ONIONS

Made me Cry

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My husband did not want to fly. So, our vacations were limited to places he could visit by car or train. I had to fly solo. Since his military service in the Air Force, he has preferred not to fly with domestic airlines. An elder Veteran and close friend recommended we reserve an international flight for our 25th anniversary. And so we did, on my birthday. It was the first time we flew together. Our seats were in the front of the plane, behind the cockpit or command center. The domestic flight from Maryland U.S. connected to the international flight to Senegal, West Africa, duration twenty hours.

We traveled by car a distance of six hours (333 km) and on the Gambia River ferry to our final destination, Brikama Town, Gambia, across the border. We enjoyed one month of tropical heat with our in-laws. Mother Ya prepared fabulous Gambian cuisine before our return to winter in America. It was truly an incredible gift; my husband made the ultimate sacrifice.

In Brikama every morning around 4 AM, we heard Muslim women walking to the local market after Fajr Salah (morning prayer) to collect ingredients and supplies for the Soup of the Day.

The main ingredients were onions.

Onion farming by women sustained community gardens and a massive domestic market. Farmers spoke to us about the secret life of onions and shared a description from the Holy Qur’an that teaches animals, plants, humans, and all living beings have the right to exercise self-defense, even onions.

By sunrise the scent of chopped garlic, sliced peppers, and the aroma of onions simmering in broth filled the air. Yaa’s cooking area was an outdoor workshop beyond her kitchen. Every day Mother Yaa fed families and prepared lunch for school children in her community.

Soup offers more than nourishment.

It is the heart of family connections. A simmering slow cooker becomes family dinner, a pot of soup. It provides days of comforting meals, shared recipes, and tradition. Soup is a sensory dining experience, bringing loved ones together for multi-generational storytelling that anchors family memories. Everyone knew which house served the best soup!

Making soup means layering flavors and ingredients. First, add garlic and onions sautéed in olive oil and stir into bouillon (soup broth). The next layer builds body by combining diced celery, carrots, and tomatoes with kale, either mustard greens or spinach. Some cooks add cubes of white potato or a little wheat flour to thicken. Medium temperature allows more time to simmer. If preferred, cooks add pre-cooked chicken, fish, or tofu. The finale is seasoning with herbs and spices before serving.

For a memorable dining experience, serve in a bread bowl. Hollow out a boule, a French artisan bread. Try a new beverage, cold sorrel and hibiscus, or use the leaves in soup.

The Story of Onions

Onions are an edible bulb; part of it grows underground. It’s in the family of garlic, leeks and chives. Onions ( Allium Cepa) mean "strong flavor" and are mild unless attacked; the smell is self defense designed to make animals stay away. It’s how they fight when bitten or cut, they retaliate by sending a toxic spittle into the eyes — a low-molecular-weight substance with sulfur atoms. An extremely rare way for chemicals to present themselves in nature, but humans are undeterred

Onions are spewing sulfur, “highly reactive” molecules that change very easily. The change that most of us know induces tears (lacrimatory), onions make you cry. The compound activates nerve endings in the cornea of the eye that send a message to the brain translated as pain. These molecules dissolve into the water of the eyes and turn into sulfuric acid, a nasty little trick for defense.

The pain comes from the odorless tear inducer. An entirely different set of compounds produces the pungent flavor and smell. A combination of unstable sulfonic acids, ammonia, and pyruvic acid causes pain and gives off strong odors. The chemicals are not vital to the life of an onion, but they are useful for self-defense.

When we eat raw onions in salads or on sandwiches, this sulfur compound escapes the body through perspiration; human sweat causes unpleasant breath and body odor sometimes.

Culinary artists believe onions are tough to tame and, over many years, have created recipes for baking, stewing, and roasting whole onions even though they are known to cause pain. However, Chefs and cooks have developed techniques to prepare several varieties of onions and learned to weep without suffering; the taste is delicious, well worth it!

The best technique is heat; it completely changes the flavor of onions. A cooked onion does not taste, smell, or act anything like a raw onion. When cooked or added to sauce or soup, it is fifty times sweeter than table sugar.

Photo by Iyleen21 on Pixabay

Remedies to Avoid Tearing

The onion’s defense system is powerful: If the compound can get to your nose, it has a pathway to your eyes.

· Red Chinese Dates (Jujubes) and ginger

· Refrigeration

· Running cold water nearby, holding water in your mouth

· Scalding. Place peeled onions with water and a pinch of salt in a covered pan for fast boiling for one minute and strain.

Photo by Nick Fewings by Unsplash

My favorite foods to cook are soups and stews. When I worked full-time, I made soup in my Crock-Pot (slow cooker) overnight, cooking for dinner the next evening. I could reheat on low and serve with salad.

I mastered the art of making great soups during the Month of Ramadan. I distributed different soup recipes in glass mason jars at Iftar. Soup was added to the evening meal for families to break their fast. Several varieties of onions are popular ingredients in salads and sandwiches. soups, and stews, because of historical farming, preservation, and the onion’s natural self-defense system.

References

1. Holy Qur’an S. Al Baqarah (#2), Ayah 61

2. Iftar: Fast-breaking meal after sunset during Month of Ramadan (holiest month of the lunar calendar).

3. Ramadan: Ninth (holiest) month, Five Pillars of Islam (#4)

4. Sahih Muslim, Hadith Book of Prayer (№ 1145)

Islamic Etiquette: Muslims should not come to the mosque, for communal prayer after “Eating raw onions, garlic and leeks, as it is permissible but, the smell is offensive.

5. Hibiscus & Sorrel Plants (red flower) cranberry flavor

Thank you for reading along; please return and share with soup lovers

© Nayyar July 2026 Ghana