Green onions are an excellent ingredient for any dish that you want to make, but they are almost always too bountiful that they end up being wasted. Luckily; however, there is a way to counter this problem - you can freeze green onions.
That’s right, and it’s very easy to do so. Today we’re going to be looking at how you’d go about freezing your green onions, how you’d defrost them before using them again, and factors to consider before freezing.
Gone are the days of wasting your beloved vegetables - all you’ll need is some parchment paper, enough space in your freezer, and some time to spare.
How To Freeze Green Onions
Freezing your green onion leftovers could not be easier, but there are some preparation steps to ensure that their time in the freezer is the best it can be. First of all, you’re going to need to wash your onion to make sure that they are clean and free of bacteria.
You can do this with only water, but we suggest using a vinegar solution to properly wash your onions. Mix one part vinegar to five parts water and give the vegetable a good scrub. This will ensure that you’re only freezing the cleanest of onions without giving you a vinegary taste.
Next, you’ll need to chop up your leftover green onions. Cut them to the size that you’ll think you’ll want to use next time. Take off all of the unnecessary parts and only leave the best onion for freezing.
You’ll need to lay out some parchment paper for the next step. Lay all of the pieces of onion onto the paper and stick the paper into the freezer. Flash freeze the onion for a few hours before moving the pieces to a freezer bag.
You can freeze the onion in a freezer bag straight away if that’s all you have handy, but you might find that the onion sticks together without the flash freezing step. For this reason, we would always recommend flash freezing your onion.
Once your green onion is tucked safely away in the freezer, it will last in there for up to 12 months. You can remove as much as and when you need to use it.
How To Defrost Green Onions
One of the best things about freezing your vegetables is that they don’t need to be thawed before using them in a recipe. Simply add the already chopped onions into a pan and watch them thaw within seconds! You’ll save on preparation time as well as cooking time with frozen green onions.
However, this will only work if you’ve decided to flash freeze your green onions before freezing them properly. If you’ve just frozen them all together, they might be stuck in one big lump. This will not cook evenly so you’ll have to defrost the onions before using them for your recipe.
To do this, simply add the ball of frozen green onions to a bowl and leave them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Once they’re defrosted enough to pull apart you can add them to the pan and thaw them quickly over a hot pan.
There is also the opportunity to defrost your green onions at room temperature, but we wouldn’t recommend doing this. Defrosting your onions at room temperature will make them go bad quicker and higher the risk of them going limp before you can eat and enjoy them.
Defrosting the green onions at room temperature might be the quicker option but it is certainly not the best option, in our opinion. We think that you should stick to the refrigerator method, but the choice is yours.
Factors To Consider When Freezing Green Onions
Now that we’ve established that you can freeze green onions, the next question is should you freeze green onions. Yes, it helps to cut down on wasted ingredients and saves you money. But once thawed green onions might not be as delicious as they once were.
Some people have found that once crunchy green onions become limp once they’ve been frozen. This is because the flesh is made up of a percentage of water that freezes and thaws as the rest of the vegetable does.
So, the water leaves the onion and makes it go limp and lifeless. While this is fine if you’re cooking your green onion into a stew or sauce, you might prefer the crunchiness of a fresh vegetable.
You should also always ensure that your green onion is fresh before freezing it. Freezing less than optimal green onions will decrease the time that they will keep in the freezer, so you might find that your onion has gone bad and all of your efforts have been wasted.
We think that flash freezing your onions is definitely worth the extra effort. Your vegetables will not be stuck together so that you don’t have to waste time defrosting an entire lump of onion later down the line.
However, to flash freeze your green onions you will need some parchment paper and enough room in your freezer. Some people don’t have enough room to freeze a sheet of onions, and you cannot leave certain foods out of the freezer for up to three hours without them going bad.
Summary
The short answer to the question can you freeze green onions is yes, you can freeze them. Flash freezing your green onion will allow you to take as much onion out of the freezer when you need to use it. Simply flash freeze it for a few hours before transferring it to the freezer bag.
You can leave the green onion in the freezer for up to 12 months, and the best part is that you don’t even need to thaw it when you’ve used the flash freezing method. You can defrost green onion in a pan, refrigerator, or at room temperature.
However, there are a few considerations to take when freezing green onions. Freezing your vegetables gives them the potential to go limp. You also need to make sure that your onions are fresh before freezing them to give them the longest shelf life possible.