Raw onions can be quickly frozen without blanching them first. (Photo by Alice Henneman)
I’m about to leave town for a few days but still have portions of cut onions left in my refrigerator. If I don’t do something with them, I either need to toss them now or I’ll have to toss them when I get home.
I decided to freeze them. This method took me about 3 minutes …
(Note: The following method works for fully mature onions.)
- Wash, peel and chop raw, fully mature onions into about 1/2-inch pieces. There is no need to blanch onions.
- Bag and freeze in freezer bags for best quality and odor protection. Package — flat — in freezer bags to hasten freezing and make it easier to break off sections as needed. Express out the air and place bags on cookie sheets or metal pans until onions are frozen. Then, restack bags to take up less room.
- Use in cooked products, such as soups and stews, ground meat mixtures, casseroles, etc. For most dishes, frozen onions may be used with little or no thawing. (Will keep 3-6 months.)