A wooden board with some food on it

Cedar Plank Grilled Blossom Onions with Red Pepper Aioli

This recipe is from Proud Italian Cook’s blog.

At the bottom of the page, you can find plank cooking instructions for oven and BBQ.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Large, sweet onions, like Vadalia’s
  • 1 large cedar grilling plank – soaked for over 2 hours
  • Italian seasoning blend, dry
  • Grated Romano or parmesan cheese
  • Granulated garlic
  • Paprika
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Fresh herbs for garnish

FOR THE RED PEPPER AIOLI:

  • 1 cup of roasted red peppers, either made yourself or a good jarred one that has been drained and patted dry well
  • ¾ cup of good organic mayonnaise
  • 1 crushed garlic clove
  • Salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Prepare your onions by cutting ½ inch off the stem end, then peel all the skin off.
  2. Place onion cut side down, then ½ inch from the ROOT make a downward cut straight to your cutting board.
  3. Repeat to make four evenly spaced cuts around the onion.
  4. Continue slicing evenly between sections until you have 16 evenly spaced cuts.
  5. Turn the onion over and separate the petals.
  6. On foil (for easy clean up) sprinkle your onions with the Italian seasoning mix, salt and pepper and grated cheese.
  7. Finish by generously drizzling olive oil all over.
  8. Place on plank, if using.
  9. Have grill heated on low and cook until petals pull off easily and our soft and tender. About 1 hour.
  10. Garnish with fresh basil and parsley.

FOR THE AIOLI:

  1. Place all the ingredients into a food processor until well blended.

OVEN USE:

Place the oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

When using a grilling plank be sure to put plank on a cookie sheet or place foil underneath to catch drips.

Once the planked food is in the oven turn temperature down to 375.

BBQ USE:

Turn BBQ on high to warm up

Once hot, place your rubbed or marinated food on the plank, skin side down, and onto one side of the BBQ, reduce only that sides temperature to low. Reduce the other sides temperature to medium. (If you have an extremely hot BBQ consider turning the plank side burner off after the plank has started to smolder)

The plank should start to crackle and smolder. This creates the smoke!

Check your plank occasionally, if you have a flare up, which is normal, use a spray bottle filled with water to spritz out the flames. You want your plank to be smoldering, not flaming. Make sure while you’re checking your plank that a very minimal amount of smoke escapes.

Remember that when cooking with a cedar plank your cooking time will double!

When cooked to desired tenderness, carefully remove plank and place on a cookie sheet or foil before plating.

Enjoy!