White Onions

Description

White onion’s characteristics from our ochard

The white onions from the Huerta de Pancha are characterised by their large size, ranging from 300 to 500 grams. Moreover, the whole product can be used, even the leaves, to flavour different dishes.

It is tender and tasty, with a crunchy texture. They are also very fresh, which makes them perfect for stews, salads, gazpacho and guacamole.

We send onions in season, always freshly harvested, ready to eat. They are long-lasting products, so it is not necessary to put them in the fridge.

At Huerta de Pancha, we recommend eating the stalk first, as it is the part of the onion that spoils first. It can be sautéed, used in scrambled eggs, chopped in salads and used to flavour stews or broths. In short, to add the freshness of our white onions to any dish, hot or cold.

Onion types and their differences

There are up to eight different varieties of onion, and here we explain the characteristics of each one of them.

The yellow onion is the normal onion, perfect for stewing and very powerful for eating raw. It is also the one with the highest sugar content.

The purple onion stands out for the colour of its skin and the soft purple lines it has inside. It is eaten raw, in dishes such as salads, guacamole, ceviches or pickles.

The white onion is a very mild onion. It is used for sauces and stir-fries, and in general for dishes that need a quick cooking of this vegetable: it yields quickly to heat.

The sweet onion is a very soft variety of onion to be eaten raw, and it is perfect for some hot dishes such as onion rings or stir-fries.

The French onion is small in size, and it is usually consumed roasted or caramelised. In Spain, it is the most used variety in catering, and it is served as a garnish.

The shallot is an onion similar to garlic, due to its size and its spicy flavour with sweet touches. It can be eaten in different ways, especially in raw dishes.

The spring onion is softer than the yellow onion, should be kept in the fridge and is perfect for any dish with onion, especially cold dishes.

Calçots or Catalan onions are a type of onion that comes from the white onion. Its shape is similar to a leek, and it is usually eaten roasted, spread in a prepared sauce.

Chives are not used as onions, but as aromatic herbs due to their tender leaves. It goes well with all kinds of dishes.

How you will receive The Huerta de Pancha’s white onions

Our onions are harvested from our orchard at their optimum point of ripeness. For packaging we use 100% recyclable cardboard boxes and we place the onions with barriers to prevent them from being damaged during transport. Our onions are ready to eat and maintain all their freshness and natural flavour as they do not go through cold storage before they reach home.

Onion crops in Axarquia

The cultivation of this type of onion takes place in the fertile lowlands of the Algarrobo River, in the heart of the Axarquia region.

The most important part of the onion during cultivation is the bulb, which grows underground and receives the nutrients necessary to feed the whole plant. At La Huerta de Pancha we grow our onions from the seeds of onions from previous crops, so we repeat the cycle year after year, after the harvest.

For the correct cultivation of the white onions of La Axarquía, we choose the best soil for the optimum growth of the onions, being necessary that the structure of the soil is fine and firm. We sow the seedlings in seedbeds for subsequent transplanting, a process which is always done manually.

Weeding is called weeding, and must be done constantly; we keep an eye on the weeds to prevent them from invading the land where our onions are grown.

As far as irrigation of these crops is concerned, it is done more frequently and in smaller quantities, since onions do not tolerate excess humidity.

The onions are harvested by hand: we pull the plants directly from the ground and leave them on the ground for about three days to dry naturally. We take care of the drying process of the onions, we make sure that it is done during days of stable weather and without rain, and we also turn the onions over so that the drying process is carried out homogeneously throughout the whole plant.

How to preserves onion

In general, it is recommended to place them whole in a ventilated space with low humidity, avoiding as far as possible placing them near the potatoes. Another option is to refrigerate them to keep them fresh for up to 15 days more.

If they have already been cut, you can put them in an airtight (glass) container in your fridge, so that they will stay fresh for a few more days.

White onion’s properties

The white onion is a food with zero fat content and few calories. It is also low in sugar, which makes it a perfect food to complement any type of dish.

It is high in vitamins A, B and C, which makes it a home remedy for treating respiratory and nervous diseases.

Among the most important properties of the white onion is its stimulating power for the functions of the liver, pancreas and gall bladder.

 

How to cut onion

Here you will find some suggestions for handling and chopping our onions with the intention of making the task easier, but we can’t help it if, due to their freshness, our onions make you cry “with happiness” in the process. Onions can be julienned, chopped and sliced. To cut onions, it is advisable to use a plastic chopping board because a wooden chopping board gets too much of the characteristic smell of onions.

To chop the onion, first clean the onion very well by cutting off the poles and removing the outer layers, but leaving the knot. Then cut the onion in half. Make parallel cuts in each of the halves, taking advantage of the natural direction of the onion fibre, but without going all the way through so that the onion half remains in one piece. Next, turn the onion 90º and make cuts parallel to the table, very carefully and without going all the way through. Finally, we only need to make cuts in the last direction, from top to bottom, to obtain small cubes.

To cut it into julienne strips, there is a novel trick that will make it much easier. All you need is a peeler and a fork. The peeler allows us to get very thin slices of almost any food. First of all, we remove the outer layers by cutting the poles, leaving the knot, as we have explained in the previous case. Once we have it ready, we stick the fork into the centre of the onion, so that we can hold it in place, and pass the peeler back and forth again and again.