What To Make With What’s On Sale: Vidalia Onions

King Soopers has a five-pound bag of Vidalia onions on sale for $2.50 this week – that’s just $0.50 per pound! While other onions sometimes go lower, Vidalias don’t often hit this price, so this is a great time to buy them.

I did a little bit of research about onions and found out only true Vidalia onions are grown in Georgia – anything else is just a “sweet onion”. Evidently, only the soil and growing conditions in Georgia can produce this sweet onion – which was discovered by accident when farmers in Vidalia, Georgia planted onions during the Great Depression and discovered the onion was unlike anything they’d every seen before! (Read more of the Vidalia’s history here.)

So, what to make with these sweet onions that are only available during the summer? Here’s some ideas:

Melted Onions from The Chou Life

Whereas I once thought of onions as only an accompaniment to a burger or a necessity to soups, I’m starting to learn that onions can stand on their own and be the star of a dish, not just a supporting actor!

Last summer, my friend Abby posted this recipe for “Melted Onions“. I mentioned it to Jeremy and the next thing I knew, we were roasting onions with every single meal cooked on the grill. Our kids love them! We like to use a little bit of Savory Spice Shop‘s Hickory Smoked Salt on top of the onions after they’re cooked – yum.

We’ve made these onions with both yellow and sweet onions, but I’m looking forward to making them with Vidalias this weekend!

Don’t have a charcoal grill? (A must for the above recipe.) These Marinated and Roasted Vidalia Onion Rings with Parmesan look incredible. Here’s another one from the same site: Asian Cucumber Salad with Cilantro and Vidalia Onions.

Fried Vidalia Onion from The Neelys

Like your onions fried? Try these: Vidalia Onion Fritters, Fried Vidalia Onion (looks like Outback Steakhouse!), and JR’s Texas Tumbleweed.

Onions are great in relishes and and salsas – how about this Sweet Vidalia and Pepper Relish, or Grilled Corn and Vidalia Onion Salsa?

And, Paula Deen combines two southern favorites into one: Vidalia Onion Cornbread.

What are your favorite things to do with Vidalia onions?