Split peeled onions between patties, a simmered sauce and a raw salad
Choose the dinner before cutting all your onions the same way. Grated onion needs moisture control in a patty, diced onion softens in a sauce, and a raw salad needs a much finer cut.
Measure the part you can use
Remove dry outer skin, roots and any discarded parts, then weigh the edible raw onion before grating or cooking. For two servings per dinner, the patties use 80g, pepper and tomato eggs use 100g, and the chopped salad uses 50g: 230g total. With 180g prepared onion, the gap is 50g. Buy enough to yield that extra edible weight; gross purchase weight depends on actual trimming. Set aside each recipe’s weighed portion before cutting it.
Choose the texture you want
Grate the patty portion, then remove its liquid
Weigh the 80g portion first. Grate it finely and squeeze out the released liquid, as the black bean patty recipe directs. Combine with the drained beans and measured oats, then keep the mixture’s rest and test-mound check. Replacing the squeezed liquid with more onion would change the measured recipe.
Soften diced onion before reducing a sauce
Cut the 100g portion into the recipe’s small dice. Start it with the peppers and allow them to soften before adding tomato. Reduce the sauce to its stated consistency before making egg wells. A large wedge of onion will not soften on the same schedule as those small pieces.
Keep the raw salad cut small
For the 50g portion, use the salad’s fine dice and mix with its measured dressing before adding the other vegetables. Food Hero identifies sweet and red onions as milder raw choices. Check your household’s preference, but do not exchange a dry onion seasoning for the same gram weight of fresh onion.
When the result is not quite right
A patty mixture that becomes wet and a sauce that needs more simmering are different problems. Use each complete recipe’s correction. Do not add a shared bowl of mixed onion cuts to whichever dinner still looks short; first update the checked dinners and allocation so the CSV records the portions you intend to use.
Allocate your onions
Choose dinners in the list below. Stock is assigned in that order; any shortfall remains visible. This only totals onions, so check every full recipe for its other ingredients and method.
230g needed · 180g from stock · 50g shortfall · 0g unassigned
| Recipe | Need | From stock | Shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black bean and oat patties | 80g | 80g | 0g |
| Pepper and tomato eggs | 100g | 100g | 0g |
| Cucumber chickpea chopped salad | 50g | 0g | 50g |
No dates, freshness assessment or prepared-batch credit are applied here. This worksheet stays separate from your saved week. Select usable food and schedule it within its actual storage limits.
The week opens with its own saved settings. Add your stock there to deduct it from the full shopping list.
Keep and prepare your stock
Whole bulbs need the source’s dry, ventilated storage conditions. Refrigerate peeled or cut onion covered. Once it is part of a cooked mixture or dressed salad, follow that dinner’s storage plan and actual ingredient limits rather than treating it as a whole uncut bulb.
Avoid this mix-up
The 80g patty allowance is measured before squeezing, not an instruction to produce 80g of squeezed shreds. Keep the preparation loss separate from the unused raw-onion balance.
Use the storage guide for prepared batches, and follow actual product labels. Our recipe and quantity checks are not a real cooking trial.
Sources & further reading
Oregon State Food Hero: Onion basics
Onion varieties, dry storage of whole bulbs and covered refrigeration after peeling or cutting. Checked 2026-10-23.
The cooking choices and worksheet above are original editorial guidance tied to this site’s recipes. Source material is paraphrased and linked; third-party recipes and images are not reproduced.