First, a quick biology lesson (don’t worry, it’s painless). A shallot looks like a small, elongated onion that decided to wear a papery, reddish-brown skin. But here’s the kicker: when you peel it, you don’t get one solid bulb—you get a cluster of cloves, just like garlic, but with a sweeter, more delicate flavor. It’s basically nature’s way of saying, “I’ve combined the best parts of onions and garlic, now go make something amazing.”
And unlike the sulfurous drama queen that is a raw onion, a raw shallot is actually polite. It won’t make you cry like you just watched a Nicholas Sparks movie marathon. Seriously, the chemical compounds that trigger tears are much lower in shallots. You can dice one while laughing at a cat video—try that with a white onion.
