Introducing onion

[Guest guest]

Meleah,

Certainly you can generally use fresh, very finely minced fresh onion in

lieu of onion powder. I know of only one recipe of mine in which the onion

powder itself works better.

However, if the recipe called for the powder, and you don't have a

dehydrator, you may be able to dry onion and garlic by slicing them really

thin and placing them on parchment sheets in your oven at its lowest

temperature overnight. If you have a convection oven, this will work even

better. I say " may " because if you live in a very humid climate like I do,

getting stuff dry without a blowing air current can be problematical.

One thing I determined, oddly enough, from making guacamole, was that my

homemade onion powders gave us less digestive issues than the fresh, raw

onions. We like a fair amount of red onion -- but when I put it in raw, my

husband and I both had burps all night. When I used red onion which I dried

and powdered, we didn't have this. It's my opinion that the reason for this

is that the dehydrator essentially slow-cooks onion or garlic, as I have

seen it slow-cook my meatsticks.

So if you decide not to dry your onion and garlic for those recipes

specifying homemade onion and garlic powders, I would recommend perhaps

mincing it finely and then roasting it in a toaster oven until soft before

using it.

-- Marilyn (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA)

Undiagnosed IBS 25 Years, SCD Five Years

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund