Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Thursday, September 27, 2018

How to Make Onion Powder and Onion Flakes

It's time to re-stock my onion powder and onion flakes.  Here is how you can make your own using a dehydrator (you could also use your oven if the temperature goes low enough).





Simply peel your onions, and chop them up.   You can use a non-electric hand chopper or simply dice them up quickly in a food processor. You can also dry them in slices if that's what you need for future meals, but they are too large to fit into a coffee grinder to make into powder.







Spread the chopped onions on parchment paper lined dehydrator trays, and dry in your dehydrator according to the instructions it comes with.

When the onions are dried, simply break apart your diced onions for "flaked" onions.  Place the remainder in a small coffee grinder and grind until it becomes a powder.

Store the onion flakes in airtight glass jars in your spice cabinet.  These will also collect moisture, so you may want to store them using my next tip.



Store the onion powder in your freezer to keep it dry and prevent it from hardening.  If you place it in your cabinet it will quickly harden, unlike garlic powder.  You can also put some white rice, a few beans in it, but I typically don't shake mine out.  I measure with a measuring spoon, and it's much easier for me if I don't have anything in the onion powder.  Shallot powder also hardens over time.

I recycled a jar the size of a half pint to store my onion powder, using a screw top lid.  My canning funnel fits in it perfectly to pour it out of the grinder easily.

6 comments:

Granny_J said...

Thanks for this tip. I bought a 3 pound bag of white onions yesterday and was hoping they wouldn't go bad before I could use them. I'll be using your tips from this post to make onion slices, diced onion and onion powder.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

granny j, the slices would be great for soups this winter. I plan on getting more. We did not plant any this season.

Susan said...

That is good to know about the onion powder. I was just thinking that I should try to make some - I use it fairly often and would rather use my own onions. I hadn't realized it would harden and would not have been happy to be faced with a block of 'powder'!

Donna OShaughnessy said...

I've preserved lots of food over the years but never made my own onion powder. What a goof! I sure will now. Thanks!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Susan, I have tried to come up with a way to keep the onion powder dry, and this is working so far.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Donna, I use onion powder as much as garlic, and love it! So much fresher than store bought too.