Do you ever wonder why so many of our recipes here at Spend Smart. Eat Smart. have onions in them? Just last week I shared our August recipe of the month, Cool Cucumber Salad, which is another recipe with onions in it. Below I share my top three reasons for including onions in recipes and my top three onion-containing recipes.

I include onions in recipes because:

1. Onions add flavor. Cooked or raw, onions add flavor to recipes without adding salt or special ingredients.
2. Onions are inexpensive and available year-round. Since they are easy to store, onions can be found at a reasonable price any time of year.
3. Onions freeze well. I do not enjoy the tears that come with chopping onions, but I do like that I can chop a large amount of onions at one time and store them in the freezer. Then, when I need onions for a recipe, I just reach into my freezer and dump in some onions.

My favorite onion recipes are:

1. Chicken Fajitas – I love onions and peppers cooked together in a skillet.
2. Chicken and Rice Soup – This is a recipe where I rely on my frozen, chopped onions.
3. Cowboy Caviar – The flavor and crunch of a fresh onion is a perfect complement to the milder beans and corn in this recipe.

Here at Spend Smart. Eat Smart. we think onions are a pretty great vegetable and we encourage you to try using one in your cooking this week. If you would like to know more about how to chop an onion, check out the short video above.

Enjoy!