How Freezing Onions Saves You Time And Money

Onions are the base for many of our favorite dishes, like chicken noodle soup, pasta sauces, Japanese beef stew, and spicy chili. However, this versatile vegetable can be a major pain to prep, depending on the recipe and the amount of onions needed for a dish. Especially when you're pinched for time on a weeknight, it can be difficult to find the energy to get out your cutting board and start chopping. However, there is a way to make loads of meals using onions without that stress.

Save yourself some time, money, and tears (literal and metaphorical), and freeze your chopped onions. Meal prepping this raw ingredient ensures that you always have flavorful aromatics on hand, ready to just take out and throw in a pot. Frozen onions will be most flavorful if used within six months but will keep in the freezer indefinitely. Freezing your onions requires some up-front work but will cut your daily prep time significantly. You won't have to buy fresh onions every week or be tempted to pick up pre-chopped products at the store.

The first step is to make sure to find the best onions at the grocery store – they should be firm, with papery skins and no green sprouts. Bonus points if they're on sale! Once you get them home, give them a rough chop, fine dice, or cut them into slices. However, don't mince or puree them, as they will become too wet and will just freeze as a solid block. 

After chopping your desired amount of onions, place them in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. After they spend a couple of hours in the freezer, transfer them to sturdy freezer bags and press out as much air as possible. It's vital to use thicker bags because of an onion's strong scent, which can fill your freezer — you can even double up on the bags if they are particularly aromatic. Onions do tend to clump as they freeze, so it is helpful to bag them in small portions. You can also easily break them up by banging the bag on your counter or giving them a thwack with a rolling pin. 

Frozen onions are best for cooked dishes because once thawed, the texture of frozen onions will be softer. The strong bite that raw onions have also mellows out as they freeze. The next time you're making a batch of Instant Pot lentil and French onion soup, take advantage of your frozen onions for the easiest prep you'll ever have.