🧅🇫🇷 Grandma Sita learns with Raphael how to make a delicious French-style onion pie. This yummy plant-based recipe is inspired by the popular Tarte à l’Oignon, a classic French onion tart. It can be a quick and easy recipe when made with ready-made pastry, and served with a simple salad on the side, it makes a delicious plant-based meal.
😋 This French-style onion pie is simple, wholesome, and full of flavour. All you need is plenty of slowly braised onions, wine, herbs, a little olive oil, and salt. You can easily adapt the recipe to suit your taste, so have fun experimenting! Pair it with a fresh salad or some roasted seasonal vegetables for a satisfying plant-based meal.
➡️ Homemade Tarte à l’Oignon is a much-loved dish in France. This traditional French onion tart shows how simple, good-quality ingredients can come together to create a comforting dish with plenty of depth of flavour. Sometimes, the simplest recipes are the most delicious!
INGREDIENTS
For the dough
2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp active dry yeast
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup warm water
A pinch of salt
Grandma Sita’s tip: Use whatever dough you like for this recipe — shortcrust, pizza dough, empanada dough… they all work beautifully!
For the topping
1 kg onions (red, white, or a mixture — your choice)
4 cloves garlic
1 sprig each of thyme, savoury, and oregano (or any combination of fresh herbs you like)
½ cup olive oil
1 bottle of wine (red, white, or your choice)
2 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp honey (optional)
METHOD
For the dough
1. Mix the dry ingredients. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Add the water. Pour in the warm water and knead briefly, just until the ingredients come together.
3. Add the olive oil. Add the olive oil and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and homogeneous and forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Chill the dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
For the topping
1. Preheat the oven. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Prepare the onions and garlic. Peel the onions and garlic. Thinly slice the onions and finely chop the garlic.
3. Prepare the pastry base. Roll out the dough and place it on a lightly oiled and floured baking tray.
4. Part-bake the base. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly golden.
5. Cook the onions. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a low heat. Add the sliced onions and chopped garlic and cook gently until the onions begin to soften and become translucent.
6. Add the wine and herbs. Add the wine, followed by the thyme, savoury and oregano. Stir in the mustard and honey, if using. Cook gently until the wine has reduced and the onion mixture is soft and flavoursome, but not watery.
7. Add the onion topping. Remove the pastry base from the oven and leave it to rest for about 5 minutes. Spread the cooked onion mixture evenly over the top.
8. Finish baking. Return the pie to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the onion topping is nicely golden.
9. Serve and enjoy! Serve the French-style onion pie warm or at room temperature. Bon appétit!
👵🏻💚 Grandma Sita’s tips
- 🧅 Take your time with the onions! Cook them slowly over low heat rather than rushing them. This allows the onions to soften, become beautifully sweet, and develop a deeper flavour without burning.
- 🍷 Don’t waste that splash of wine! Red or white wine both work beautifully here. Let it reduce well with the onions so the topping becomes rich and flavoursome rather than watery.
- 🌿 Use the herbs you have. Thyme, savoury, oregano, rosemary, or parsley can all work in this recipe. Fresh herbs that are starting to wilt are perfect for cooking — just remove any tough stems before using them.
- 🧅 Got extra onions? Cook a bigger batch while you’re at it! Slowly cooked onions can be kept in the fridge and added to sandwiches, soups, pasta, stews, toast, or roasted vegetables. One batch, many meals!
- 🥖 Make the most of leftover pastry. Don’t throw away small pieces of dough. Bake them with a little olive oil and herbs to make crispy savoury bites, or use them as little crackers for dips and soups.
- ❄️ Storage: Keep leftover onion pie in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Enjoy it cold or bring it back to room temperature, or gently reheat it in the oven until warmed through. You can also freeze individual portions for up to 3 months.
📗 Did you know? Although this recipe is inspired by the French Tarte à l’Oignon, similar savoury onion pies have also been enjoyed in other parts of Europe. In Northern England, traditional onion-based pies became popular among working-class communities because they relied on affordable, filling ingredients that provided plenty of energy for workers, particularly in the mining, steel, and manufacturing industries.
🌿🧅 A little food-waste fact: Onions and fresh herbs are among the ingredients that can easily be forgotten in the kitchen. Onions may sprout or spoil when they are stored for too long, while delicate herbs can quickly wilt in the fridge. Instead of throwing them away, cook them into soups, sauces, pies, stocks, or stews — or freeze herbs for later use.
♻️ Cook what you have, waste less! This humble onion pie is a beautiful reminder that simple, affordable ingredients can create something truly delicious. Use the onions that need eating, rescue those herbs from the bottom of the fridge, and turn yesterday’s ingredients into today’s meal. Less waste, more flavour, the Grandma Sita way!
