Braised Cipollinis

This recipe came about for two very disparate reasons.  Several years ago someone fed me these amazing onions at their BBQ.  They had been cooked for hours with olive oil and spices.  They were divine!  I've been trying to replicate them since with only mild success.

Then while reading up for the GAPS diet I found out that onions heal the gut and they are one of the allowed vegetables at the very beginning of the intro diet.  A light bulb went off.  Let me combine the best of both of these and come up with an onion dish that tastes great and helps the gut heal.  While it is best to use fresh herbs, dried will also work.  Butter isn't allowed during the first few days of intro but dairy is introduced fairly early into the GAPS diet.  At that point, if diary is tolerated, the sauce can be used.

Cipollinis are small sweet onions and totally worth it to try and find them.  They are Italian so you might have more success in a store with Italian foods.  I find them in Whole Foods and they are showing up in farmer's markets as well.  While this recipe isn't quite as good as what I had at the BBQ, it is still a great side dish and it heals your gut!!

Ingredients
serves 2

6-8 cipollini onions
~1/4c Basic Beef Stock
thyme
oregano
sea salt and pepper
1T pastured butter (for optional sauce)

Onions

1. Trim the bottoms off the onions and peel.  Leave a little of the stalk intact for decoration.  Leave the onion basically intact.
2. Place bottom side down in a shallow pan.  All onions should touch the pan bottom.
3. Add the beef stock which should be gelatinous at this point.  When it melts you should have about a 1/4" - 1/2" of liquid in the bottom of the pan.
4. Sprinkle herbs over onions.  Be generous.
5. Sprinkle salt and pepper over onions.
6. Cover and simmer on low heat for about a half hour until onions are very soft.  Check during cooking to make sure the liquid hasn't boiled off.  You don't want burned onions.
7. Serve as is or make sauce to cover them.

Sauce

1. Remove onions from broth, set aside and cover them to keep them warm.
2. Bring broth to a boil and reduce broth by half.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.  Pour over onions.