Recipe Inspiration: Celebrating Scallions & Spring Onions in the Garden and Kitchen

And Tessa Kiros' Beautiful New Cookbook

Freshly harvested Red Candy Apple spring onions (and two supervisors)

Did you know that if you space your onions two inches apart rather than four when planting them in the garden, you'll be able to enjoy homegrown scallions and spring onions (which are simply young onions) with very little extra effort, and without taking up any extra space? That's my kind of gardening.

For more about growing onions, check out this post on In My Kitchen Garden, Growing Onions from Purchased Plants - Ordering and Planning, which also includes links to my other onion posts.

This spring I planted about 240 little purchased onion plants, and we've been scarfing up scallions for weeks. Thanks to all of you who offered up ideas for What To Do with 125 Scallions and Your Recipes and Favorite Ways to Use Green Onions back in 2008, I have all sorts of green onion inspiration.

More photos and recipe ideas below. . .

Wanted: Your Favorite Recipes & Ways to Use Green Onions (Scallions)

Just picked bounty from the Kitchen Garden

I'm in a bit of a pickle. Actually it's more of an onion - scallions to be exact. I remembered to double plant my onion sets in the kitchen garden this year so I could thin them out and reap a bonus crop of spring scallions, and my plan worked beautifully.

But despite my tossing extra scallions into pretty much everything except dessert for the last few days, I still have about 125 that really need to be harvested now.

There are a zillion recipes that include scallions - which are also called green onions - but these mild and tasty alliums never seem to be the star of the show. I thought I remembered seeing a delicious sounding recipe somewhere for stir-fried scallions (maybe with a teriyaki sauce?), but a quick online search resulted in lots of stir-fried things with scallions added to them, but no recipe for just the scallions themselves.

When I reported my scallion situation to my foodie pal Beth (aka kitchenMage), she suggested I toss a pile of them with some olive oil and then slow roast them in the oven at about 325° with some thinly sliced garlic. I haven't tried this yet, but I think the idea it has serious possibilities.


Aren't spring onions pretty?

When green onions begin to form bulbs they're called spring onions, or sometimes salad onions. I have plenty of those, too.

So what would you do if you were faced with an enormous quantity of gorgeous scallions and spring onions?

While I'd love to know any of your favorite ways to use them, I'm particularly interested in recipes that call for large quantities, like 10 - or even 40. You're welcome to leave recipe links from your own blog in the comments section. Thanks for the help!

Oh, and because I'm so desperate, I'm posting this plea on my kitchen garden blog as well, so if you're looking for more fresh scallion ideas (or want to see what they look like while still in the ground) check the comments section of Garden Journal Entry 6/7/08: What To Do with 125 Scallions?, which also includes links to some of my posts about growing your own onions.

Up next on Farmgirl Fare (well, probably after a Daily Dose of Cute or two) I'll be sharing my recipe for Swiss Chard Tuna Salad, a refreshing twist on the classic standby that calls for a healthy dose of Swiss Chard (one of the best vegetables you can grow from seed) along with plenty of scallions.

In the meantime, here are some of my other favorite ways to use them:
Sour Cream & Onion Dip
Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw
Summer in a Bowl
Colors of Summer Salad
Sprinkled on top of Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip
Three Onion & Three Cheese Pizza (starring spring onions)

© FarmgirlFare.com, the onion loving foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres - and we're always thrilled when there's an overabundance of food in the garden, even if we're not always sure what to do with it.