Too many onions?

May 24, 2025 by
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There is a glut of onions right now in the US (and in India, too). Due to a combination of bountiful harvests and a dip in demand, the supply of onions is currently high. That should, in theory, lead to lower prices for consumers. I have not seen super bargains in my neck of the woods, but in other areas onion prices have apparently plummeted. While this is a headache for growers and wholesalers, it is a boon for consumers.

Onions keep fairly well, but as I discovered once when I bought a 50-pound bag of onions at Costco, they do not last forever. To take advantage of bargain prices without wasting any of the product, there are ways to prep onions and keep them for longer periods, providing you have some room in the freezer. The first and most obvious way is to caramelize them. Since most of the water cooks off (and onions are mainly made of water), the volume will decrease significantly, and caramelized onions freeze beautifully.

You can also freeze chopped onions, which can make it easy to get started on dinner. The keys to successfully freezing onions are to make sure to store them in heavy-duty plastic bags or containers so they don’t leach odors into your other frozen items, and to freeze them in a way to allow yourself to pull out just the amount you need. That could mean storing in a thin layer in a freezer bag, layering amounts of onion between freezer paper in a container, or freezing a single layer of onions on a sheet pan and then scraping the frozen onions into your freezer container.

The last way is a DIY IQF (individually quick frozen) method that I like to use for almost anything I freeze. The only issue when you do it with onions is the odor, but if you have snap on lids for your sheet pans it should not be an issue (look for the lids at restaurant supply stores – they are one of the best purchases I ever made for my kitchen).

If you have a dehydrator you could also dehydrate the onions and make a homemade onion powder. However, that is best if you can put the dehydrator somewhere outside of your living area unless you want your entire home to be permeated with an onion odor. I have not tried to dehydrate onions for that very reason, but if you have tips based on your experience, I would love to hear them.

Category: Antipasto

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3 Comments

  • Fyretigger  on  May 25, 2025

    I’ve been using Souper Cubes silicone trays for this sort of freezing for years. Apropos of the onions glut, one of the things in do periodically is make a big batch of mire poix all at once — 4 pounds of onions, 2 pounds each of carrots and celery and that cooks down to about 12 cups of mire poix, which I freeze in 1 cup portions which then get transferred to gallon freezer bags, 8 to a bag. I do the same with sautéd mushrooms in half cup portions. It’s nice having a library of ingredients in the freezer — makes quick dinners a breeze.

    • Darcie  on  May 26, 2025

      I wish I were that organized! #cookinggoals

  • averythingcooks  on  May 26, 2025

    I freeze & can onions (and all their cousins) in lots of ways. Pickled onions, caramelized red onion relish, onion-garlic jam & pickled garlic are current home canned favourites getting heavy use from last year’s gardens. I also chop/freeze onions & shallots when my counters are overflowing, cook leeks down in butter to freeze in “1 leek” portions and have done the mire poix / soffrito thing to freeze in smaller portions. Caramelized onions are another freezer stash so great to have on hand but another favourite thing to do is to carry those on to our favourite French onion soup to be frozen in single serving portions. It’s a great feeling to pull those out for however many you are serving and doing the bread / cheese thing at the last minute for a wonderful winter (or really any season!) dinner. I am also a BIG “souper cube” fan and have all the sizes from 1 tbsp up to 2 cups.

    I have a dehydrator and regularly dry cayenne, de Arbol and Fresno chiles but have never tried onions …..this year for sure. The dehydrator runs in our bunkie (or more truthfully, home of our ping pong table) with the windows wide open 🙂

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