I felt rather sad for the onion this week. I was in a falafel shop ordering my lunch. As part of the salad there are onions and as I was returning to work after lunch I asked the young man to leave them out. I didn’t want to be smelly (or indeed make smells!). He looked at me with disapproval. I looked at him back with guilty acknowledgement. The falafel salad was delicious but I didn’t enjoy it. I missed the onion.
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Can you ever be confident of having no onion breath?
I spent the rest of my lunch hour researching what would eliminate onion breath. First up was chewing parsley. I’ve heard that it acts as ‘nature’s natural breath cleanser’ but have never tried this. I made a simple Tomato and Onion Salad in the evening and munched on parsley after dinner. It almost worked but I concluded don’t like chewing parsley.
Another suggestion was to chew a citrus peel. This is slightly more accessible in a work environment because satsumas and clementines are so easy to buy. But again, this really did not taste great. I love citrus but chewing the bitter peel was unpleasant and soured the whole experience making me feel resentful for eating the onion in the first place.
A final suggestion was to rinse with lemon water made with equal parts of water and lemon juice. I don’t think this is very practical but must admit it did work and tasted much better than the other two solutions.
Making amends to the onion
I concluded that this lemon water would be my go to remedy in case of emergency at work or a wedding. It would be perfectly acceptable to walk into a meeting with a glass of cloudy water and pass it off for lemonade and I’m sure any self respecting catering establishment would not mind me walking into their kitchen asking for a glass of fresh lemon juice. Perfect resolution.
In the meantime I made amends to the onion and saluted the clever lemon with a simple, no-onion-breath side dish that I may go back and share with the falafel place. It takes no time at all and looks so vibrant and pretty, I’m sure all his customers would approve.
Pretty Pink (No-Onion-Breath) Onions
Simply take two red onions, peel and then slice them into thin strips. Place them into a bowl, pour over some boiling water and leave for 15 minutes. Drain and then mix with the juice of one lemon and season with salt to your taste. You could also add herbs to add another layer of flavour. Fresh thyme works well and dried roasted coriander seeds also are marvellous.
Pretty Pink No Onion Breath Onions
More more ideas with onions, take a look at my Pinterest board.
No new suggestions for remedies I’m afraid – although I did once know someone who told us how he’d eaten garlic shortly before going on a first date. His friends advised him that the best way to combat the smelly breath problem was to eat more garlic… you can probably guess how the date went!
Hmmmm never heard that before. There is a garlic restaurant in Tokyo which is the best place for a first date! I wish they’d open an onion version
I love drinking lemon in water so this is not a hardship – but I must admit I eat onion and garlic with abandon. Onion breath – I don’t give a fig. Such a rebel me.
Ha ha! yes proper rebel!
I love those pretty pink onions, I am not big on raw onion, but blanched and lightly pickled might work for me.
Thank you. It’s amazing how vibrant the colour is.
Those pink onions are just stunning Urvashi. I remember trying to munch on parsely once to get rid of garlic breath and it made me gag – bleugh!!! I like the idea of lemon water though… when i’m feeling run down I often squeeze a bit of lemon into water and find it really cleansing.
I know it’s so weird because I love parsley but on it’s own I felt like a cow chewing the cud!
The joy of working at home instead of in an office! I never think twice about onion breath if it’s only my husband/child being subjected to it. My six year old is crazy about eating raw onion although possibly when he’s trying to impress girls later on he’ll have to curtail this!!
Ah yes. Work from home and be care free 🙂
I find I don’t digest raw onion very well anymore. The flavour really repeats on me so I tend to pre-soak raw onions in a little bit of red wine vinegar which seems to take away some of their harsh flavour. I do love the colour of your beautifully pink onions, so appetising and tempting!
I love the colour too. Just makes me so happy. Like lemon curd. And seedlings sprouting. And my little muscari all over the house. At this rate I could rewrite the sound of music!!
I’m with Sally. I don’t give a fig. Go onions! Listerine if one must. But I’m long-married and we eat all the same food so we cancel each other out 😉
Ha ha! you rebel too!