Reply #9: you forgot the garlic

[Kali]

:P

Onions can be a natural thickener and I like the flavor of meat cooked with them so I always cook them with the meat. If I want onions with actual texture in a dish, I add more towards the end of cooking.

On the other vegetables, it would just depend on the dish - some foods I like the vegetables to be crispy and almost fresh, some need long simmering to blend flavors. Soups and stews are flexible and no matter what the texture almost always taste better reheated the next day.