Nearly every time I cook a meal, the first step is to fry some onions. When people hear that I cook without fat, they want to know how I fry my onions. Believe it or not, I fry onions in a dry pan. Sometimes, I even fry onions in a plain stainless steel frying pan or pressure cooker. You don’t even need a nonstick coating or any of that oil-in-a-can stuff.
The secret is to keep a cup of water handy. When the onions start to stick, I add a splash of water, which boils off almost instantly. Sometimes, I keep on frying the onions until they are nicely browned. This caramelizes the sugars and gives a rich flavor. If you want to cook something fancy, you can also fry things in a splash of wine!