Chaufa without Chinese onion? Here are some ingredients to substitute it in this and other recipes

A chaufa without Chinese onion will undoubtedly change the appearance and flavor of the rice that we are used to eating in chifas or at home; however, given the possibility of finding agrochemicals in Chinese onions and having to avoid them, in Advantage we wonder, what other ingredients could replace it?

To solve this crossroads we asked the experts:

“In principle, we must know what we use the Chinese onion for and at what point, if it is the green or white part,” Heine Herold, consultant chef and leader of Pollos Guapos tells us. “The white one is for dressings, bases or sautéed and the green one to finish with a crunchy and fresh touch. We could finish a chaufa with celery leaves or with the same oriental vegetables like pak choi or choisan”.

In addition, he recommended “for a base like a pachikay, we can replace it with Chinese garlic or common onion.” In the case of dishes such as lomo saltado that have Chinese onion at the end, the chef recommends doing without it and adding ingredients such as coriander or parsley: “As a fresh note at the end.”

On the other hand, Ruei Tang Yeh is a chef who does not use onions or garlic as part of his gastronomic proposal that follows the line of Ayurveda cuisine and is transmitted in the Asianica restaurant: “My family instilled Buddhism in me. According to tradition, not eating garlic and onions gives us a better character. These foods, on a spiritual level, make us more angry, anxious or encourage us to overeat. I have never used them in the kitchen or eaten them. We don’t drink alcohol either, that’s why the Asianica menu doesn’t have alcoholic beverages”declared for Advantage Ruei Tang in an interview about Asianica.

On this occasion, we asked him how we could replace the Chinese onion and he replied: “For example, for oriental dishes we use coriander a lot, both the stem and the leaves as well as the root.” He also recommended using “parsley or huacatay that go well with some Creole dishes. With fresher notes it can be peppermint or basil”.

On the other hand, chef Ignacio Barrios suggests replacing the Chinese onion with spring garlic or young garlic: “They work great. It is the garlic that has not yet developed the head of garlic, for a chaufa it would be excellent. And the other option is chives/ciboulette/chives, which is like a thin Chinese onion, it is great as decoration and as light touches in a Nikkei tiradito or a tartare”.