Green Onions are one of those ingredients that you want an ample supply of. They add so much flavor to certain dishes and visually pleasing. Which is why they are often used as a garnish. Green Onions offer a milder onion taste with unique supporting notes. They are used in a lot of different recipes not only for their taste but to add color and garnishing. There are a couple of options we have when Storing Green Onions so that you will always be in supply.
How to select Green Onions
The tops of the green onions should be vibrant green. They should look fresh and feel firm. Not wilted, dried, or slimy. The bulb end should be white and crisp. Not dried, bruised, or wet.
How to Store Green Onions
There are many ways of storing Green Onions. Below, we cover the techniques on how to store Green Onions. Either by keeping them fed with water after cutting, Freezing, Dehydrating, replanting or Salting for Salted Green Onions.
With a Glass Of Water
I find the best way to store Green Onions is to place them into a container or Glass with water just to cover the roots. The added benefit to this is that once you chop up your green onions, you can place them back into the water and they will regrow. Giving you a second batch of Fresh, Crisp Green Onions. Don’t forget to change the water often and only cover the roots only.
With this method, you should be able to get 2–3 Harvests out of it before the water is not enough to sustain them. With each harvest, they lose their green color. You can plant them in your garden at this point.
Freezing Green Onions
Buy a bunch of them when they are on sale. I mean a lot of them in order to always have Green Onions on hand.
Rinse them under cold water and chop them any way you like. I like to chop them into tiny strips across. Sometimes I chop them on an angle or 2-3 inch strips for things like stir-fry, garnishing, soups, stews. You then lay them out onto a baking sheet and freeze. Once they are frozen. Store them into a Ziploc bag and keep them in the freezer.
Anytime you need Green Onions. There they are ready to go. Don’t worry that they are frozen for things like garnishing because they are so thin as soon as they hit the food they defrost in seconds. In fact, as soon as you take them out of the freezer, they start to defrost pretty quickly.
Of course, if you need fresh Green Onions. You can always keep them in water on the window sill.
Dehydrating Green Onions
The other option is to dehydrate them. Chop them up and throw them into the dehydrator. Store them in a spice jar or Ziploc bag. I find dehydrating at 140 F for about 4 hours is good for Green Onions. Place a screen on top to prevent any pieces from flying around from the air flow as they dry.
In the summer, you can wrap a screen around the baking sheet to prevent bugs and leave them out to dehydrate for sun-dried Green Onions. This apparently is also a very effective way of boosting the vitamin D levels in Mushrooms when dehydrating.
Freshly Chopped Green Onions
Wash and chop the Green Onions. Place the stems in a glass with water just to cover the roots to regrow another batch.
Dehydrated Green Onions
Dehydrate at 140 F for about 4 hours. Use as is, or crush by hand and store in a Glass jar or spice container.
Planting Green Onions
By far the best method if you have a garden or a window sill they can sit on is to plant them. Especially so throughout Spring and Summer. I have planted Green Onions after 2–3 harvests, and they do grow back better and stronger and the green color returns. This is the best way to have an ample supply of Green Onions during and throughout the warmer months. Where you only have to buy a few and then continuously Harvest them. They grow back pretty fast.
Salted Green Onions
This technique is what the Acadian people did with their Herbs & Vegetables before refrigeration. Called Herbes Salées or Salted Herbs. The same technique can be used for just Green Onions or any combination of Fresh Herbs and is a great way for Storing Green Onions.
Chop or Slice the Green Onions and toss them in Salt. Then fill a Jar, cover & refrigerate. To use, add them to your dishes. Be mindful of the Salt content because the Green Onions will contribute salt. If this isn’t desired, the Green Onions can be rinsed off and then added to the dish. This is a great way to preserve or store Green Onions for long term storage.
Salted Green Onions
Slice the Green Onions to the desired thickness and combine with Sea Salt, Kosher salt or Coarse Salt. Don’t use Table Salt.
The ratio is 33 g salt per 100 g of Green Onions.