How to Prep Spring Onions

How to Prep Spring Onions, brought to you by Wüsthof.

Inspired by conversations on the Food52 Hotline, we're sharing tips and tricks that make navigating all of our kitchens easier and more fun.

Today: 4 ways to handle spring's mild, pleasantly muted onions.

Onions are indispensable -- they're the start to most good things, once they turn quietly sweet and translucent. They also happen to be a great scapegoat for mid-prep crying. (Yes, we've all done it.) 

Spring, though, brings onions that are spared their punky, raucous adolescence. They're a softer expression of the allium family -- calmer, milder. And it all makes perfect sense: a spring onion is just an onion that is harvested before adulthood, sometimes earlier. Best of all? You can prep them without shedding a tear. (If you've had a bad day, reach for a full-grown onion instead.) Here's how.

More: Another spring vegetable to prep, slice, and chop? Asparagus.

Wash the onions under running water to free them of dirt and grit, and then trim the root end (but only the very, very end -- every last bit of white packs a lot of flavor). If you're braising or grilling them whole, just trim off the top-most inch of the greens, and you're done.

Since you can use spring onions where you would scallions in most dishes, the prep is nearly the same. Slice them thinly crosswise for adding to a salad, or a vinaigrette. If you're using them in a stir-fry, cut them on the bias. 

To prep the greens, just slice them crosswise using your meanest knife skills. The thinner the better for garnishing something like miso soup, but if they're going into puréed soup or scallion pancakes, slice with reckless abandon. No guest will be the wiser. 

Photos by James Ransom

This article was brought to you by Wüsthof.