Gleaming onions in the gloaming

For these luxurious long evenings in the Nation's Capitol that are now gently guiding us from spring to summer, nothing seems more appropriate than firing up the grill for...

Spring onions! Perhaps you are one of those sad souls who thinks that grills are only good for men cooking meat. But tonight, we courageously laid to rest the grand philosophical debate of the centuries: how many women, without assistance, does it take to fire up a grill? Turns out, two is more than sufficient. Wonder of wonders, neither of us culinary ladies had ever started up a grill on our own, but we felt compelled to try -- our onions were just too beautiful for lesser treatment.

Perhaps, though, we should start at the beginning. By this time of year, farmers' markets are in full swing and CSA deliveries will be arriving any day now. This makes us giddier than kids waiting for candy at Christmas. Really. X and Ladson spent Saturday morning wandering the rows of Arlington's Courthouse farmers' market, and these onions' long, spring green stalks with glossy purple and white bulbs caught their eyes. They seemed much too large to be scallions yet far different than grocery-store Vidalia onions. X knew it was high time to get back on the blog.


In addition to being perfect for enjoying the great outdoors, grilling has the advantage of making for a quicker recipe.

Ingredients:
6 large white and purple spring onions
1 bunch asparagus
2 links of free-range bison sausage
For seasoning: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, real salt, exotic peppercorn blend


We first washed the onions, cut off the ends (which were somewhat hairy), and sliced them in half lengthwise, including their stalks. We also chopped off the ends of the asparagus and gave it a good rinse. We tossed both vegetables together in salt, pepper, and a light drizzle of oil. Having cleaned off the grill, we fired it up and piled on the vegetables. After about 5 minutes, we also added the sausages. Monitoring and turning the veggies to make sure they didn't become overwhelmingly charred, we grilled them for about 10 to 15 minutes.  The asparagus cooked fastest, and we removed it and the thinner onion stalks as they became ready.

Once everything was done, we sat outside to enjoy the temperate spring breezes and the irresistibly sweet crunch of our spring onions.

The onions were incredibly sweet- more so even than much-loved vidalias! They paired nicely with natural sausage and asparagus. Some mustard could be added for classic brat fans, but we found the flavor combination to be more than sufficient.