5 ways to cook calçots (and the best sauces to accompany them)

Calçots are a type of green onion that we can find in season from late summer to mid-spring. They are the protagonists of the calçotada parties that are celebrated in Catalonia, in which a lot of calçots are roasted on the embers and eaten accompanied by romesco or salvitxada sauce.

How to cook calçots

The calçots are exquisite roasted. Unlike other types of onion, they do not have a bulging bulb, they are straight, which makes it easier to cook them whole, and also unlike other onions, their flavor is much milder and sweeter. It does not have that typical pungency of chives or so much sulfurous aroma.

It looks much more like spring onion which is widely used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine. They eat everything, the white part and the green part, although the tastiest is the white part, which is also usually the largest part of the piece.

You can save the green parts for use them in broths or in other preparations. If you don’t plan on doing anything special with them, freeze them. However, the typical is always make the calçots on the grill whole, trying to char the outer layers and then peel them and enjoy the tender interior.

In addition, the truth is that we can use the calçots in a lot of preparations.

Use calçots instead of spring onion or onion

If you’re not a big fan of onions, use calçots instead. Wash them, remove an outer layer and the roots and cut them the same as you would with a chive or an onion. When cooking it you will see that it does not smell so much of onion, it is more fragrant and sweet.

My recommendation is that you try to do a stir-fry with chopped calçots instead of onion. Add peppers, tomato, zucchini or whatever you had in mind for your sauce, and use it as a base for sauces, stews, stews, etc. They taste great.

To the oven they also fit very well. Put as many as will fit on the baking tray and roast them at 200º C for 40 minutes. Then you only have to remove the outer layers, which will be drier, and keep the interior, creamy and smooth. The roasted layers that you remove are useful for your homemade broths, it will give them more flavor and color.

In stir fry use the socks as if they were leeks. You can chop them, cut them into strips or slices. They don’t take long to cook, so they can be perfectly added to woks and other stir-fries with vegetables.

Crush or chop very finely a few calçots to make sauces. For example, tomato sauceswhich are usually made by adding onion or other vegetables, can be much better if we use calçots.

In vegetable creams the flavor of the calçots can stand out a lot. Use it along with (or instead of) onion, leek and potato to make a Vichyssoise different, with more flavor.

It combines very well with many other typical cream vegetables.: pumpkin, zucchini, carrots, celeriac, potato, leek, sweet potato… As it has a mild flavor and is sweeter than onion, it can be used together with it without leaving a cream with a predominantly “onion” flavor.

The sauces to accompany the calçots

If you make calçots alone, for example as a garnish or as a first course, you can add sauces to accompany them. The typical one is Romesco sauce, which is made with tomato, pepper, garlic and almonds. They sell it already made in some supermarkets, but you can easily make it at home:

Ingredients for a mild romesco sauce

4 roasted ripe tomatoes 1 roasted red Italian pepper 3 roasted garlic cloves 2 ñoras 50 g raw shelled almonds 2 tablespoons olive oil ¼ teaspoon salt approximately 1 piece of day-old bread (1 -2 slices).

Preparation

Leave the ñoras to soak for at least 4 hours (You can leave them overnight). Open the ñoras, remove the seeds and pWith the meat of the ñoras in a bowl or in the blender glass.Peel the tomatoes, the pepper and the garlic and add it.Cut the bread into cubes.In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Brown the almonds and bread for 3-4 minutes.moving it constantly, and add it all to the blender. Beat it all together until leave a homogeneous cream. Add the salt and beat again. Taste it and add salt if necessary. Store it in closed jars in the fridge (up to 4 days). It can be frozen. For a more traditional version, add chilli Peppers (chilli or cayenne).

Other sauces to accompany the calçots

Don’t like romesco sauce? They are also doing very well sauces with roasted vegetables in general, tomato sauces and hot sauces. If you like spicy, try them with valentinna saucesriracha or harissa.

The vegetable mayonnaise It’s not a bad accompaniment either. Test tahini and peanut sauceswhich also pair very well with calçots.