by Texas Homesteader ~
You’re preparing onions and push aside the tough neck and hard-to-cut bottom sections you’ve trimmed off. But give those tough trimmings another look before you toss them away.
There might still be a way to put these previously wasted onion parts to good use…
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I had too many onions and used as many as I could fresh. But I also wanted to make sure they didn’t go bad before I could use them all.
So I was chopping some of the fresh onions for the freezer. It’s convenient to have chopped onions as close as my freezer to simply toss into any recipe.
As I was trimming the onions I’d tossed aside the tough neck parts & the hard-to-chop dense section on the bottom where the roots once were. Those trimmings were destined for the compost bucket. That’s because these tougher parts of the onion are not really useful in cooking.
Or ARE they??
What if the trimmings were dried & ground into a powder instead? Then they would no longer be tough but still be full of flavor. Hummmm…
Ways To Dehydrate Tough Onion Trimmings
I took all the tough trimmings that I’d set aside and removed the papery thin outer coverings. Then I chopped the remaining more fleshy onion trimmings roughly.
There are a few ways I dehydrate trimmings for seasoning our food:
Dehydrator – If you have enough trimmings you can use a *Home Dehydrator to dehydrate them. Depending upon how small you’ve chopped your trimmings you can dehydrate them anywhere from 2 to 7 hours.
Air Dry – If I’ve chopped the pieces small enough and scattered them where they’re not touching I can just air dry these pieces right there in the comal over the next several days. I simply fluff the pieces occasionally with my fingers as I pass by and they dry on their own for free.
Residual Oven Heat – Sometimes I use the residual heat of the oven to my advantage to dry the onion trimmings faster. I put that comal holding my onion trimmings into a still-hot but turned off oven and the residual heat dried them quickly. Sometimes I still need to air-dry them for a short amount of time afterwards to make sure they’re thoroughly dry. But it’s faster & it’s FREE!
Grinding Dried Onion Into Onion Powder
Back in ‘the day’ I used to buy onion powder for convenience in adding onion flavor to different dishes. But using this procedure I haven’t bought the commercial stuff in years.
When my onion pieces are completely dry I toss them into an *electric coffee grinder that I bought just for this purpose.
A few pulses of the coffee grinder button and the dried onion pieces are ground finely. Then voila – purple onion powder!
Just place the homemade onion powder into a repurposed spice bottle, slap on a label and BOOM!
I usually blend my homemade onion powders together regardless of the type of onion I’ve dehydrated – yellow, white or purple. But you can keep them separated if you prefer.
My ‘free’ homemade onion powder now stands at the ready to flavor my food whether pot roast, tex-mex tacos, beef stew, etc.
Not only is this flavorful seasoning free for me, but it’s just one more way to REDUCE FOOD WASTE. And you’ve gotta love that!
~TxH~
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Wow, what a great idea! I love getting extra use from food scraps. Thanks for sharing on the #WasteLessWednesday Blog Hop!
What a great idea, I do this with tomato skins. I never thought to do it with onions.
Great tip! Thank you for sharing with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays! 🙂
Saw this on Homesteader Hop and really love this idea! Thanks for sharing.
When we brought in our (nice, but not huge) harvest of red, yellow, and white onions this spring, we kept a few of the nicest of each variety for fresh eating. Then, we chopped and froze most of the larger ones. The smallest ones were sliced thin and put of the dehydrator. When they were dry, my sister, who loves to do repetitive things while chatting or watching TV, used her mortar and pestle to break them up. We put the larger pieces (onion flakes) and the powder into separate re-used bottles. I think the three varieties mixed together give a deeper flavor. Mixed colors look great, too.
The tough parts go into my “onion butt bags” along with carrot peelings and ends, celery tops, etc. for making stock.
Waste not; want not!
Wow, we’ve been composting ours, but I will have to try this in the future! What a great idea!
Howdy, TMH, from down south-central Texas 🙂 If I don’t have a grinder, will a food processor or blender work for this? Just found you yesterday and lovin your site already ! 🙂 What a beautiful place you have! A little corner of God’s country <3
Well HOWDY Cynthia! I can’t say whether a food processor or blender would work – I’d think it’d greatly depend upon the power of your appliance and the quantity of your dehydrated food. You might give it a shot & let us know how it works for you! ~TxH~
I love this! Pinning it.
Love this idea! pinned it. Congrats on your You’re Gonna Love It feature.
Your awesome hack was the most clicked link this week! You’re being featured this afternoon! Thanks so much for sharing at You’re gonna love it!
Great idea-will use this one.
The paper thin outer shell of the yellow onions make a great dye for Easter eggs – the look like wooden eggs-never tried the red onions – but will try it.
I’ve heard onions make a great dye material Harriett, although I’d never tried it before. Thanks for the tip! ~TxH~
That is pure genius . . .what a smart girl you are 🙂
WOW, Thanks for sharing this!! I usually use all my veggie “throw away” parts for veggie broth. But I am going to try this next time I have an onion peel. 🙂
Awesome idea on grinding up the remains
Can also Grow new Onions from the otherwise Discarded Onion Root Bottoms
OOOOH, good point Colleen! Although most of my store-bought onions already have the roots hacked off, my garden onions certainly haven’t. Wonder if onions will still regrow with hacked-back roots – perhaps I’ll have to give it a test. Thanks for the tip! ~TxH~
YES, they will! I tried them first in the edge of a flowerpot which is also a temporary home for a 2 ‘ avocado seedling.