What to Do with Sprouted Onion? Can We Eat It? We Tell You Everything!

Have you just noticed that the onions that have been hanging out in your cupboard for weeks have developed green stems at the top? Then your vegetables are trying to reproduce and have sprouted. How to handle them? Can we still eat them? What to do with sprouted onion? How to avoid the sprouting process? Our tips and tricks!

Can You Eat Sprouted Onion?

When onions are exposed to high humidity and insufficient air circulation, they will begin to sprout. That’s why we don’t recommend keeping them in the fridge. But, can you eat sprouted onion? Good news: you can consume it safely and thus avoid food waste since it does not contain any harmful toxins. Chef An Ziata explains that the sprout transforms sugar into energy to stimulate growth, which gives the onion a rather unpleasant bitter taste. It is therefore advisable to remove the sprouts and cook the onions.

When to discard sprouted onion?

When sprouted onion is dry or has mold, it’s best to discard it.

How to Prevent Onions from Sprouting?

To prevent the sprouting process, you need to know how to store onions properly. First, let’s reveal their enemies: humidity, heat and light. This trio encourages sprouting so you must put your vegetables in a dry, well-ventilated and dark place. Mesh bags are the preferred choice, as they provide good air circulation. On the other hand, avoid plastic bags at all costs since they reduce the life of onions. Do not store onions with apples and potatoes because they will spoil more quickly due to the gases released by the vegetable.

What to Do with Sprouted Onion?

If you forgot some onions in your cupboard and they sprouted, don’t panic! As explained above, you can use them without problem, but on the sole condition that they do not show signs of mold or rot.

Planting Sprouted Onion

If you’d like to create a small vegetable garden on your balcony, you can plant sprouted onion in a pot or container. In this way the young shoots will have the opportunity to continue their development and you could harvest them for aromatic use. Bear in mind that the bulb cannot regenerate. So plant the bulb 2/3 of the way up in a pot filled with potting soil and harvest the leaves after two weeks. Planting in open ground is also possible, but you will have to clean the weeds regularly.

Use Sprouted Vegetables in Cooking

As already noted, it is entirely possible to cook sprouted onions. Avoid eating them raw, as they taste too bitter. The main thing is to use them as quickly as possible since flavor and texture will continue to deteriorate. In terms of cooking, the method is the same as for unsprouted onions, but it is advisable to cook them with other ingredients whose flavor is quite strong. Using them for preparing onion soup is also not recommended.