For about 10 years now, I have become increasingly allergic to onion. Garlic is the only allium I can still eat. For a long time, I couldn’t eat raw onion, but if it was cooked enough, say dehydrated and used as powder, or stewed, I could still eat it, but now, raw onion gives me blisters in the mouth, and any other form of onion makes it feel like I have been eating hot peppers. And as it is a contact allergy, it also, um, causes a lot of GI symptoms, let’s say.
But onion is in EVERYTHING. Every soup stock ever made, rubs, sauces, spice blends. Cheddar flavored chips have onion in them. Goldfish crackers. And whole swaths of cultural cooking are completely out. Mexican, Italian, Thai, Indian, Chinese… And do you know how many places put onion in their hamburger or on their seasoned fries? And you would think something like plain canned tomato paste would be just tomatoes, but you would be incorrect. Most of the name brands of plain tomato sauce and paste have onion in them. No yellow mustard, plain ketchup, or store-bought pickles and relishes, either. My husband is a chef, but he works dinner services, and I am NOT a good cook. I have had to start learning, because if I want to eat food that tastes good, I have to make it myself.
Last summer, my boss brought me dozens of pounds of tomatoes from her garden, after she was sick of canning them herself. So I made myself some tomato sauce, just tomatoes and salt, froze it in portions, and had my husband take it to work and vac-seal it for longevity. It will make a good base for lots of things. I also dehydrated a TON. Three quart jars full, after dehydrating. I can add that bright tomato flavor to sauceless pizzas, without having to make pizza sauce from scratch. And when I was done, I collected the juice off my cutting board, and made myself a fresh-squeezed vodka cocktail.
