Hello!
We're Mei & Irene.
We're here to make your life more delicious and creative and help you stop throwing out food. Thanks for joining us on our mission to reduce food waste!
We're here to make your life more delicious and creative and help you stop throwing out food. Thanks for joining us on our mission to reduce food waste!
Chives are also a member of the allium family, but typically used more like an herb. Check out the Fresh Herbs page, or treat it similarly to a scallion.
The majority of onions and garlic that you find at the supermarket are 'cured', which means they've been dried for storage. These bulbs, with papery skins and no green parts, can last for a long time somewhere dry, dark and cool with a bit of air - don't leave them in plastic bags where moisture can gather. Once an onion or a garlic clove has been peeled, store in a sealed container in the fridge. Alliums with green stalks - year-round ones like scallions and leeks, or seasonal spring favorites like ramps and green garlic - can be stored in the fridge, loosely tucked into a bag.
Onions and garlic with green sprouts can still be eaten; remove the onion shoot before using, but the garlic shoot can be eaten. Even if the outer layers of onions are brown or bruised, you can discard them until you find an untouched layer. Dried or yellowed or limp scallions are still fair game - my favorite way to use them up is in Ginger Scallion Oil or sauteed in Bread Pudding.
All parts of the allium are flavorful, so save your onion ends and your garlic skins and leek stalks in a bag in the fridge or freezer for Vegetable Stock. And please - don't waste your scallion greens! In Chinese cooking, scallion greens are an essential ingredient; I didn't realize until cooking with friends in college that people actually discard scallion greens sometimes. I just ignore recipes where it says scallion white only and add the greens, or use them thinly sliced as a garnish. We'll have more recipes coming soon that use up all parts of the Allium!
Alliums are incredibly versatile in cooking - they can be slow cooked and mellow, acting as supporting flavor for more prominent ingredients, or they can be in-your-face and in charge with a raw and aggressive bite. They also go with just about everything - all the Hero Recipes welcome allium in just about any form - raw, pickled, charred, roasted, or sauteed.
