FOOD NEWS
Is It Safe To Eat Sprouted Onions?
By C.A. Pinkham
People have a lot of misconceptions about eating sprouted onions, but the reality is that eating sprouted onions won’t hurt you unless you have a sensitive palate.
Sprouting is a natural part of the onion's aging process, and there's a big difference between a rotten onion and one that's simply sprouted.
If your sprouted onion otherwise appears normal, doesn't smell off, and feels hard and solid all around, it's not rotten and is safe to eat.
However, the flavor will be a bit different, becoming much more bitter and significantly less sweet since the onion uses the sugar stored in its cells to create the sprout.
Sprouted onions have the sharpness and bitterness of red onions due to the loss of sweetness and work better than fresher onions in vinegar-forward dishes like pickled onions.
You can also mellow the flavor of a sprouted onion by rinsing or soaking it in water or removing the sprout itself to negate some of the bitter flavor.