How To Make Green Onion Curls For Fancy Garnish

Green onion or scallions (spring onion)

Knife or kitchen scissors

Ice and water

Another tool to thinly slice green onion is a scallion cutter. This tool makes it so much easier this task, especially if we need to cut a large amount of green onion into strips. Check out photos at the bottom of the page.

1. Thinly slice the green onion with a knife or scissors.

2. Place onion strips in ice water. It takes a few minutes to curl.

*If your onion, not curling, read below why it can happen.

Green onion curls are an easy way to garnish our dishes for parties or for every day cooking as well!

       A green onion flower garnish is cute decor to decorate food for special occasions. It is a great addition to vegetable platters, paired with cherry tomatoes, and much more! Onion flowers can be a replacement for curly parsley on the plate.

     1. Make cuts as shown in the photo. Leave 1 inch not cut onion.

    2. It looks like a broom but in 3-5 minutes it will be looks like a flower.

 Pretty flower!

          We can make green onion curls one day in advance. Keep changing the water a few times and you should refrigerate green onion curls all the time before serving. Coldwater preserved curls very well but at the same time makes it fragile. Always make a few more than you need. Dry out curls with a paper towel and curls ready to decorate dishes.

           How long green onion curls last on the plate? Really it depends on many factors, the most important factor on which surface you serve it. I took the photo below garnish on the plate in the conditioned room after 2 hours.

           The technique sometimes not working on some green onions that we buy at the store. My conclusion, sometimes at a store spring onion is treated with some chemicals, so the produce stays fresh longer. This stops the onion from curling. Buy organic onion and it should curl fine. Home garden onion curls always so fast and I never had any problem. Sometimes when I am out of my own green onion, I buy it at the store. I use the green part and plant the bottom in my garden. These onions curl always great because I don’t use any chemicals on them.

            So many uses for cute onion curls! We can use it everywhere where we can use sliced green onion. Add to the breakfast plate, garnish appetizers, decorate the vegetable platter and much much more!

If we place green onion curls on the plate instead of food, our garnish will stay presentable much longer.

Russian Beetroot Salad

Artichoke garnished with green onion curls and stuffed with salad. On the leaves mayonnaise with lemon juice.

Artichoke Stuffed with Russian Salad

Very important!

Don’t place on salty surfaces unless it is going to serve immediately. For example, cured fish or pickles. The salted surface makes green onion curls withered so fast. In the photo below I decorated salo canape. So cute garnish but in 10-15 minutes the dish was not presentable anymore. Learn from my mistake! Of course, on some dishes, withered onion curls look fine to my taste. For example, serving sauerkraut.

I still like to add green onion curls to sauerkraut. Looks much more interesting than we just simply sprinkle with chopped green onion. Even green onion is going withered, it looks fine.

Russian Sauerkraut with Cranberries and Carrot

       The scallion cutter or also call green onion slicer has multiple blades and makes slicing green onion much faster. Stripes will be very even. If you have to do a lot of garnishes, consider getting this kitchen gadget.

*The easiest way to clean the green onion slicer is using a brush. Brush the tool from the top to bottom direction and from the front. The bottom is sharp blades and it is the only way to clean the gadget if it is not dishwasher safe.

     To julienne spring onion with my slicer I place my onion on the cutting board and hold it with my left hand. Then I slice the size stripes I need with my right hand. After my stripes are ready, I cut them off with a chef knife. Really convenient gadget if you need to make a lot of green onion curls for presentation.