Everything You Need to Know About Drying Green Onions in the Oven

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Whether you’re growing green onions in your garden or you have too many from the store, you can extend their life by drying them! Drying green onions takes minimal effort and a little time to restock your spice cupboard from scratch. Follow these to learn how to dry green onions without a dehydrator.

Can you dry green onions?

Absolutely! Just like other members of the allium family (think garlic, onions, and shallots), green onions are great dehydrated or dried.

Why would you want to dry green onions?

This is the real question, right? Most of us are not used to seeing green onion powder on our grocery store shelves. It’s not an ingredient we grew up with!

I first tried green onion powder at a local farmers market years ago. It seemed kind of unnecessary, like…I already have dried onion powder.

But dried green onions and dried onion powder are totally different products! They taste very different.

Dried green onions have a light onion flavor and taste more like an herb.

You can keep them in flakes or blitz them into a powder using your food processor. Either option is totally delicious!

I don’t have a dehydrator. Can I dry green onions in my oven?

Yes! That’s why I wanted to write this post in the first place. You don’t always have to have a dehydrator to dehydrate foods. Your oven can do a great job, too!

Dehydrating green onions is easy! Simply follow the instructions below. It takes more time than effort, I promise.

How to Dry Green Onions Without a Dehydrator

Learn how to dry green onions in your oven. It’s an easy way to preserve green onions, especially in the springtime!

Equipment required

• Baking tray
• Silicone line or parchment paper
• Scissors

Ingredients

Any amount of green onions!

To fill a spice jar, you’ll need to dry about 6-10 green onions.

Drying green onions in the oven

1. Turn on your oven to the lowest setting. For most, this will be around 170 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Prepare your baking tray by putting a sheet of parchment paper on top.
3.  Rinse your green onions and pick away any decaying sections.
4. Using your scissors, cut the green leaves of the green onion directly over the sheet tray. Cut pieces that are no larger than 1 cm. If you want to dry the white portion as well, cut it as thinly as possible.
5. Feel free to make a smaller batch or to cut more green onions to fill the tray. Be sure to leave some space between the pieces for air to circulate.
6. Place the tray in your oven. Consider cracking the door open by sticking a wooden spoon between the door and the oven. Green onions dehydrate best around 100 degrees.
7. Every hour, stir the green onion pieces to ensure even drying.
8. Allow the green onions to dry all the way. This may take 3 hours or more.
9. You can tell the onions are dry if they crumble when pressed.
10. Fold one side of the parchment paper over the other and press down on the paper to break the green onion pieces into small flakes.You can also press them in your hand or loosely crush them with a mortar and pestle.
11. Allow the greens to cool completely and store in an airtight container.

How to store dehydrated green onions

Once the dried greens are fully dried and cooled, you can store them in an airtight container. Just like other spices, they will last for months! Our dried celery and green onions have actually lasted us for years.

FAQs about drying green onions

How to Make Green Onion Powder

Once you’ve dried your green onions, you have a couple of choices about how to store them.

• Store your dried green onions as large flakes.
• Break them down into a powder.

To store them as a powder, simply pour all of your dried green onions into your food processor. Pulse until they create a fine powder. You could hand crush them in your mortar and pestle instead. Store in an airtight jar or bottle. 

How to Make Dried Green Onion Flakes

Instead of pulsing or crushing your dehydrated green onions into a powder, rough crush them.

Try folding your parchment paper in half with the dried green onions inside. Press down on the paper with the heel of your palm until your green onions are flakes. Store in an airtight jar.

Can I dry the whites of the onion?

You definitely can! The whites of the onion will give your green onion powder a nice bite. f you dry the greens and the whites together, the greens will typically dry faster.

You can avoid this issue by cutting the white portion of the green onion thinly. Another option is to remove the dried green onion portions when they are done and allow the whites to stay in the oven longer.

Some people like to dry the whites and greens separately. They save the greens for green onion powder and they use the whites like regular onion powder!

How do you cut green onions?

I know this might seem like a silly question, but have you ever noticed how hard it is to cut the greens of green onions with a knife? You think you’re running the blade all the way through only to notice that the pieces are still stuck together.

My favorite way to cut green onions is to use a pair of kitchen scissors!

Hold the greens together by pressing down on them with your thumb. Then, trim the greens directly into your container.

No more pieces of green onion stuck together!

I use the scissors to cut all the way down until the color changes to a lighter green. Then, I use a regular butcher knife to slice the onion into rounds.

If you notice the whites sticking together as you cut, you may want to remove the thinnest outer layer of the green onion.

What are the best types of green onions for drying?

I love this question! As a home gardener, I like to get into the specifics about which types to grow. Another question I’m often asked is if you can dry any types of onion or if they have to be scallions.

You’ll love this easy answer: you can dry any onion greens. (Red, yellow, white, scallions, storage onions, sweet onions, etc).

The only thing you need to know is that the greens still need to be fresh. The perkier, the better! This is best done with the onions are still young as the greens can start to dry out and thicken as the plants age. Do not dehydrate green onions that are going bad and I wouldn’t recommend processing green onions that have onion rust or other problems.

The best dried green onion powder comes from sweet onions though. Think Alisa Craig or Vidalia. All of that sweetness gives the green onion powder even more flavor and dimension. They’re absolutely delicious!

We love to plant onion sets or starts in the spring. They’re a great plant for beginner gardeners! We plant them really close to each other…like 2-3 inches apart. The little plants will grow quickly and we pull out the fastest growers to eat as spring onions. This gives the other plants a little more space to grow.

How long does it take to dehydrate green onions in the oven?

This depends on your oven, but it typically takes about 3-5 hours to dehydrate green onions in oven. Don’t rush the process. You want to dry green onions at the lowest temperature possible. For home ovens, that’s usually 170 degrees.

We like to crack the door open during this time to make sure the green onions are drying at the lowest temperature possible. 

How do you dehydrate scallions in the oven?

Simply trim your green onions into 1 cm pieces and dry them on a sheet tray in the oven for 3-5 hours. Use the lowest oven temperature possible and consider cracking the door.

What is the best way to preserve green onions?

There are several great ways to preserve green onions! My favorite is to dehydrate green onions to use for cooking later.

• We also love to make this green onion salt.
• You can even trim the green onion whites into pieces and freeze them for later.
• Make green onion pesto! It has some bite but is so incredibly tasty.

Related Recipes

If you loved learning how to dehydrate green onions, you’ll love these other food preservation projects!

• Dill Salt
• Green Onion Salt
• Chive Blossom Butter
• Sour Cream and Chive Dip
• Garlic Scape Butter
• Spicy Garlic Sauerkraut

Did you enjoy drying green onions?

Come back and let us know what you think! I hope you learned how to dry onions without a dehydrator and had a great experience. Share your story in the comments!