Scallions (aka green onions) are nearly ubiquitous in Asian cooking especially in Thai and Laotian cuisine.  Did you know that you can keep the white root ends from store bought scallions in a glass of water and they will regrow for repeat usage? Not only will this save you time and money, it will most likely make you cook more often! 

The editors of AsianSupper share how to regrow green onions in water. 

1.  Make sure you leave about 2-3 inches of the green onion stalk left with the root attached.

2. Submerge the green onion roots in a glass of water and place them near a sunny window.

3.  The green onions will begin to regrow almost immediately. After one day, you can see them start to sprout up from the top.

4.  By day four, you can see the roots getting longer and the scallion stalks growing to over 6 inches.  At this point, the scallions can be harvested.  The editors at AsianSupper like to use kitchen scissors to snip what we need for making stir fry or soups. 

5.  Every four days, you will want to change the water and perhaps the glass to prevent the water from getting too icky. 

You cannot grow scallions in water indefinitely because the green onions are growing from the stored “food” in the bulbs/roots.  However you can likely do this a few times.  As you regrow the scallions, the green onion stalks will get lighter and milder.  The editors of AsianSupper are testing how long we can regrow them before we need to buy new scallions for cooking.  We are currently on week three of the “regrow scallions in water” experiment.  Stay tuned for updates!