Sprouting Onions

[StirBlue]

This year I was very surprised to find my onions had green sprouts growing from them. I had purchased them on a Monday and found the sprouts on Friday. Knowing that potato eyes are poisonous, I felt these sprouts might be the same. Does anyone know for sure?

 

[auntdot]

To my knowledge they are just fine to eat, although sprouting onions are older onions and the taste may have degraded a bit.

 

[YT2095]

eat them

(or plant them in the garden, they will grow and give you 3 or 4 more new onions in about 6+ months).

 

[VeraBlue]

The onions are just old...you can eat them, but you more than likely won't find them as flavourful as you'd expect. You may have seen the same thing happen with older garlic with the same results.

I'd mention this to the produce manager where you purchased the onions. Either someone is not rotating the stock, or they are purchasing much more than they can sell quickly.

 

[Uncle Bob]

One other thing about sprouting onions...Ever notice that you see this(mostly) in the spring of the year....Mother nature at work...also they are old crop.

 

[BreezyCooking]

The onion "sprouts" are perfectly safe to eat. You can use them just as you would scallions. In fact, that's exactly what scallions are - onion sprouts from a type of onion that doesn't develop a large underground bulb.

As far as using the onion - that's fine too. However, just like garlic, you might want to cut out & discard what will most likely be a green center, as that can be somewhat bitter. The rest of the onion is fine to use.