The Best Way to Freeze Onions

Don’t just freeze, flash freeze

Freezing onions is the answer when you have an abundance of them. Whether you had a good onion harvest or just scored a great deal on onions (like I did this week) an easy way to preserve them to save time and money is to freeze them.

Frozen diced onions come to the rescue on a busy night when you are short on time and still have to get dinner on the table. How many of your dinner recipes include something like this… “1 small onion diced…”? How often have you overpaid for pre-chopped onions at the grocery store to save a little time?

Reach into the freezer, scoop out 1/2 cup of diced onion when the recipe calls for a medium onion (1/4 cup for a small onion) and you just saved a few minutes and a little money. Doing this for some of the ingredients you use most often is going to save you a ton of time on meal prep.

And flash-freezing will allow you to scoop out just what you need for a recipe, without having to carve what you need from a massive blob of onions. There is no need to thaw the onions. Add to soups or stews, or sautee as you would fresh onions.

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The benefits of flash freezing

Flash freezing is an easy option that isn’t complicated and doesn’t require any special equipment.

Flash freezing keeps the individual pieces of food separated and prevents them from lumping all together in a mess. Onions are one of many fruits and vegetables that can be flash-frozen.

Besides onions, you can flash freeze berries, bell peppers, carrots, and celery. Slice corn off the cob and flash freeze.

Preparing food this way and storing it in the freezer has 2 big upsides. You’re preserving the food you just got a good deal on AND cutting down on prep time for meals. How cool it is to have veggies chopped and ready to go. Just pull out what you need for a recipe and go on about your business.

Onions have a long shelf life and I usually have 2 or 3 onions on hand. But I recently scored a large bag of red onions for 99¢ and knew that I probably couldn’t use all of them before they started sprouting.

Easy prep to flash freeze onions

Peel, wash and dice onions and place them in a single layer on a large parchment-lined baking sheet. Put in the freezer for at least 1/2 hour until frozen.

Use a scraper or large spatula to scoop onions up and transfer them into a freezer bag or container. I use a Baggy Rack to hold the freezer bag in place while I load it up. These are perfect for meal prep.

 

Packaging onions for the freezer

Store the onions in a large freezer bag or container, clearly labeled. It’s a mistake to store them in sandwich or snack bags that are easily ripped and do not contain the odor of the onion.

Everything in the freezer will reek of onions. Ask me how I know this.

Use the same technique for spring onions. Do you buy a bunch of spring onions for a single recipe, use 2 or 3, then forget about the rest of the bunch?

It gets limp and slimy and winds up at the very bottom of the crisper. Yeah, don’t’ do that anymore. Use what you need and freeze the rest.

Wash and slice into rings, then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and set in the freezer for 1/2 hour until the onions are frozen. Then pop them into a freezer bag. Label the bag and you have chopped spring onions for several recipes all ready for you to use.

Storing onions in the freezer

Freezing food will keep it safe to eat indefinitely according to the USDA. Don’t test the limits, though.

Eat frozen fruits and vegetables within 10-12 months. They dry out and lose flavor after that. Label and date anything that goes into the freezer.

Try as you might, there is always the package that gets buried under whatever you just bought.

Do you have a mystery package in your freezer now?