How to Store Green Onions

Green onions, when prop­er­ly stored, retain their fresh­ness for a long time: at a tem­per­a­ture of 3–4 degrees, it is usable for 2–3 weeks, and at zero tem­per­a­ture — up to 2 months.

We have pre­pared a num­ber of rec­om­men­da­tions, fol­low­ing which, you will keep green onions fresh and tasty for a long time.

Preparing for storage

Wash­ing green onions before stor­age is not worth it, since the shelf life of dry greens is longer. If there are pieces of dirt in the greens, shake it off or remove it with a nap­kin. Wrap small onions with a damp cloth and tight­en with a thread to increase the shelf life of the prod­uct.

But if you wish, you can wash the onion — for this:

1. Fill a basin with cool water;

2. Put the onion in a con­tain­er and rinse it;

3. Shake the greens, place it on the fab­ric in a thin lay­er;

4. Wait until it dries. Mois­ture should evap­o­rate nat­u­ral­ly. Usu­al­ly 30 min­utes is enough for this.

It is unde­sir­able to wash onions under run­ning water.

Short term storage methods

Fresh greens begin to with­er with­in 1–2 days after pur­chase in the store. To extend this peri­od, fol­low these steps:

1. Take a tall jar with a vol­ume of 0.5 liters and fill it with water by 2.5–5 cm;

2. Place the onion in water so that it cov­ers its roots;

3. Cov­er the jar with a plas­tic bag and secure it with an elas­tic band, thread — loose­ly, so that air enters;

4. Place the jar in the refrig­er­a­tor or on a win­dowsill, in direct sun­light.

When stor­ing onions in a win­dowsill, the greens will con­tin­ue to grow. Water must be changed every 2–3 days.

Long term storage methods

There are three options for stor­ing green onions — a glass jar, a plas­tic bag, and kraft paper.

Glass jar

It is enough to shift the onion into a jar and close it tight­ly with a lid. Thanks to this, the onion will remain crisp and fresh, and will not dry out. The jar must be large so that the feath­ers of the plant fit com­plete­ly in the con­tain­er. If the onion bends and breaks, it will quick­ly dry out and become taste­less.

The shelf life of the onion will be 1 month.

Plastic bag

Pierce the bag sev­er­al times with a knife to cre­ate air holes. Place the onion in a bag and refrig­er­ate.

Atten­tion! When stor­ing onions in a bag, do not wash the greens.

If con­den­sa­tion begins to accu­mu­late in the bag dur­ing stor­age, remove the greens, dry the bag, cool it in the refrig­er­a­tor and then put the greens back into the bag.

kraft paper

Kraft paper will keep onions fresh for a long time. You can also use a thick paper tow­el instead. News­pa­per sheets are pro­hib­it­ed, as print­ing ink is haz­ardous to health.

It is nec­es­sary to wash the onion, blot it with a nap­kin to remove mois­ture, and wrap the plant in kraft paper. Sprin­kle a lit­tle water on its sur­face. Next, the paper is sent to a plas­tic bag and — in the refrig­er­a­tor.

How to prepare onions for the winter

Win­ter blanks are stored in the freez­er. Thanks to them, you do not have to over­pay for onions in stores. You can pick­le the onion, dry it, pick­le it or freeze it.

Ice molds

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Fine­ly chop the green onion;

2. Spread the result­ing mass into molds for a max­i­mum of a third of the vol­ume of the con­tain­er;

3. Fill the remain­ing vol­ume with water and place in the freez­er.

And if you use olive oil instead of water, you get a ready-made dress­ing for var­i­ous sal­ads.

There are oth­er options for freez­ing green onions:

1. Cut the greens, spread them on the sur­face of the tray in an even lay­er and put in the freez­er for 6 hours. After that, move the bow into the bag. Thus, the greens will not stick togeth­er, and it can be eas­i­ly tak­en for a dish in the right amount;

2. Boil green onions for 5–10 min­utes, then dry and dis­trib­ute in por­tions. Each serv­ing is placed in a con­tain­er or bag and then frozen. After that, you can take any amount of frozen onions, defrost­ing is not required.

The shelf life of frozen onions is up to 12 months. Avoid defrost­ing and re-freez­ing as this will spoil the prod­uct.

salting

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Rinse the greens and wait until they are com­plete­ly dry;

2. Cut the plant fine­ly, medi­um or large — at your dis­cre­tion;

3. Add salt at the rate of 250 g of salt per 1 kg of onion;

4. Place green onions in lay­ers in a jar, sprin­kling each new lay­er with salt.

Salt­ing increas­es the shelf life of onions up to 7 months.

Pickling

You can make a pick­led snack from onions.

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Wash and dry the onion stalks;

2. Trim the bulbs and tips, place the greens in a con­tain­er;

3. Add bay leaf, ground pep­per, sug­ar and salt — just to taste;

4. Add some sun­flower oil, vine­gar;

5. Mince 3–4 cloves of gar­lic and add to the onion.

After 2 hours, the snack is ready to eat.

Butter billet

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Rinse the plant, dry it;

2. Cut the green onion into pieces;

3. Place it in the jar, leav­ing about ¼ of the con­tain­er free;

4. Pour veg­etable oil into a con­tain­er;

5. Mix the result­ing mass well and close the con­tain­er with a lid.

The oil prod­uct is stored for up to 6 months.

Drying

Such a prod­uct can be used as a sea­son­ing for soups, side dish­es. Its shelf life is up to 2 years. If you need to pre­pare the greens for a long time, then dry­ing is the best option. The main thing is that the con­tain­er where the dried onions will be stored should “breathe”.

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Wash and cut the onion into pieces;

2. Trans­fer it to paper, and then put it in a warm place. You can dry the onions in open sun­light, in the oven or in an elec­tric dry­er.

Nat­u­ral­ly, onions should be dried for a week. If you use an elec­tric dry­er, then sev­er­al hours are enough for dry­ing.

The degree of readi­ness is deter­mined as fol­lows: if the greens have become easy to break and crum­ble, then it can be poured into a dry jar. The con­tain­er must be stored at room tem­per­a­ture.

Tips and nuances

1. Dur­ing stor­age, check the con­di­tion of the onion reg­u­lar­ly. If the feath­ers begin to rot or dry out, dis­card them imme­di­ate­ly. Oth­er­wise, rot­ting or dry­ing will spread to the entire beam;

2. There are sev­er­al signs of spoilage of the prod­uct: the appear­ance of mold, rot­ting, the appear­ance of an unpleas­ant odor, swelling of the lid on the jar. When they occur, the bow will have to be thrown away;

3. When chop­ping onions, it is rec­om­mend­ed to cut them into thin slices 5 mm long. You do not need to use a food proces­sor;

4. In a pri­vate house, pick­les or onions in oil can be stored in the cel­lar, in the apart­ment — on the log­gia (the main thing is that it be glazed).

Use our tips, and then at any time of the year you will have tasty and vit­a­min-rich greens at hand.