Roasted Apple, Onion, and Thyme

If you are fortunate enough to have access to loads of cooking apples, you are probably always looking for new ways to use them. One can only eat so many apple pies! (At least that’s what I’m told.)

Here’s a new tack: treat apples as a vegetable. In this lovely apple dish, good enough to be company fare, it is easy enough to treat the family at any time. Make extra and use it to fill turnovers on another day. Serve this apple dish with breaded pork chops and a crisp green salad.

Inspiration for this recipe came from Bon Appetit. The original recipe calls for cooking down four cups of apple cider into a glaze. In this home, cooking down apple cider would be a capital offense. We drink it, we don’t cook it. Instead I used some mango jelly that had begun to crystallize. We don’t consume much jelly and this one got lost in the back of the fridge until this dish gave it new life. Likely you have some in a similar situation.

Roasted Apple and Onion Ingredients

• 1/2 cup jam or jelly, such as mango or apricot
• 1/2 cup water
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 medium sized onions, peeled and quartered
• 6 large cooking apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 8ths
• 3 teaspoons lemon thyme leaves

Roasted Apple and Onion Steps

1. Make the glaze by cooking the water and jelly down to about 1/2 cup.
2. Add the butter and salt. Stir to combine.
3. In a large roasting pan spread out the apples and onions.
4. Drizzle all but 2 tablespoon of the glaze over the apples and onions. Sprinkle with thyme. Stir gently to coat the apple/onion mix with the glaze. The onions and apples need to be a single layer for optimum roasting.
5. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Remove the roasting pan and drizzle the rest of the glaze over the apple mixture. Stir gently and return the pan to the oven for another 20 minutes.
6. In the last 10 minutes of roasting, watch closely. The apples should be soft and just beginning to caramelize a bit. Don’t let them burn.
7. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with freshly ground pepper. Taste for salt and make adjustments.

The best visual impact is to plate each person’s dinner: the main dish nestling up against the roasted apples, garnished with fresh thyme sprigs. This is a meal that will be requested often during apple season.