Storing onions: is it possible to put them in the freezer?
An ingredient used in thousands of recipes, onions - be they white, yellow or red - can be found in most kitchens and are readily available all year round.
So, what can you do if you've inadvertently bought too many: how can you store and preserve them? Is it possible, for example, to freeze onions? The answer is yes - but only if you do it in a certain way.
Onions in the freezer: what you need to know
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Storing onions in a freezer is possible, and will allow you to keep them for up to 6 months.
To do this, however, you need to be aware of the following:
- It is not recommended to freeze onions whole, cut in half or sliced into large chunks. This is due to the softness they take on while defrosting and how difficult they will be to cut up. One way around this is to blanch your onions (ie. onions scalded in boiling water briefly, removed and then plunged into iced water), then freeze them and then let them defrost very slowly before using them. That said, this is an unnecessarily complicated operation and the results are not always guaranteed.
- A better method is to first cut up your onions into thin rings or, better still, chop them up. Coarsely chopped onions will freeze quicker and preserve for longer.
How to freeze onions
Krzysztof Golik/Wikimedia Commons
If you want to freeze raw onions, chop them up roughly. At this point, you can either:
- Place them in airtight bags or containers (not too large) suitable for the freezer, and freeze them like this, or;
- Spread the onions out on a baking tray or cutting board, so that they are in a single layer allowing (as best as possible) each piece to be frozen "individually". Only once frozen should you put these individual pieces into an airtight bag.
The second method, whilst a little more laborious, makes it easier to take out only the amount of onions needed for a particular dish.
Sealing the bagged, frozen onions in another air-tight container is also a good idea. This will prevent any "oniony" odors escaping and contaminating any nearby food in the freezer.
Again, you can blanch or caramelize onions first and then freeze them so that they are ready for use after defrosting. Try to only defrost as much as you need for your dish, as the "golden rule" of frozen items applies: once something has been defrosted, it should not be frozen again. If you defrost too many onions for your needs, toss the excess into your organic waste container/composter.
