How to Make an Onion Pique

An Onion Piqué is a French flavor booster used by chefs in sauces and soups. It sounds fancy, but it only takes 3 ingredients and 10 seconds to make!

Recipe ingredients:

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Begin by peeling a yellow or white raw onion. Then, cut the onion in half and trim off the root end. Attach 1 or 2 dried bay leaves to the cut-side of the onion using a couple of whole dried cloves as pins.
   
2. Tuck the onion into your pot of broth or stock to cook. When the onion is soft and you’re ready to move to the next step in the recipe, you can take it out and discard it, cloves, bay leaf and all.

Recipe notes:

• How to say it: Onion pee-KAY
• Why bother: It adds a lot of flavor and you can remove it easily. No more fishing around for lost bay leaves (and you’d NEVER find those cloves!).
• Cloves: Use 2 to 3 cloves for a half onion, or up to 6 for a whole onion, unless the recipe calls for a specific amount. They have a strong flavor, so use them judiciously.
• Onion clouté: Leave out the bay leaf and just spike your onion with cloves.

Put your onion pique to work:

• Turkey noodle soup
• Chicken noodle soup
• Cabbage rolls
• How to cook quinoa
• Poached shrimp

Onion Piqué

By Meggan Hill

An Onion Piqué is a French flavor booster used by chefs in stocks, soups, and sauces. It sounds fancy, but it only takes 3 ingredients (onion, cloves, and a bay leaf) and 10 seconds to make.

Prep Time 1 minute min

Cook Time 1 minute min

Total Time 2 minutes mins

Servings 1

Course Pantry, Soup

Cuisine French

Calories 25

5 from 2 votes

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Ingredients 

• ▢ 1/2 onion peeled (see note 1)
• ▢ 1 bay leaf
• ▢ 5 whole cloves (see note 2)

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Instructions 

• Trim off the root end of half a peeled onion. Attach a bay leaf to the cut-side of the onion using 2 or 3 whole dried cloves as "pins."
• Add to a pot of stock or milk to cook and simmer as directed in your recipe. Remove and discard.

Notes

1. Onion: Peeled and cut in half through the root so the layers stay intact.
2. Cloves: Use 2 to 3 cloves for a half onion, or up to 6 for a whole onion, unless the recipe calls for a specific amount. They have a strong flavor, so use them judiciously.

Nutrition

Calories: 25kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 5mgPotassium: 80mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 13mg

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