These Japanese Soy Garlic Onion ‘Steaks’ are the perfect way to enjoy whole onions! Sweet, juicy and big on flavour– perfect for sandwiches, burgers or served as a side dish.
Onions are so often used but not shown a lot of love. Let’s make onions the star of the dish with this delicious, juicy and tender onion ‘steak’ infused with classic Japanese steak flavours. The natural sweetness comes out from the onions, caramelized to perfection.
How to Make Onion ‘Steaks’
Ingredients
- Onions: Any type of large onions can be used for this recipe, however I do recommend sweet onions, Spanish onions or new onions as they’re larger in diameter and have a subtly sweeter flavour to them.
- Kombu dashi granules: optional, but adds more flavour into the onions.
- Garlic: for flavour.
- Vegan butter: or margarine.
- Soy sauce: or tamari for gluten free.
- Mirin & sugar: for sweetness.
- Sake: helps reduce the ‘spicy’ and pungent onion flavour.
Directions
- Thickly slice the onions, about 3-4 cm in thickness. You can slice them thinner, but they tend to fall apart easier in the pan.
- Place the onions in a microwave safe container or dish and sprinkle with kombu dashi granules. Cover and microwave each side for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes or until mostly cooked through. It will look more translucent and smell sweet.
- Heat a pan over medium high heat with some oil and carefully place the onions on the pan. Cook until you get nice charring (about 1 minute). Flip and cook other side (about 1 minute).
- Move the onions to one side of the pan and then add the garlic, mirin and sake. Cook for about 20 seconds, swirling the pan (the sake will begin to evaporate). Then add in the soy sauce, sugar and water and swirl the pan to coat the bottom of the onions. Cook until sauce is slightly reduced. Carefully flip the onion and then cook the other side coating it with the sauce until thickened.
Recipe Notes
- Thickly slice the onions. The thicker the onions, the easier it is to flip. However, if you don’t mind them falling apart and want them to cook quicker, slice them thinner.
- Do not flip the onions often or they tend to fall apart. I only cook each side twice. Once for getting some charring and once for cooking it in the sauce.
- Variations: change up the sauce for different flavours! I shared some sauce ideas in my daikon steak recipe.
More vegan ‘steak’ recipes to try:
SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓
If you recreate this Japanese Soy Garlic Onion ‘Steaks’ recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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Japanese Soy Garlic Onion ‘Steaks’
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 serving 1x
Description
These juicy, sweet and tender onion steaks are the perfect way to enjoy whole onions! Infused with the classic Japanese soy garlic steak flavours, delicious with sandwiches, burgers, rice and more.
Ingredients
- 1 large Sweet or Spanish onion (450g net weight)
- 1 tsp kombu dashi granules or mushroom stock powder, optional (3g)
- 1 garlic clove, minced (4g)
- 1 tbsp vegan butter (15g)
- 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (15ml // tamari for gluten free)
- 1 tbsp mirin (15ml)
- 1 tbsp sake (15ml)
- 1 tbsp water (15ml)
- 1/2 tsp sugar (2g)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice onions into 3-4 cm thick rounds. Place the onion rounds into a microwave safe container or dish and sprinkle with kombu dashi granules. Cover and microwave each side for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes or until mostly cooked through (it will start to look more transparent and smell sweet).
- Heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil over medium high heat and carefully place the onions on the pan. Cook until you get nice charring (about 1 minute). Flip and cook other side (about 1 minute). Move the onions to one side of the pan and then add the garlic, mirin and sake. Cook for about 20 seconds (the sake will begin to evaporate). Then add in the soy sauce, sugar and water and swirl the pan to coat the bottom of the onions. Cook until sauce is slightly reduced. Carefully flip the onion and then cook the other side coating it with the sauce until thickened. Remove from heat, serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Helpful Equipment: non-stick skillet, sharp pairing knife, microwave safe with with a lid
- Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer).
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: side dish
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: vegan, gluten free, japanese
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 348
- Sugar: 24.3
- Sodium: 1014mg
- Fat: 11.5
- Saturated Fat: 3.2
- Unsaturated Fat: 7.7
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 52.9
- Fiber: 6.7
- Protein: 6.4
- Cholesterol: 0
Keywords: onion steaks, vegetable steaks, vegan steaks, vegetarian steaks, onion recipes
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I’ve been frying up onions and eating them as a snack since high school so I was STOKED to try out a new onion recipe!! this is the only way I eat them now because it’s too👏🏽damn👏🏽perfect! I like thick slices so I’ll sometimes make em a lil thicker but regardless, 10/10.
★★★★★
Loved this recipe! Such a cool trick to microwave your onions. It was so easy to prepare and was a delicious side to our meal. Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
As an onion lover, this recipe is HEAVEN!! I loveee it so much!! It’s easy to recook too!! But I ate the whole large onion by myself and kinda get some digestive problems afterward:”) Things aside, I loveee it so much!!
★★★★★
I am impressed by how simple the recipe is, delicious and tasty!! I will be making this recipe often.
★★★★★
I can only recommend this recipe … it’s a very tasty and simple dish … I was very pleasantly surprised by what is possible to conjure from ordinary onions
★★★★★
So good, quick and simple ! Absolutely loved it !
★★★★★
Such an amazing spin and creative way to make Onion taste absolutely amazing
★★★★★
Such a yummy recipe! When I tried it out I didn’t add sugar, just the mirin, which already has a fair bit of sweetness to it. I also tried doing the initial bit of frying with sesame oil. I wanted the onion fairly soft so I also cooked it with a lid on for a little while. I’ll definitely make this again