Did you know that frozen onions store well and are super easy to use in any cooked recipe? Yup!! Read below for tips and how tos.
First you need a decent amount of onions. If you have a bag that you don’t want to go bad, but aren’t ready to use them, or like me, if you have just harvested your first batch of homegrown onions, freezing them is a quick and easy way to ensure they don’t go to waste.
I unfortunatley had to harvest all of my onions early, so they were still pretty small. I didn’t want to spend the time trying to cure a bunch of small onions, so I froze them and was able to get 5, 1 gallon sized ziploc bags stored away.
How to freeze onions:
- I started by washing and peeling them all. You want to make sure there is no dirt. I used a brush like this one.
- Then I used this vegetable chopper, that made light work of all the chopping, and diced them up. You can chop them to whatever size you like. I like a small/medium sized dice, and I can still chop them smaller later if I need to.
- Next, I just placed the diced onion in a ziploc bag and filled it about halfway. I wanted to make sure I could lay them out in a decently thin layer. Freezing them in a shallow layer like this allows you to easily break them up and then measure out however many you need for your recipe.
- Finally, admire your not so hard work and enjoy these onions in stews, soups and any other cooked recipe for the next few months. You don’t even have to thaw them!
Quick tip: While onions last eight months in the freezer, they are most potent in the first 3-6 months. Also keep in mind, freezing onions changes their texture, so they aren’t recomended for fresh dishes like salads.
Be sure to check out my post about seed starting if you’re interested in growing your own onions!
