How to Freeze Onions in 5 Steps

You can freeze onions for later use. Freezing onions can be a valuable food preservation option. Chopping onions in advance and freezing them will save you meal prep time, especially when preparing a weeknight dinner. You can buy a bag of onions in bulk at the grocery store and chop and freeze them for future use in soups, stews, ground meat mixtures, and stir fry. Frozen onions will retain flavor for three to six months.

Freezing chopped, diced, or caramelized onions does not require thawing before use. Follow the tutorial below to freeze any chopped, diced, or caramelized onions, including yellow onions, white onions, red onions, shallots, and green onions.

1. 1. Prepare the onions. Peel and cut the onions. Using a sharp knife, slice, chop, or dice the onions on a cutting board. (You can also dice the onions using a food processor.) To prevent yourself from crying while chopping onions, leave the root end intact when you're chopping. Sulfur in the root end of onions causes tears, cut into the root at the very end of the chopping process.
2. 2. Salvage the good parts. Discard any parts of the onion that have decayed and feature mushy or brown spots.
3. 3. Place onions in freezer bags. Portion the chopped onions in one or several freezer bags. Press the air out of the plastic bags to prevent freezer burn, and arrange the onion pieces in a single layer to keep the onions from sticking together.
4. 4. Use an airtight container. You can also store onions in freezer containers. Place chopped, diced, or caramelized onions in thin layers between plastic wrap before placing them in a container.
5. 5. Put onions in an ice cube tray. You can also freeze chopped, caramelized, or diced onions in individual ice cube trays and then put the frozen cubes into a freezer bag. This method makes it easy to portion out the onions for use later.

You can freeze whole onions for use in recipes that call for whole onions. If a recipe calls for chopped onions, you will need to wait for the frozen whole onions to thaw before chopping. Follow these steps to freeze whole onions:

1. 1. Prepare the onions. Peel the onions and remove any brown or soft spots.
2. 2. Blanch the onions. Blanch the whole onions for three to seven minutes in boiling water, depending on the size of the onion. Blanching prevents the center of the onion from browning and decaying.
3. 3. Place onions in an ice water bath. Transfer the whole onions to an ice water bath. Dry them before placing them in a freezer bag or airtight container, or lay them flat on a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Frozen whole onions will retain their flavor for three to six months.

You can use frozen onions in any recipe that requires sautéing onions, such as soups, stews, ground beef mixtures, and stir fry dishes. You can also flour frozen slices of onions to make onion rings.

Frozen onions will lose their crunchiness, so you should not use frozen onions in recipes that call for raw onions. Frozen onions are not ideal for caramelizing since they will not brown as fresh onions will.

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