Ice Cold...Onions?

We are overrun with onions at our house. It happens easily since none of us eat raw onions. Needless to say I have to find a way to preserve these things. Even though we don’t eat them raw I do enjoy cooking with them, so I don’t want them to go to waste. I’ve decided that the best way to store this batch of onions is going to be freezing them. Freezing is a great way to make sure I’ll have onions up until time to get fresh ones from my garden again. After freezing I have heard they aren’t good to eat raw due to the change in texture but I’ve never tried them myself so I’m just passing on what I’ve heard. But they are great to cook with so here we go, freezing away.

First thing you do is wash and peel the onions. Then just chop them into the size you use most often when cooking. Typically I will dice mine pretty small because I don’t care to bite into a huge chunk of onion when I’m eating. Obviously this is purely a personal choice.

Next, cover a baking sheet with waxed paper and spread your onions out into a single layer. You can also use aluminum foil if you prefer. Then just pop them in the freezer for several hours. Freezing them flat like this first will keep you from winding up with a huge glob when you want to cook with them. Also since I will be freezing mine using my Foodsaver they need to be frozen before I vacuum pack them to keep the water from being drawn out of the onions and into my vacuum sealer compartment.

Once they are completely frozen, I just measure out the amount I want and put them in my Foodsaver bags. I measured out ½ cup for each of my bags since that seems to be the amount my recipes call for most often. Doesn’t that look nice and handy? Now whenever I’m making spaghetti or tacos I can just grab a pre-measured bag out of the freezer and I’m ready to go.

We’re also starting to have an abundance of jalapeño peppers, so now all I need is for my tomatoes to take off and to find a great salsa recipe. Any suggestions? If you have a tried and true salsa recipe I'd love to hear it.