Roasted Onion Salad with Arugula and Walnut Salsa Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Christmas

by: Marian Bull

November11,2014

4.7

7 Ratings

  • Serves 4

Jump to Recipe

Author Notes

This recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty More. It's probably the sexiest thing that you could ever advertise as "onion salad." —Marian Bull

  • Test Kitchen-Approved

What You'll Need

Ingredients
  • For the salad:
  • 4 medium red onions
  • 1 1/2 tablespoonsolive oil
  • 1 cuparugula (Not to be a snob, but if you can find arugula at your farmers market, I promise that it will be ten times better than the boxed stuff. Prettier, too.)
  • 1/2 cupflat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 2 ouncessoft goat cheese, broken into 1/2- to 1-inch chunks
  • Flaky salt and freshly cracked black pepper
  • For the walnut salsa:
  • 2/3 cupwalnuts, coarsely chopped (make sure they're not bitter or rancid, okay?)
  • 1 fresh red chile (e.g. Thai bird's eye), seeded and finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 3 tablespoonsred wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoonolive oil
  • salt
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 425° F. Peel the onions and remove their tops and tails. Slice each one crosswise into 3 slices, about 3/4 inch thick, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (You can skip the parchment, but you'll spend more time cleaning.) Drizzle the slices with olive oil and smoosh the oil around with your (clean) hands to coat evenly. (You can also use a pastry brush; I don't own one.) Sprinkle with a big pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, until the onions begin to brown and caramelize, and are soft but not totally slouchy. (If you want more color out of them, stick them under the broiler for a minute or two.) Set them aside to cool just a bit.
  2. While the onions cook, combine all of the salsa ingredients in a small bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon salt, stir, and set aside.
  3. To serve, put the arugula and parsley in a large bowl. Toss with about half the salsa, then nestle in the onion slices, dollop on the cheese, and top with the rest of the salsa. Serve.

Tags:

  • Salad
  • Salsa
  • Cheese
  • Vegetable
  • Arugula
  • Onion
  • Parsley
  • Spring
  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Christmas
  • Thanksgiving

Recipe by: Marian Bull

writer

Popular on Food52

17 Reviews

Rosalind P. July 25, 2021

Tried a different way: process the arugula and parsley with the "salsa" (a.k.a sauce?). Spoon over and into the onion layers. Same flavor profile.

Lynn December 2, 2020

I settled upon this salad as a side to a vaguely Middle-Eastern Lamb Mince Crumble I was making for a family supper. It literally stole the show. I took advice from the comments and used walnut oil and sherry vinegar, but found the salsa a bit too sharp so added a teaspoon or so of pomegranate molasses (in keeping, I figured). I snipped my rucola a bit to make the stems easier to eat, my onions were soft and brown and delicious, the additions sublime, and it turned out to be probably one of my favourite salads ever.

Kathleen May 10, 2019

I thought this was fantastic. I forgot to buy the chili, so I used some "extra hot" red pepper flakes instead. The chili addition creates a wonderful bit of heat! Truly delicious.

Jan B. January 8, 2018

I served at a small dinner party last night . Wonderful thumbs up . I then ate the leftover for breakfast . That says it all .👍

D November 23, 2017

Just tried this and the onions burned. Next time I'll try an oil other than olive oil and reduce the cook time.

Julia C. May 15, 2017

Oh my goodness, truly, all my salad favs together in one bowl of happiness! Bless you. I can see adding some thin sliced rare beef tenderloin or rare grilled sirloin to this for a perfect summer dinner along with crusty bread and short cake for dessert for the perfect dinner on a hot summer night. i'lll just grill the onions instead on low heat (gas grill) instead of heating up the kitchen! Love the idea of using balsamic and walnut oil. Thank you for my new go to summer meal.

Antonietta D. February 2, 2016

I thought this was a little odd. I loved the roasted onion with the goat cheese & vinaigrette & greens, but I didn't care for the walnuts added in. It was just a bit different for me & I think I would leave the walnuts out next time,

Nikol June 15, 2015

"boxed stuff"- I've never seen boxed arugula

Hannah M. May 5, 2015

The only change I made was to up the onion and arugula amounts and roast the onions with a good deal of balsamic to sweeten them. Delicious!

cookinginvictoria December 20, 2014

I made this last night for a party and it was amazing! Everybody raved. So simple to put together, yet the combination of ingredients is pretty much perfect. I used hazelnut oil and sherry wine vinegar. Thanks for the tip, Katrine. It's pretty difficult to find arugula in Victoria this time of year, even in the grocery stores, so I subbed spinach. And thank you, Marion, for spotlighting this recipe!

Sarah November 26, 2014

Hi, do you have the nutritional info for this recipe? :) Thanks!

Katrine November 25, 2014

Delicious! Used Sherry vinegar instead of red wine vinegar and walnut oil instead of olive oil and think it was a nice little variation.

hardlikearmour November 18, 2014

This salad is fantastic! I can't believe I just ate an entire red onion :-). Thanks for the great find, Marian.

Brenna M. November 17, 2014

Marian! You inspired me to make this- it was amazing. Hope your well, love all your posts. xo Brenna

Paula V. November 12, 2014

Can you make the onions and salsa the day before? And assemble the salad the next day?

Marian B. November 15, 2014

Definitely!

Country Q. November 12, 2014

Nice - must try

Roasted Onion Salad with Arugula and Walnut Salsa Recipe on Food52 (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Kerri Lueilwitz

Last Updated:

Views: 5406

Rating: 4.7 / 5 (67 voted)

Reviews: 82% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Kerri Lueilwitz

Birthday: 1992-10-31

Address: Suite 878 3699 Chantelle Roads, Colebury, NC 68599

Phone: +6111989609516

Job: Chief Farming Manager

Hobby: Mycology, Stone skipping, Dowsing, Whittling, Taxidermy, Sand art, Roller skating

Introduction: My name is Kerri Lueilwitz, I am a courageous, gentle, quaint, thankful, outstanding, brave, vast person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.