Will this cooking question bring tears to your eyes?

White is diced.
Red is sliced.
Yellow is…erm mellow cooked.

I love thinly-sliced pickled red onions!

Great question Pachy! I’ve gotta run out just now, but I’ll be back with my take on this : )

I’m sure you can hardly wait Lol

Red go in salads, and are also good pickled.

I use white and yellow interchangeably in many forms, but prefer the flavor of yellow.

I like Vidalias baked.

Not at all a fan of uncooked onions, but I love them cooked (pickling counts as cooked).

I prefer white onions for diced, usually grilled or cooked into a recipe. Yellow onions are usually more mellow, mellow yellow LOL! and I like to slice them and either grill them for hamburgers, etc., or as condiments for sandwiches. I agree with red onions for pickling, especially with beets! I think reds are also good for use in salads.

I stopped by a world renowned hot dog stand some time back, and was talking to the operator. His caramelized onions were so sweet some of his patrons referred to them as “onion candy”. I asked him his secret. As he was telling me that he didn’t think he wanted to tell me his secret, he opened a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola® and poured it onto the sauteeing onions!.

I use red onions almost exclusively. They are especially good raw.

The short answer is that they are interchangeable.

I tend to use more of the yellow onions because they are often half the price of the red onions.

I like to use sweet Vidalia or Maui onions if I’m going to grill onions that are going to be eaten kind of on their own, or if I was going to make homemade onion rings.

The white ones have a bit more of a sharp, or strong taste to them. You can use a bit less of them in a fresh salsa than you would with the yellow onions, plus they make the salsa look prettier along with the diced red tomatoes and the green chilies.

Red onions pretty much have the same flavor as yellow onions, but they are so pretty that they make a nice addition to a salad, or pickled as a side dish. They also look nice sticking out of a grilled Portobello Mushroom Sandwich. They taste good raw.

You certainly can caramelize red onions, but the color tends to turn a little Grayish, but they taste just fine.

If I was roasting veggies along with onions, I would most likely use the yellow ones, so as not to end up with a funky color. The white ones might be a bit too pungent.

Here is some information about Onions including the ones that we didn’t yet discuss here, including ramps, pearl onions, spring onions, shallots, cippolini onions, scallions (green onions) and leeks. The only thing that seems odd on this site is that they say that white onions are sweeter and milder, which I completely disagree with. I find them much more assertive and sharp (in a good way).

Now for some recipes:

Pickled Red Onion and Red Cabbage

Pico de Gallo Salsa with White Onions

Roasted Root Vegetables with Sweet Onions

Beef Stew with Yellow Onions

Pickled Red Onions with Citrus

Pickled Ramps

Braised Green Onions

Leeks and Swiss Chard Quiche

Caramelized Cipollini Onions

Mushrooms with Shallots and Sherry

Grilled Spring Onions

Creamed Pearl Onions

Sweet Onions and Potatoes au Gratin

Onion Marmalade

Onion Cheese Soup

Japanese-style Onion Soup

Red Onion, Tomato and Red Wine Soup

Tequila Battered Onion Rings