As a child, I used to hate the feel and taste when I conciously bit on a piece of onion (strongest offender: medium-sized chunks, sautéed glassy but still firm). Sometimes that still happens.

However, I use onion a lot myself now in cooking. Lots of dishes really need the kind of taste onions can supply; even though that taste may by itself be a bit gross, it's really useful in the mix. (This is true for many other ingredients as well!) I can only speak for myself, but very likely, there are some dishes where you don't even notice that onions are in, but they are – and you wouldn't like it if they weren't!

Do use onions, just do it carefully. There are three ways of preparing them that I consider “safe”, each suited to different cases:

• Disperse them throughout the dish. Either chop them really fine and sautée (with the right technique and a decent knife you can get the chunks down to only a few millimetres), or boil with other vegetables and then purée. You'll get all the good taste, but nowhere too strong and without any unpleasant mouth-feel.
  Ideal for light/creamy sauces or soups.
• Caramelise them boldly. Frying changes the taste of onions a lot, it makes them much sweeter, gets rid of the pungency in exchange for a really concentrated savouriness, and almost completely tames the consistency. Browned onions play great together with strong seasonings like garlic and pepper, as flavouring for chewy mushrooms or meats.
• Or the opposite: keep them mostly raw! The freshness and crunch of raw onions can also be very useful without evoking the bad onion effect – albeit in a completely different way. Thinly sliced in salads, or very quickly stir-fried in rice dishes, you keep the raw pungency in check while staying clear of the uncanny softness. Again, it's a good idea to define the taste heading with other sharp flavours: vinegar or chilies work well.

As a child, I used to hate the feel and taste when I conciously bit on a piece of onion (strongest offender: medium-sized chunks, sautéed glassy but still firm). Sometimes that still happens.

However, I use onion a lot myself now in cooking. Lots of dishes really need the kind of taste onions can supply; even though that taste may by itself be a bit gross, it's really useful in the mix. (This is true for many other ingredients as well!) I can only speak for myself, but very likely, there are some dishes where you don't even notice that onions are in, but they are – and you wouldn't like it if they weren't!

Do use onions, just do it consciously. There are broadly three ways of preparing them that I consider effective, each suited to different cases:

• Disperse them throughout the dish. Either chop them really fine and sautée (with the right technique and a decent knife you can get the chunks down to only a few millimetres), or boil with other vegetables and then purée. You'll get all the good taste, but nowhere too strong and without any unpleasant mouth-feel.
  Ideal for light/creamy sauces or soups.
• Caramelise them boldly. Frying changes the taste of onions a lot, it makes them much sweeter, gets rid of the pungency in exchange for a really concentrated savouriness, and almost completely tames the consistency. Browned onions play great together with strong seasonings like garlic and pepper, as flavouring for chewy mushrooms or meats.
• Or the opposite: keep them mostly raw! The freshness and crunch of raw onions can also be very useful without evoking what I call the bad onion effect – albeit in a completely different way. Thinly sliced in salads, or very quickly stir-fried in rice dishes, you keep the raw pungency in check while staying clear of the uncanny softness. Again, it's a good idea to define the taste heading with other sharp flavours: vinegar or chilies work well.

Perhaps you won't be able to befriend yourself with all of these preparation methods, but you should give them a try.