How To Freeze Onions

While the thought of making up casseroles and freezing them might not be appealing to your family, there are many ways that you can use your freezer to speed up cooking preparations. Here’s one example:

I really do not enjoy chopping up onions (does anyone?), but I do love how they taste in recipes, so I’ve found that my best options are to buy bags of frozen already-chopped onions at the store (which I have done when I’ve found a good sale on them!) or to chop them in bulk and freeze them. I usually opt for the latter since it just seems fresher to me, for some reason.

1) Cut off the ends, peel, and cut in fourths.

2) Stick in the food processor and chop. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also use a blender, though it will chop the onion pretty fine.  I like to chop mine by hand.

3) Measure 1/2 cup of chopped onions into small sandwich baggies and then stick these into a freezer bag (as shown above). Freeze.

You can then just pull out a bag of chopped onions and use them in recipes whenever they call for chopped onion. Doing them in bulk like this saves a lot of time and effort–and tears!

What to do with a big bag of Onions

Do you ever buy a bag of onions because they are on a great sale, but then after cutting one you don't want to cut into the rest of them because you start crying after the first one...so they sit on your counter until they get soggy and gross and you must throw them out? .... What!? That's just me? After wasting a couple of bags of onions this way, I decided to start chopping and freezing my onions when they are a great sale that I cannot pass up.

1. First, light a candle, or two. Keep these close to where you will be cutting your onions. This will cut back on the whole crying over each onion thing.

2. Cut off the ends of the onion and make a little slit along the edge of the onion on in spot, not cutting too far into the onion. Doing this will make getting the peeling off of the onion quick and easy.

3. Slice and dice. I do half of the onions sliced and half chopped, because I will be using them for recipes that call for sliced onion, and some that call for chopped onion.

4. Put onion onto a baking sheet, or a stone, and pop into the freezer. Leave in the freezer for about 2 hours or so. This step is actually crucial because if you leave this step out all of your onion will freeze together in one big clump and will result in your not being able to use a small portion at a time.
Once it is frozen you can bag it and store it in your freezer until you are ready to use it for a recipe. Cooks great, and you will be so glad you took the time to do this the next time you need an onion chopped.