Easy, Slow-Cooked Caramelized Onions

I once read that you could make a batch of caramelized onions in the Crock Pot and freeze them, but I couldn’t find a recipe. So I decided to experiment and see if I could figure out the process. I knew I wanted pieces of onion, not stringy slices, so I peeled and cut 5 yellow onions like this:

Here’s how they looked prior to cooking:

 I tossed them with 1/4 cup of melted butter (I’m sure you could also use olive oil instead), a generous sprinkling of salt, several generous grindings of black pepper, and a teaspoon of sugar to jump-start the caramelizing process. Then I set the temperature on Low. After 4 hours of cooking, they looked like this:

After 8 hours of cooking, they were nicely browned, wonderfully sweet and caramelized. They had reduced down to about two cups:

I divided them into four 1/2 cup portions and froze them in freezer bags. The portions thaw quickly and the onions are absolutely terrific on pizzas and bruschetta. I’ve also added them to homemade spaghetti sauce and soup. Using the slow cooker is much easier than standing at the stove and cooking and stirring the onions, and I love having caramelized onions ready to go in the freezer. All in all, I would say this experiment was a big success!