Frizzled-Onion Cabbage Salad

If caramelized onions are like a heartfelt ballad, slow and soulful, frizzled onions are the opposite—an electro-pop dance track, fast and bold. Frying onions in hot oil gets them a little crisp around the edges and has them walking the line between sweet and sharp in no time at all. Don’t let the word frying scare you off—it takes as little as one cup of oil to frizzle your way through the thinly sliced onions. Remove the onions from the oil when they’re still a shade or two lighter than you want them. They’ll continue to cook off the heat. These differ from store-bought fried onions in that they aren’t coated in any flour or starch before frying, which makes them light and crispy. A generous fistful makes this otherwise simple cabbage salad dynamic: It’s hot and cold, crisp and soft, sweet and spicy. Assemble the salad just before eating to capture the different textures.