Onion
With care — Allowed by some hospitals and not others, or allowed only prepared a particular way.
In one line: Cook it until completely soft, then either purée it into the sauce or strain it out. Never leave it crunchy or in strands.
Stoma note: Can increase wind.
An onion sliced and softened for five minutes is still an onion in strands. That is the form this diet cannot use, because the strands survive chewing and stay intact. Cooked for twenty or thirty minutes in butter over a low heat, the same onion loses its structure entirely and becomes a sweet, pale purée that behaves like any other soft vegetable.
The preparation
Dice small and evenly first, because a thick piece will still be thick at the end. Melt butter or oil in a wide pan, add the onion with a pinch of salt, cover for the first ten minutes, then let it go uncovered on a low heat, stirring often enough that it does not colour. It should reduce to about half its volume and turn from white to ivory. Press a piece with a spoon. It should collapse into a smear. See cooking to melting.
Then either blend it into the sauce or strain it out. Never crunchy, never in rings, never a piece left whole.
Where hospitals differ
The leaflet this book follows lists sausages with onions among foods to avoid and does not list onion as allowed. Several trusts, St George's included, allow well-cooked onion. This book uses it only cooked to melting and either puréed or strained out, and says so in every recipe.
If you have been told to leave it out
A well-made clear stock, a spoon of passata and garlic cooked soft will carry a gravy or a ragù. Onion is also a wind-producer, so it is worth a separate question if you have a stoma. See alliums.
Swaps
- Instead of Raw or roughly chopped onion, use Onion cooked down to a purée or paste, or onion powder
- Raw onion keeps its fibrous strands, so cooking it right down to a purée, or using onion powder, gives the same flavour without them. Some hospitals allow onion cooked to a rougher texture than others require, so check what your own team advises if you are unsure.