15 Onion Skin Uses You Wish You Knew Before

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Do you want to know about some unbelievable Onion Skin Uses and benefits? After reading the best ones here, you will start saving them for sure!

Onion skin and peels are rich in antioxidants and quercetin. There are a variety of Onion Skin Uses that you can learn in this article to make the best use of them!

Check out our article on growing onions here


Onion Skin Uses 

A clinical trial on 72 men and women in South Korea showed positive results. The study found a decrease in BMI and body fat percentage in 12 weeks of consumption.

1. Add them in Compost Bin

You can compost onion skins and peelings and get nutrient-rich compost. To counter their rotting smell–bury them a few inches deep in your compost pile. Avoid adding to a worm composting bin.

Adding peels to the compost balances its pH while lowering the acidity. It also reduces soil compaction.

2. Mulch Your Garden

Use the leftover onion skins for mulching. The dry peels will decompose soon and enrich your soil with potassium and calcium.

3. Make an Onion Peel Tea

Onion Skin Uses 2
shutterstock/patchii

Use blemish-free onion peels and skin to make healthy onion peel tea. It can suppress obesity, says this study. Also, drinking onion peel tea can reduce allergy-related issues, high blood pressure, and infections because it’s rich in quercetin. The recipe is here.

4. Use it as a Rooting Agent

The anti-microbial properties of onion skins make them perfect to act as a rooting agent. Take a bowlful of onion skins, grind them in a mixer, and add 4-5 spoons of fresh aloe vera gel. Mix well!

Dip the cuttings in this paste before rooting them for successful propagation.

5. Make Onion Skin Fertilizer

Don’t throw away the onion skins, use them to create organic potassium-rich fertilizer for all your plants growing indoors or outdoors. Using it will increase their disease resistance, growth, strong stems, and productivity.

This onion skin fertilizer will also be rich in Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, and Copper.

Take 2-3 handfuls or a bowl of onion skins and soak them in 1-liter water for the next 24 hours. The water will be colored and thick, strain it in a jar. Your onion skin tea fertilizer is ready. Feed your plants with it 3-4 times in a month.

6. Add them to Your Bread

Finely mince up onion skins until they begin to look like powder and then mix 1-2 teaspoons to the dough whenever you bake bread. It’ll add a hint of savory flavor to it.

7. Get Rid of Leg Cramps

shutterstock/Maridav

Though there is no concrete evidence or studies to refer that onion peels and skin can cure leg cramps, it may work because of its anti-inflammatory properties.

Boil the peels in water for 10-15 minutes, remove only the infused water or tea and drink it before the bed. Consume it for at least a week to see the difference.

8. Dye Fabric and Wool

Not only the eggs, but one of the best onion skin uses is, it can also be used to dye thread, fabric, and wool naturally. Click here for the tutorial.

9. Dye Easter Eggs with Onion Skins

Onion Skin Uses 3

Onion skins are the best natural way to dye your Easter eggs. The dyeing process is easy and almost cost-free. Check out the steps here.

10. Enrich the Flavor of your Rice

Add onion skins to your rice pot to increase its boost of nutrients and flavor. Choose to add bigger pieces of skin so that it becomes easy to pick them out later.

11. Add Onion Skins to Soup Recipes

Use onion skins to darken stock and give vibrant color to your soups and gravies. The skins may not affect the flavor but improve the appearance.

12. Make a Hair Dye

Use onion skin juice along with the peels to turn gray hair into golden brown in color. The juice is effective to add nourishment to the hair follicles as it is loaded with sulfur and is known to promote hair growth.

13. For Good Sleep

Onion Skin Uses 4

Though this might sound surprising but preparing a simple tea using onion peels and consuming it before going to bed is actually capable of inducing good sleep. You can find many recipes on the internet!

The peels are rich in L-Tryptophan that acts as a natural sedative and can not only help you fall asleep but also heal and calm your nerves.

14. Alleviate Itchy Skin

shutterstock/Kaspars Grinvalds

Onion skins contain anti-fungal properties that make for an effective solution to relieve yourself of itchy skin and athlete’s foot. Apply onion-infused water to the affected skin for instant relief.

15. For Better Roasting

When you are roasting onions, it is always better to leave the skins on. The peels actually help the onion to retain more of its own moisture and make way for much softer, tender-fleshed onions and ones that are rich in nutrients from the skins.

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