more be the one taking dwelling 90 % of it as leftovers whereas everybody else eats roasted broccolini or no matter “contemporary” vegetable facet they settled upon. And I’ll as soon as once more be high-quality with that, comforted by the data that the one factor higher than scorching, crispy canned fried onions is barely soggy ones.