Roasted Onion Salad

About The Ingredients

You need only 6 ingredients to make this simple salad with roasted onions.

Onions: You can use any type of onion that you’d like. We often prefer a combination of red onions and brown onions. 

Pomegranate molasses: For this recipe, we use homemade pomegranate molasses, which is an incredibly popular Turkish ingredient. It's a very thick concentrated sour syrup made from pomegranate juice. You can find it in your local Middle Eastern market or online. Use lemon juice or balsamic vinegar instead if you can't find it. Also, check out other substitutes for pomegranate molasses!

Sumac spice: It is a delicious spice with a lemony flavor with an earthy tanginess. It adds incredible depth to your onions and there isn’t a substitute that can do it justice!

Dill: We like to use fresh dill, but you can also use some fresh parsley or thyme. 

Additional Flavors

Brown sugar is an excellent addition to onions and it will help them caramelize faster. It will also add a deeper and much richer flavor.

Another fantastic addition is garlic. Garlic adds a very powerful savory flavor to the roasted onion salad that can help balance the sweetness.

You can also easily add a ton of other vegetables. Some of our favorites include mushrooms, green onions, and bell peppers. Try to choose vegetables that will take more or less the same time to roast.

How To Make Salad with Roasted Onions

(Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!)

These flavor-packed baked onions are incredibly quick to make.

Preheat the oven and prepare the onions: Peel the onions and remove the root end. Cut them into wedges. You can also make thick rings if you are using large red onions.

Season the onions: Place the red onion slices or quarters inside a baking dish or roasting tray in a single layer. Drizzle the onions with olive oil and sprinkle over some salt. Stir the onions with a spoon to ensure they are well covered.

Cook them: Roast the onions for roughly 30 minutes or until they are soft and caramelized. Once the onions have completely cooked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool slightly.

Add the remaining ingredients: Sprinkle sumac over the roasted onions, drizzle with pomegranate molasses, and give it a gentle stir. Garnish with chopped fresh dill.

Serve the baked onion salad warm or at room temperature.

To store the leftovers, let it cool completely. Then keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature before serving again.

Our Tips

When cooking onions, make sure to layer the onion wedges in a single layer. If they overlap, you will have steamed onions instead of roasted.

Do not allow the roasted onions to sit at room temperature for more than an hour. If they do, they will start to smell bad and won’t be appealing to look at either.

Be careful not to overbake the onions. If you overcook them, they will lose their sweetness, become very dry, and they might even burn.

We don't prepare the roasted onion salad dressing separately. We just sprinkle sumac and drizzle pomegranate molasses over the onions and then stir. If you want, you can prepare a pomegranate molasses salad dressing and use it for this salad too.

Serving Suggestions

This roasted onions salad is traditionally served as a side dish for Turkish kebabs at kebab restaurants.

You can create your very own delicious kebab platter including these baked onions, shepherd salad, spicy ezme, and cacik or haydari meze dip.

When it comes to choosing which kebab you are serving it with, there isn’t a wrong answer! Because of the simplistic flavor of these over roasted onion slices, you can pair them with many chicken dishes and meat dishes.

You can serve it alongside our famous kofta kebab or Adana kebab. Both of these meaty kebabs are packed with spices and delicious lamb flavors that will pair amazingly well with the sweetness of the roasted onions.

But, if you are looking for kebabs that are slightly easier to make (or at least require less work), you can always try our delicious shish lamb kebabs or this refreshing chicken kebabs recipe.

You Might Also Like: