Ever have too many onions on hand? It happens to all of us, but the good news is that there’s an easy way around it. Did you know that frozen onions store well and are easy to use in any cooked recipe? Our friend Pam Farley of Brown Thumb Mama has a wealth of awesome kitchen tips and tricks and turned us on to this surplus onion strategy.

How to Freeze Your Onions

• Peel and cut onions to whatever size you like. We prefer a large dice since you can always chop them up smaller later. Onion Tip: If your hands smell like onions after chopping, rinse with water and then rub a drop of lemon essential oil on your hands. It’s good for your nails too!
• Put your chopped onions in a thin layer on a baking pan or freezer-safe dish, but don’t pile them up too deep. (When the frozen onions are in a nice shallow layer, you can easily free them from the pan and break up any chunks with a fork.)
• Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and freeze for several hours to overnight.
• Store your onions in a Stasher bag and keep them in the freezer. Because they’re already frozen when you store them, they won’t stick together and you can measure out whatever you need for your recipe.

How to Use Frozen Onions

Frozen onions are perfect for use in soups, stews, sauteeing with vegetables – just about any cooked application. You don’t even have to thaw them! Onion Tip: Freezing changes their texture, so we don’t recommend using frozen onions in fresh dishes like salsa or potato salad.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from Pam of Brown Thumb Mama!