How to Freeze Green Onions / Scallions

In this post I share my easy steps for how to freeze green onions / scallions for use later. It takes no time at all and there’s no special equipment needed. Freezing green onions saves money since you’re not throwing away good food and you’ll always have delicious green onions on-hand for your favorite dishes. If you like all of these things, please read on! 🙂

Green onions add fresh flavor and a vibrant pop of color to our foods and many recipes call for them. Most of the time, it’s just 1 or 2 green onions. We buy a bunch, use just a few and the rest goes bad because they have such a short life span. In about a week’s time, these long-stemmed onions get soggy in the refrigerator and we end-up throwing them out. (I always feel so guilty throwing out food.)

Easy Steps for Freezing Green Onions / Scallions

The next time you have a leftover bunch of green onions, here’s what you do to freeze them.

1) Wash and trim the onions as you would for any recipe.

2) Chop or cut the onions the way you most use them. For me, it’s just a rough chop of the white root and the green stems.

3) Transfer the chopped onions onto a large baking pan. Spread out into an even layer.

4) Put the pan into the freezer and chill for 1 hour.

After this time, the green onions will be frosty but not completely frozen.

5) Transfer the partially frozen onions into a resealable plastic bag or storage container and seal well. Store in the freezer until you need them.

Why do you need to do the pre-freeze step? If you just put the chopped green onions into a bag and freeze, they would clump together into one big chunk. Later when you need just a bit, you would have to break the chunk apart with a rolling pin. The pre-freezing prevents the onions from all sticking together. Do you like my trick? 🙂

The next time you need a handful of green onions, simply scoop out what you need and return the rest to the freezer. Easy peasy!

Additional Notes

I like to always have a small amount of green onions to add to soups and stir-fries, so I make these little bundles for single use. With these small packages, you don’t need to pre-freeze. Just wrap up the chopped green onions and pop in the freezer.

If there’s a sale at your market, this is a wonderful time to stock up and freeze the onions. These green onions are from my garden and more than I could possibly eat before they go bad. I froze these beautiful onions and will enjoy them later when it’s too cold to grow them.

Frozen green onions are moist once thawed. You’ll want to use these onions in dishes like stir-fries and soups–where crispness isn’t required as in salads. For dishes that require crisp green onions, use the fresh ones.

Use the scallions within 6 months of freezing for best flavor.

If you enjoy this How to Freeze Green Onions / Scallions post, you may also like:

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How to Roast Sesame Seeds

Here are some yummy recipes to enjoy your frozen green onions:

Instant Pot Egg Meatloaf
(Cha Trung)

Sauteed Summer Corn and Fresh Shrimp
(Bap Xao Tom)

Spinach and Shrimp Balls Soup
(Canh Rau Spinach voi Tom Vien)

Tools I Love and Use in My Kitchen