Onions as a side dish? Yes, especially if they’re deeply caramelized, sweet and melty. That’s the case for these melted onions from Lindsay Maitland Hunt’s new cookbook, Help Yourself. They’re simple, pretty and best of all, require only four ingredients.

“I love how onions become meltingly tender and sweet after a long roast in the oven,” she writes, “but it’s not such an elegant look to plop roasted onions on a platter. Here the petals stay together in a pretty rosette, thanks to a muffin pan. If you don’t have one, use a small rimmed baking sheet or an ovenproof dish and pack the onions tightly together.”

Set these on the table and watch everyone swoon.

_{Excerpted from Help Yourself © 2020 by Lindsay Maitland Hunt. Photography © 2020 by Linda Pugliese. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.}

RELATED: Easy Onion Jam

Melted Onions

Servings: 4 to 6 servings

Time:

Ingredients:

6 medium onions—each 3 inches in diameter (2½ pounds total), halved crosswise through the center (not the root and stem), ends trimmed by ¼ inch

½ teaspoon kosher salt

3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons ghee or unsalted butter, melted (or your preferred cooking oil)

Directions:

1. With a rack in the top position, preheat the oven to 425°F

2. Place the onion halves cut-side up in the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin. Sprinkle the onions with the salt and pepper.

3. Roast until the onions have softened slightly and sunk into the cups, 18 to 20 minutes. Brush with the ghee (or other cooking oil) and return to the oven. Bake until extremely soft and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes more. The onions can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Note: If the stem of the onion is the North Pole, you’re cutting through the onion’s equator.

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