How To Cut Onions For The Perfect Savory Snack Cups

We all love unexpected uses for a certain food, especially when it's a healthy veggie. But now, there's a new hack for rethinking a vegetable as an edible foundation for any number of fillings — and this one comes courtesy of TikTok. If you haven't heard of the onion cup, you won't forget it.

It can be hard to identify the TikTok dishes that are actually worth trying, as the app is swarming with ideas ranging from genius to wacky. But what's great about these onion cups is that the ingredients in the videos featuring them are all familiar, and it's easy to see why they work together. Best of all, making onion cups couldn't be easier. Simply chop off the onion's ends and then half it from top to bottom. Every layer you pull from each layer is a "cup."

In one TikTok post, user Courtney Bales (aka @courtneylcook) slices her onion cups and fills them with cottage cheese and buffalo chicken dip, creating a creamy, spicy filling for the crisp, pungent onion and topping the cups with fried onion bits for crunch. The snack is savory, filling, and feels like a treat even while packing in some protein from the cottage cheese and the fiber, vitamin C, antioxidants, and immune-system boost of the onion.

Additionally, one of Bales' best-known onion cup videos shows the TikTok user filling each cup with a microwaveable soup dumpling and then topping them with Korean barbecue sauce, ponzu sauce, mayo, and chili crisp. The onion cup shines as an edible vessel, as onion slices are hardy enough to hold whatever you fill them with and create a satisfying bite balanced with flavors and textures. Plus, a combination like this boasts the appeal of quick, effortless microwaveable meals that still feels interesting and elevated.

It might help you to know the different types of onions before you start experimenting with onion cups. Whatever you're finding in season should be durable enough to make a cup — Bales uses sweet onions of the Vidalia variety. From there, the sky's the limit on fillings, which could include fillings like deviled eggs, chili, smoked salmon and cream cheese, cheesy cauliflower, and ramen.

Other tasty options? Macaroni and cheese; meatballs with marinara sauce and basil; and hummus with labneh, olives, and diced cucumbers. Consider onion cup nachos, piling them with ground beef or chicken, melted cheese, black beans, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. Since onion cups also resemble potato skins, try adding fries or mashed potato spoonfuls topped with bacon bits, cheddar cheese, chives, and sour cream.