Home | Knife Skills | How To Cut Green Onions

How To Cut Green Onions

You are going to learn how to cut green onions. These onions are great for a light onion flavor and a great addition to all kinds of dishes.

You might be wondering if you eat the entire onion, do you eat the white part? People also wonder if green onions are scallions and the answer is yes.

They are the same and they are called both.

Now don’t be afraid to cut up the entire green onion. The entire onion is edible and you get the benefit of a stronger flavor with the white part and more of a mellow flavor with the greener part of the onion.

How to cut green onions video

4 Steps on Cutting Green Onions

Green onions being cut on a cutting board

These 4 simple steps are going to yield you a sliced onion that you can use on all kinds of your dishes. Prepare yourself with a knife and a cutting board.

Follow these steps and then learn how to store green onions.

If you enjoy onions then you should also learn how to cut yellow onions because it is a completely different process.

Sharp knife

Showing the sharp blade of the knife.

You want to make sure that your knife is sharp so it will be up to the task. You want to be able to cut the green onion with more of a slicing action so are keeping the cut clean.

Rinse green onions

Washing green onions in the sink with cold water

Go ahead and rinse the green onions to get dirt and whatever else could be on them from the farm. After you rinse them shake them out to get rid of the excessive water.

Cut the ends

Cutting the ends of a green onion off on a cutting board.

Bunch the green onions together. Cut the ends off of the green onions. I like to cut them while I am holding the entire bunch. This will help give you a uniform slice as you cut the onions.

Watch the entire process on video, how to cut green onions.

Cut into slices

Cut up green onions on a cutting board.

Grab the entire bunch and start to cut the onions. You want to cut them in a slicing motion with a pull or push cut.

You want a slicing action to prevent crushing the onion and those little circles that you are most likely going for.

After you cut the green onions you are going to have two different types. Go ahead and taste them to see what I am talking about. You can always freeze your green onions at this stage.

The white part will have a lot more of an onion flavor and the green part will be a lot lighter. You can use the white parts as you cook your dish and then the green for a garnish on top!

Sometimes you don’t want the full flavor of the green onion, I go over this in and you can learn the difference between chives and green onions.

Frequently Asked Questions about How to cut green onions

Most likely if it’s being added to a dish that is cooking it would be safe to say that you want to add the white part of the green onion.

If it is being used at the very end of a recipe most likely you will want the green part of the onion as it will be more of a garnish or an addition to add some color to the dish. An example of this would be fried rice.

You want to cook them as long as your dish needs. Think of the white part of the onion as a little bit lighter than its cousin the yellow onion or shallot. Treat them the same way but think of the size of the slice and how quickly it will cook.

The green part does not have a ton of flavor and you will want to focus on adding to a finished cooked dish or at the very end of the cooking of the recipe.

You can eat the green part and the white part of the onion. Really all of it is edible but the roots that you’re going to want to cut off.

Conclusion

Cutting green onions is a simple process that can be done in a few steps. By following these steps, you can ensure that your green onions are cut evenly and that they are ready to be used in a variety of dishes.

Online Cooking for Beginners Course

4 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Been cooking for 40 years and have always been confused about which part to use for what. Not anymore- thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *