Kitchen Experiments: Lite Onion Dip

Amidst the lockdown, quarantine, and general restrictions brought about by COVID-19, there will always be room for creativity to flow. From tasty snacks to healthy gulay recipes , there are many ways to get inventive in the kitchen. Try this kitchen experiment with your family and have a fun time to alleviate stress and boredom.

Level Up your Snacks

Your household might have increased its consumption of chips and other junk food these days while in quarantine. As much as you want to restrict them, it could be unavoidable for bored kids and even adults. But you can make it equally enjoyable and nutritious by experimenting toppings or dips for fiber-rich chips or crackers.

Initial Apprehensions

As a person who works around with food, I am quite familiar with the individual taste and other characteristics of different food items. Developing the Lite Onion Dip recipe gave me apprehensions like “will it be too pungent?,” “will this work out?,” “how do I balance the strong onion taste with zingy mayonnaise?,” and such. But as I continue to apply simple cooking methods to this recipe, it produced an equally surprising and unique taste profile.

What’s with Lite Onion Dip?

Onion based dips are usually made with chopped onions, mayonnaise, seasonings, and lemon juice. Looking at the ingredients, it is noticeable that these have their own, unique, strong profile. Balancing it out will be a big challenge. But substituting some ingredients, like yogurt instead of mayonnaise, gives a subtle profile to complement the dominant flavor of onions making it stand out in the dish. It also gives the same creamy profile that mayonnaise gives but with less guilt (since mayonnaise is high in fat). AJI-SHIO® Pepper Seasoning Mix also comes in handy since it has salt, umami seasoning, and pepper all in one pack. It saves you time and effort in measuring out these seasonings as well as the “trial and error” of balancing the seasonings.

Kitchen Experiments Tips and Hacks

Pro-tip for this Lite Onion Dip : Let the onions stay on the heated pan for a while before adding oil to sauté it. Wait for it to be charred a bit and see it turn light brown. This gives the distinct smoky onion flavor of the dip. This also brings down the overly pungent taste and brings out the natural sweetness of onions.