Greek Stuffed Onions

Of course, I’m excited about all of the recipes I showcase here on Scrummy Lane. Occasionally, however, there’s one that I want to shout from the rooftops about – and this Greek stuffed onion recipe is one of them!

If you didn’t know, many of the recipes here are influenced by my many years spent in Greece (you can read more about this on my About page!). While this easy onion recipe is not strictly speaking a traditional Greek recipe, I’ve used similar flavors to recipes I already know and love, such as this equally as amazing gemista or stuffed peppers and tomatoes recipe.

Why you’ll love them

• REALLY TASTY. And I’m not just saying it. The filling and sauce are both absolutely packed with Mediterranean herbs and spices, both fresh and dried. And then there are the crunchy pine nuts and dried fruit in the stuffing…
• Easier to make than you might think! I promise. No need to pre-cook anything apart from par boiling the onions.
• Side dish or main. Stuffed baked onions are perfect for easy entertaining (enough for 6 to 10 as a side). But just like these Greek green beans (fasolakia), they are also filling, balanced and tasty enough to serve by themselves with bread as a complete meal.
• Makes a lot of stuffing. Why is this something to love, you might ask? Either freeze for next time, or use it to stuff chicken breasts, other vegetables such as tomatoes or peppers, or your next whole chicken or turkey!
• A versatile recipe. It’s so easy to switch out some of the ingredients to taste. Swap rice for quinoa, couscous, a grain, or even lentils. Switch the zucchini for eggplant, carrot or mushrooms. I love that this recipe is vegetarian, but add a little cooked chicken or ground meat, if you want to switch things up or make them a main!

About the ingredients

You’ll find a full list of ingredients with amounts in the recipe card below. But here’s a summary of what you need to know.

Although this is one of the longer lists of ingredients on Scrummy Lane, don’t be afraid because many of them are pantry ingredients that you probably already have.

Here’s what you need to know:

Onions: Good news – you can use any kind of this humble vegetable. Go with medium to large though so that it’s easier to pull out the inner layers and stuff. You’ll only need around 6 to 8 onions since you’ll use the insides from the larger ones to stuff as well!

And don’t worry – you won’t waste the insides that you remove. They’ll be chopped up and thrown into the tomato sauce for even more oniony flavor.

Zucchini: Around half a medium to large one will be enough for around a cup and a half of grated zucchini. This serves two purposes – more veggie goodness, and extra moisture to ensure the dish doesn’t dry out in the oven.

Garlic: We aren’t going to hold back here! You’ll want plenty of garlic-y flavor in the dish – 4 cloves in the spinach and feta stuffing and and another 3 in the tomato sauce.

Spinach: You can either use fresh, and quickly wilt it with boiling water, or frozen. Just let defrost, squeeze out most of the water, and add!

Feta cheese: Since this is a Greek style recipe for stuffed onions, I recommend using a good quality authentic feta cheese such as Dodoni. Some cheaper brands include strange ingredients such as vegetable oil, so do check this.

Rice: I use cooked rice in this dish because uncooked wouldn’t become tender in time. To make things easy, I usually use a supermarket pre-packed sachet of cooked rice. You can use any kind – jasmine, basmati, long grain, or brown.

Dried oregano: For the stuffing, and a little more in the tomato sauce, for that authentic Mediterranean flavor.

Dried thyme: Just a little as this herb pairs so well with onions!

Allspice, cinnamon and cumin: These combine beautifully to enhance the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern flavor profile in the stuffing. I recommend adding all 3 to the dish.

Fresh parsley, mint and dill: These add such lovely freshness and color! I would recommend not skipping any of these, if possible, for that unmistakable authentic Mediterranean flavor.

Raisins (or sultanas or currants): You can’t really tell that this is what’s in the stuffing, but they add the most incredible fruity sweetness. Once again, don’t skip!

Pine nuts: For a bit of contrasting crunch and nutty, luxurious richness! Use raw or toasted.

For the quick tomato sauce

A can of tomatoes: Either crushed or chopped.

A quarter of a cup of extra virgin olive oil: This might seem like a lot, but it really adds to the flavor and texture of the sauce. This dish is in the style of Greek ‘lathera’ dishes, named after olive oil. Gigantes plaki (Greek giant beans) are another example of this delicious family of dishes!

If you can, choose a good quality olive oil.

Finally, garlic, honey for a little extra sweetness, a little more oregano, and of course the right amount of salt and pepper.

How to make Greek stuffed onions

You might be wondering how difficult it is to stuff onions! They aren’t hollow like peppers or easily hollowed out, like tomatoes, after all. Well, it’s actually easier than you might think.

Here’s what you do:

Firstly, peel any tough outer layers off the onions. Then boil them for around 10 minutes in a really big saucepan or other cooking pot. This begins to soften them so that you can separate out the onion layers and take the center ones out.

Now slice a piece off the end of each onion so that you can lift out most of the inside layers. It’s pretty easy to do with a fork. Then place the onion shells into a large baking dish.

This is what the empty onion ‘shells’ will look like after you’ve taken out the insides. If there is a hole in the bottom of the shell, you can simply ‘plug’ it with a piece of discarded onion! You can see I’ve done that in the photo below.

Now make the stuffing. All you have to do is wilt the spinach in a colander by pouring boiling water over it. Squeeze out most of the water, then add it to a bowl with all the other stuffing ingredients.

Use a teaspoon to pack as much stuffing as you can into the onions.

The final step is to mix together the tomato sauce ingredients. Once again, you don’t need to pre-cook anything. Just stir well.

Then pour the tomato mixture around the stuffed onions in the baking dish. It will make an amazing sauce while in the oven!

Now all you have to do is bake for around 45 minutes. Keep covered with aluminium foil for the first 30 minutes, then uncover for the last 15 minutes to let the onions brown slightly and the sauce reduce.

How to serve

I typically serve this tasty Greek style onion dish to guests as part of a larger dinner. I think it would go well with almost any kind of meat, fish, or vegetarian main. It gets lots of compliments and running back for seconds!

Here are a few Scrummy Lane recipes that I think go particularly well:

Greek Recipes

Easy Slow Cooked Greek Lamb (Lamb Kleftiko)

Air fryer

Easy Greek Air Fryer Chicken Meatballs (Keftedes)

Greek Recipes

Bifteki (One Pan Greek Burgers And Potatoes)

Chicken

Easy Oven Chicken Kabobs (Greek style!)

I would also add this simple bread with olive oil to mop up the delicious tomato and onion sauce!

Leftovers: These are firmly in that category of dishes that are arguably even better when re-heated after the flavors have had more time to meld together! Enjoy for lunch with bread on the side.