The Other Side of the Tortilla

cebollitas

Cebollitas asadas en la calle

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I spotted these cebollitas being prepared to grill at a street stand last year during a trip to Mexico City. I parked right near this little puesto in Colonia Juárez while running an errand and couldn’t help but stop to admire them. As the grilling season kicks into full swing here, I find myself looking at this photo over and over again despite the fact that I took it more than a year ago, so I decided to finally share it. I love cebollitas, or any grilled vegetable, really. But the kind grilled al carbón can’t be beat.

›› Learn how to prepare cebollitas with my simple recipe.

›› Pair them with a dish! My favorites are Mexican chimichurri steak, tacos de rib eye and arrachera borracha.

  • What’s inspiring your grilling season?

Tacos de rib eye

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I’ve been buying thinly sliced rib eye and grilling it to serve as tacos for years, but the truth is that it can get kind of boring. I recently came up with a flavorful and easy fix that is literally only one ingredient but makes a world of difference: ponzu sauce. Yes, you read that correctly, I said ponzu sauce! I knew I had to share this recipe when my husband and chief taste-tester raved about this dish, even days after I served it.

No, ponzu sauce isn’t a Mexican ingredient, but it bears some striking similarities to the popular seasoning sauce known as Maggi that is widely consumed in Mexico. You may remember reading about Maggi here before in my cebollitas recipe, which is basically just grilled spring onions, lime juice and Maggi—a succulent side dish that also pairs well with these tacos.

What’s great about ponzu sauce is that it’s similar to Maggi in taste, already has a hint of citrus so adding lime juice isn’t necessary (but you still can, if you want), and ponzu is much lower in sodium per tablespoon than Maggi.

If it’s any indication how good it is, I’ve whipped this recipe up for dinner three times in the last two weeks and gotten no complaints about repeating the same dish. I’ve served it each time with a different salsa to make it just a little different. With grilling season right around the corner, this dish is definitely going to be my secret weapon for summer barbecues. Let me know how you like it!

RECETA | RECIPE

TACOS DE RIB EYE

  • 1 lb. thinly sliced rib eye (about 1/4 inch thick)
  • 1/2 cup Mitsukan ponzu sauce for the meat plus 1/8 cup for cebollitas
  • 1 bunch of cebollitas (in English they’re called spring onions; they look like scallions but with a bulbous end instead of straight and skinny)

Directions:
FOR THE MEAT
Marinade the meat with 1/2 cup ponzu sauce for 30 minutes in a zippered plastic bag. Discard the liquid and bag, and grill meat over medium-high heat just long enough for each side to get grill marks and cook through.

FOR THE CEBOLLITAS
Use as much or as little ponzu as you’d like. You can choose whether to use the ponzu to soak the onions in advance, or pour over them or use as a dipping sauce after grilling. If you choose to soak them, you can put them in a shallow bowl and use about 1/8 cup-1/4 cup of ponzu sauce. Reserve the sauce if you’d like to use it again as a garnish or dip after grilling.

Serve meat with cebollitas and corn tortillas. These tacos also go great with guacamole or a fresh green salsa.

Yields 2 servings or about 6-8 tacos.

  • How do you dress up your basic rib eye tacos?
Disclosure: This post is part of a sponsored series to promote Mizkan cooking wines, vinegars, sauces and marinades. We also received product samples and promotional material from Mizkan to assist in preparing this post. All opinions and recipes in this series are our own.

Cebollitas asadas

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At any parrillada, cebollitas asadas are the one side dish you can count on one s being the same, no matter what kind of meats are chosen for the main dish. These grilled onions are marinated in Maggi and lime juice before being served.

Grilled knob onions with lime and salsa Maggi

I love grilling. The smell of the charcoal, the crackling sound of the fire roasting the food and the anticipation of what’s about to land on my plate. And whenever we grill in Mexico, my suegro (father-in-law) is the king of the barbecue.

Cebollitas asadas are so simple and easy to make (and almost totally impossible to mess up even if you’re not a grilling pro), it’s the single dish that most reminds me of a Sunday parrillada in Mexico.

RELATED RECIPE: Calabacitas con elote

You can add as much or as little lime juice and salsa Maggi, a Worcestershire-style seasoning sauce, or soy sauce as you like – it all depends on your taste buds. The Maggi sold in the U.S. doesn’t taste the same as salsa Maggi sold in Mexico, so I sometimes substitute low sodium soy sauce because we always keep some in the cabinet or the refrigerator.

Not only is this dish often served at barbecues and family gatherings, you can also often find them at little street food stands around Mexico. I especially love to pair this side dish with tacos de rib eye and my Mexican chimichurri-marinated flank steak.

RELATED RECIPE: Calabacitas rellenas

A note for my gluten-free friends: Salsa Maggi contains wheat gluten, wheat and wheat bran among its ingredients. A suitable alternative for you to be able to enjoy this dish is Kikkoman’s gluten-free soy sauce.

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Grilled knob onions with lime and salsa Maggi

Cebollitas

  • Author: Maura Wall Hernandez
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 2 servings 1x
  • Category: Side dishes
  • Method: Grilling
  • Cuisine: Mexican
Print Recipe

Description

Cebollitas are a classic side dish staple at any Mexican barbecue.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 bunch of large spring onions (the kind with the little bulb on the end); these are sometimes called cebollitas cambray or knob onions
  • fresh-squeezed juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lime
  • Salsa Maggi (jugo sazonador) or soy sauce to taste

    Instructions

    1. Wash and grill the onions until they start to get grill marks and the bulbs look mostly cooked through. Leave the green stem tails on. (Some people don’t eat the tails; it’s up to you!)
    2. Once you’ve removed the onions from the grill, put them on a plate or in a bowl and squeeze the desired amount of lime juice over them.
    3. Add desired amount of Maggi or soy sauce over the top and let the onions sit in the juices for a few minutes. Pick up by the stems and eat the bulbs.

      Keywords: onions