A woman has shared her super-easy hack to ensure your pantry is never without green onions.
The scoop
TikToker Food Pantry Girl (@boujeebudgetgirl), who has more than 150,000 followers, demonstrated how to regrow green onions at home.
All you need is a cup of water, scissors, and, of course, a few green onions.
@boujeebudgetgirl Ask requested I made a full video on how I take care of and re-grow my green onions to be more sustainable and save money! #inflation #savingmoney #lifehacks #sustainable #strugglemeals ♬ original sound - Food Pantry Girl 🍉
"When I first get my green onions, I put them in water, and I cut all the green tops off," Food Pantry Girl explained, putting the roots of the onion in the water. "You're going to want to replace the water almost every day… because if not, it will stink, and also the green onions will die."
Then, to keep the onions healthy, it's important to remove the "weird skins" that form around the vegetable.
"If you don't pull those skins back, it'll kind of constrict them from growing properly, and also they'll get slimy and start to die at the bottom," the TikToker added, showing viewers how she was "really gentle" when peeling off the skins to avoid damaging the onion itself.
She also recommends trimming the roots of the onion if they start to overcrowd their growing space, as well as washing the onion-growing cup thoroughly in between uses to eliminate any lingering scent.
How it's helping
Green onion is a versatile vegetable that can be used in a variety of cuisines, so having some readily available makes it easy to add flavor to your dishes while avoiding an extra trip to the store — and the harmful pollution potentially generated by getting there.
Growing your own food is also a great way to save money, with an investment of $70 yielding around $600 worth of produce each year on average, and it cuts down on pollution created by hauling food to grocery stores.
The positive impact of gardening is hard to overlook as well, with increased levels of physical activity, reduced anxiety, and improved self-esteem and optimism among the benefits people have reported to researchers.
Not everyone has their own land for gardening — or a nearby community garden — but happily, Food Pantry Girl's hack is accessible to people who just have a little bit of room.
"There is not a lot of sunlight in my kitchen, and I can grow these on the counter with no sunlight. But I do like to put them by my French doors once in a while," she explained, adding that she's also been using this method to cultivate bok choy.
"You can put any root vegetable in water, and it'll grow," she said.
What people are saying
Other TikTokers liked the video more than 60,000 times, and hundreds of people chimed in to express their gratitude and to confirm the hack works.
"It's so easy, within one week they were almost full-grown again!" one person wrote.
"Why have I never considered trimming the roots?? Definitely doing this," another person said.
"I needed this video," a third user shared.
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