My dad used to try to grow onions in his garden from seed, but he had a problem: before growing a good bulb, they would flower, and when an onion flowers, the bulb becomes fibrous and inedible.
His solution was to make onion flower salsa.
I'd forgotten about this until recently. My mother-in-law planted some onions that had sprouted, and they were flowering in my backyard. Around this time, someone on Reddit posted a question on a gardening thread about what to do if their onions flowered. I told them to eat them. They asked how they tasted, and, well, I decided to find out that night. I fixed a baked potato with Icelandic yogurt instead of sour cream, and used scissors to sprinkle the top with onion blossoms.
It was freaking fantastic. Best potato ever. I shared with my family and ended up making several more!
Onion flowers taste strongly of onions, but are also sweet. You can sautee them and used them as a garnish on steaks, mix them raw into salads, or dang near anything you would put sliced or green onions into.
I got curious about recipes out there, and didn't find many. I guess not many people know about onion flowers being edible. One I decided to try was an Onion Flower and Lentil Soup. Really, I hated the recipe the minute I read it, so I changed it a lot before even making it. There are elements of it still in here, but this is functionally a new recipe.
Here it is! My Onion Flower and Lentil Soup!
Ingredients
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 tsb minced garlic
1 sausage, sliced, bratwurst, Italian sausage, or similar (optional)
1-2 onion flowers, blossoms sheared off, or about 1/2 cup chopped green onion
4 celery stalks, finely sliced
1 cup sliced carrots
1 bell pepper, cored and chopped, reserve half for serving
4 tsp minced garlic
1/2 Tsp ground paprika
1/2 Tsp ground black pepper
1/4 Tsp ground white pepper
1/4 Tsp turmeric
32 oz broth (any)
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup dry lentils, washed
Drizzle the olive oil into the bottom of a medium sized pot and sautee the sausage until cooked through. Add the onion flower, celery, carrots, garlic, and seasoning and stir-fry until tender. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the lentils and vinegar and simmer for 20 minutes. Good served with a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt, avocado chunks, and/or chopped bell peppers.
