10 clever uses for onions you’ll wish you knew sooner

Fresher avocados? We’re in! Today reported that placing a cut onion in the container with your sliced, or otherwise cut, avocado is their all-time favourite method for helping it stay greener longer. “Sulfur dioxide is a compound used to preserve fruits,” Today stated. “Sulfur is a component in onions, so it stood to reason it might work similarly. By far, the best of all methods, the avocado was nearly as green as when it was cut.”

Here’s how to store fresh food so it lasts longer.

Your bedroom’s new shade of paint looks great, but the smell is keeping you up all night. What to do? Place half a cut onion in a dish on one side of the room, and the other half on the other side of the room. It will absorb the smell within a few hours.

If you have a nasty encounter with a bee at a barbeque, grab one of the onion slices intended for your burger and place it over the area where you got stung. It will soothe the pain. This trick doesn’t actually treat the sting, only the pain, so if you are severely allergic to bee or other insect stings, be sure to seek medical attention at once.

Here’s another use for onions: caramelised onion tartlets.

Mix onion, oatmeal, and honey in a blender and spread the paste on your acne and acne scars. Speedy Remedies suggests leaving this DIY mask on for 10 minutes before washing your face. Another common onion-mask mixture is one egg yolk, one tablespoon of olive oil, two tablespoons of onion juice, and two tablespoons of cucumber juice.

Don’t miss these innocent habits that almost guarantee acne scars.

Save enough onion skins to fill up a pair of old pantyhose, and you can dye your own yarn and fabric. All Natural Dyeing has recipes that use brown and red onion skins and can create dyes in orange, brown and rust, and even one that, with the right yarn, will turn green.

Believe it or not, onions can help you winterise your car, too. In a separate report, Today demonstrated how you can save time scraping ice off your car on those frigid winter mornings, by simply rubbing an onion on your windshield the night before. Evidently, the sugar found in the onion juice will create a barrier between your car and the water condensation in the air. The sugar also helps break down the ice molecules more easily, making it doubly helpful.

Forget about using steel wool or harsh chemicals – how’s this for an easy way to get the rust off your kitchen or utility knives? Plunge your rusty knife into a large onion three or four times (if it’s very rusty, it may require a few extra stabs). The only tears you shed will be ones of joy over your rust-free blade.

Check out these kitchen hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner.

Here’s a use for onions you may not know, but please use with caution! If your four-legged friend is not respecting your property – whether it be by chewing, tearing, or soiling – you may be able to get the message across by leaving several onion slices where the damage has been done. Neither cats nor dogs are particularly fond of ‘eau de onion,’ and they’ll avoid returning to the scene of their crimes. But be sure that they don’t ingest it, or it could be fatal to them.

Onions can be useful in both your home and garden. Whip up an effective insect and animal repellent for the flowers and vegetables in your garden and houseplants. In a blender, puree four onions, two cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of cayenne pepper, and one litre water. Set the mixture aside. Now dilute two tablespoons soap flakes in 7.5 litres water. Pour in the contents of your blender, shake or stir well, and you have a potent, environment-friendly solution to spray on your plants.

Find out how to plant vegetables in pots here.

Put a freshly-cut chunk of onion on the end of a fork, cut side down, and run it along the grates of the grill. The same components of the onion that give it that sharp taste will help loosen up the grime and food bits left over. The Kitchn suggests heating up the grill first to burn down any large food particles and rubbing with the onion as soon as it has cooled to a manageable temperature.

Sign up here to get Reader’s Digest’s favourite stories straight to your inbox!

Source: RD Canada