Several years ago, I bartered some seeds with a gardener in Washington State for some Egyptian Walking Onion bulblets. I have them growing here and there in odd corners of the yard, but their main bed is in a narrow area that borders the driveway in the front yard. As you can tell, they share the bed with three fruit trees from left to right – an orange, a persimmon, and a tangerine. I planted them and have pretty much ignored them and yet, they prosper! Definitely my kind of plant. And although they are recommended for full sun, they seem quite happy in the filtered sun they get through the canopy of the fruit trees. I’m guessing they are especially happy for that filtered light when we get several triple digit days in a row during our Summer months!
Here in Central California, Egyptian Walking Onions are a perennial. I mainly treat them as green onion, although I’ve heard you can pickle the tiny little red bulblets. But honestly, who has time to laboriously peel the cute little things?!? This year, I absolutely had to pay them some attention. The bed is far too densely planted but not because of any help on my part! They freely multiply themselves – consider them the allium version of a tribble.
So, what to do with the things? I gathered an armful and headed to the kitchen.
First they needed to be cleaned and sorted:
To the left are the smaller, most tender shoots which I finely chopped and stored for use on our daily green salads for the week. In the middle are the tougher, older shoots. While these can be used as fresh green onions, they are stronger tasting and tougher to chew, so I tend to chop these and freeze them for use in casseroles, scrambled eggs, and stews. I like to have at least a gallon or two in the freezer for this purpose. To the far right are the “bulbs” and the tougher green stems. They are slender like a shallot but I feel they really need to be cooked to be edible. While you can freeze them to help break down the fibers, I like to quickly blanch them, throw them in the dehydrator, and then grind them up to use as powdered onions.
The armful I cleaned today allows for about two trays of the white ends, and then the remaining trays were filled with unblanched sections of greens from the middle section. What doesn’t fit in the dehydrator heads off to the freezer:
The dehydrated onions from 2 weeks ago finally made it to the coffee grinder I reserve exclusively for spices. Six cups of dehydrated onions make about one cup of powdered onions. I love using this powder in my homemade ranch dressing and my spinach dip, but it does lose it’s potency after about six months so grind it in small amounts and store it in a dark cupboard. My suggestion is to grind up what you can use in that time and store the remaining dehydrated onions without grinding them. They will last about two years if stored in a cool, dark cupboard.
Now, time to rinse and repeat the above process about 5 more times!
Closing tips:
By the way, the green lid on top of the jar is from a parmesan cheese container. The screw on lid will fit the top of a small mouth canning jar and has two tabs: one for shaking product out and one for pouring large amounts. These lids are perfect for spices!
Also, please note the classy painter’s tape label on my jar. I sterilize and reuse my jars over and over. I even have jars that belonged to my Grandmother! But one thing that drives me absolutely bonkers are adhesive labels that won’t wash off. Painter’s tape peels right off with no scrubbing. Perfect for someone who doesn’t want to spend hours with a scrub brush and a bottle of Goo Gone!