I love them and each year make sure I have enough onion sets to plant some to use specifically as scallions throughout the summer months.
To me, they have a fresher, sweeter and milder flavor than a regular onion, although they can be pungent. I suspect this might happen because of slightly unfavorable growing conditions such as too little water being available while they're developing.
The green stalks can be chopped and used, as well as the white part, lending a lot of color to many dishes. Chop them and add to tossed salads, they add flavor and color to cold pasta salads or a potato salad, use them as a garnish, put then in with cooked greens or on a raw veggie tray with dip. We like them chopped over a small dish of homemade cottage cheese with some salt and pepper. Mmmm, good. The possibilities are endless. Matter of fact, at this time of year, my storage onions from last season have usually disappeared (been used up) so I use scallions for all my onion cooking needs until the fall harvest of the new storage onions.
My parents didn't garden when I was growing up, but my grandpa had a huge garden and kept us supplied with various vegetables all summer long. He brought us scallions, or green onions as he called them, and my mom would serve them whole almost as a second vegetable at meal time. My dad loved them, would add salt and munch happily away on several of them.
Of course, ones straight out of your garden are tastier than ones purchased in the store. They take up little space to grow and you can make succession plantings of them so they're available all summer long.
Do you use scallions? If not, why not try 'em? I'm betting you'll like 'em!
17 comments:
I do, but I can leave mine in the ground all winter, so I only dig up the entire plant if they become overgrown. They spread like crazy. I snip the tops and freeze them for winter.
Kristina - You're really making my brain cells work today! I wonder if you're talking about some other member of the onion family. Scallions don't spread (that I know of), but Egyptian Onions or Walking Onions do. What kind do you have?
Green tops of any member of the onion family could be frozen and used the way I use my frozen chives, that's for sure! They'd even have more flavor.
This is something I've never had much success with and I really need to improve if I want to think about market gardening next year. In fact I'm not great with any alliums really, Need to triple my amounts to just meet my needs really. We call them spring onions mainly over here.
I save all my scallion ends to try to re-grow them but have only had success a time or 2. Love them though. Especially good in twice baked potatoes & potato casserole.
Kev - Yes, I've heard them called spring onions, too. I'm surprised you have trouble growing alliums. Do you think it's your particular climate??
DFW - Oh, yes, in twice baked potatoes! I also put them in scrambled eggs, but maybe some people don't like onions as a breakfast food!
I don't like green onions, but at least now I know what scallions are!
I love them! I try to "over-plant" so that I have plenty. I snip up the tops and freeze them - mostly because I forget to snip and freeze my chives....
Michelle - Now you can say you don't like scallions! ;o)
Susan - Yep, I've done that, too . . . thinned my storage onions when they look a bit crowded.
Love onions for breakfast (if cooked thoroughly) especially in breakfast casseroles.
Yes, in cottage cheese. I usually chop and then stir them in. Good eating. My family prefers that to chives.
Myrna - They do have a bit more flavor than chives without being over-powering. I'm thinking I'm going to make a cottage cheese salad for lunch today with chopped, raw veggies . . . and scallions, of course!
Hi Mama Pea :)) I love green onions, that's what we call them here. I planted some in the spring and they are growing nicely! I have to figure out when I can harvest them, the tops aren't quite as thick as I thought they'd be though, they are at the thick "chive phase" as I call it! We prefer these to white onions as well, but you're right, they can be pungent at times. I can't wait to try my home grown ones though.
My success is chives. I cannot, for the life of me, grow onions. Of any kind. They always turn yellow and die away before anything forms. Yours look absolutely lovely!
Rain - I judge when my scallions (green onions!) are ready to pick when the bit of white showing above the soil is about as big around as I want it to be. Sounds like yours are a wee small yet.
MrsDM - Onions are so easy for me that I'm always surprised when I hear others (and there seem to be a lot of "others!") can't grow them. Wish I knew what to suggest . . .
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