Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Onions
I came up with this after I bought a gigantic bag of onions and needed something to do with them.
I came up with this after I bought a gigantic bag of onions and needed something to do with them.
- 2 stalks celery finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 6 extra large onion vidalia or yellow are best
- 8 ounces spinach frozen
- 4 ounces cream cheese 1/3 less fat philly
- 1/2 red bell pepper finely choped
- 2 chicken sausage open nature spinacj and feta
- 8 tablespoons bread crumbs italian
- 1 cup rice basmati
- 8 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 6 tablespoons cheese manchego, chopped, optional
- 1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
- Carbohydrate 49.5604603167461 g
- Cholesterol 45.7986502733333 mg
- Fat 12.372262273192 g
- Fiber 3.80390748038303 g
- Protein 13.4782272044641 g
- Saturated Fat 6.18412492056808 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (275g)
- Sodium 498.459435261401 mg
- Sugar 45.756552836363 g
- Trans Fat 3.1587457732793 g
- Calories 361 calories
Step-by-step
- Top and tail the onions and boil for about 15 min. Let cool on a colander to handle later.
- Cook the rice. Set aside.
- Chop the sausage into bite size pieces and saute. Add the the celery and garlic and any optional herbs or seasonings. Let that mingle for a few minutes and add the rice and chicken broth. Let that cook down a bit and add the red pepper. About 2-3 minutes later, remove from heat source and stir in cream cheese. Mix in the rice and set aside.
- When the onions have cooled. Hollow them out leaving 2-3 rings outside. Setup in a casserole dish, open-side up and fill with the rice mixture.
- Evenly distribute the vinegar between the filled onions. Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly, too. Add the manchego to top it off and bake at 375 for about 30-40 minutes. If you like cruchy tops, broil for the last 5 minutes.
Boiling the allium bases for fifteen minutes initiates structural softening by breaking down complex sulfur compounds into milder, sweeter molecules before the filling enters the oven. Large varieties like Vidalia hold their structural integrity better when par-boiled, retaining enough rigidity to support dense fillings without collapsing into the casserole dish. Sautéing the chopped sausage alongside aromatics renders animal fats, which coat the grains of basmati rice and prevent them from absorbing excess moisture from the frozen spinach during baking. Acidity from the red wine vinegar cuts directly through the rich combination of cream cheese and Manchego, balancing heavy lipids on the palate with a sharp, volatile contrast. Bread crumbs toasted on top under a 375 degree Fahrenheit heat source undergo the Maillard reaction, yielding a crispy textural counterpoint to the tender vegetable walls beneath. Preparing these assemblies completely ahead of time allows the starches to firm up in the refrigerator, making them stable enough to freeze for up to two months without losing structural integrity upon reheating.
