Dust off your molcajete, grab these ingredients and treat yourself to a food fiesta!  You will need grilled chicken, steak, shrimp and cheese swimming in a roasted tomatillo sauce with green onions and avocado.  The combination of poultry, seafood and steak should have your mouth watering by now.

Here’s a question you may not hear often: What’s your favorite onion? Is is White? Sweet? Red?

So Good They Bring Tears to Your Eyes

While picking favorites may be difficult, we all occasionally ponder whether we’re using the right onions when we cook. At our Food University events, we talk a lot about onions–and how they can enhance your recipes. Plus we help you tell them apart!

Onions vary slightly in flavor and color, but (here’s the good news when you’re scratching your head in the produce aisle) they can usually be substituted for one another. When you’re shopping, select the onions that are firm and  heavy in your hand. Avoid soft onions or ones that have a sharp oniony odor. They’re probably old.  Except for sweet onions, all these onions can be stored for several weeks in a cool, dark pantry or cupboard.

Here’s a quick rundown on onions:

Yellow Onions are all-purpose. (Spanish onions are yellow onions, only slightly sweeter and more delicate.)

Sweet Onions : Walla Walla and Vidalia are the most common kinds of sweet onions.

Red Onions are mostly used in salads, salsas, and other raw preparations for their color and relatively mild flavor.

You can learn a lot more about onions by reading this terrific article here and by attending Food University events. To us, onions are a key ingredient, and we make them fun. (How many people can say that?!) Renowned chef and Food University star instructor Curtis Aikens will be talking onions, tomatoes, great recipes and a whole lot more when he hosts Food University events at the IKEA store in the Detroit area today (Saturday, October 23) and at IKEA in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area tomorrow (Sunday, October 24). See you there!