Air Fry Your Scallions for the Perfect Garnish

Scallions are a complete steal. They’re flavorful, versatile, and cheap. You can usually snag a bunch for under a dollar, they keep for a very long time, and you can grow more scallions from the scraps. I like them raw (try one dipped in salt alongside a rich, creamy cheese), but I’m currently all about the air fried scallion.

Besides making my home smell warm and allium-y, an air-fried, turbo-roasted onion adds deep flavor to whatever you fling it on. It’s my favorite thing for a half-used scallion that is mostly pale green and white. You know, the little scrappy guys who look like this:

Credit: Claire Lower

I rub a little cold bacon grease down the entire length of each scallion (you can also toss them in olive oil), then throw them in my air fryer basket for 5-7 minutes, depending on how thick they are. (I usually start checking after two minutes, and give ‘em a little shake.) You can do whole scallions too, but you’ll need to cut them in half for two reasons: Depending on the size of your air fryer, they may not fit if kept whole, but I mostly separate the deeper green from the paler green because the deeper green portion browns much more quickly than the rest of the scallion. If your air fryer is set to 400℉, the green part will wilt about two minutes in; the color will intensify, and you’ll start to see a few brown spots. After four minutes, the green portions will start crisping in a major way. After six minutes, the pale green and white parts will soften and start to char.

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Credit: Claire Lower

I like to chop up the crispy green parts and mix them into dips, or mash them up with some cream cheese to make roasted scallion cream cheese. The lighter colored ends are good all on their own, as a side or garnish, but they’re pretty stellar in sandwiches, wraps, and tacos.

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If you want to roast an entire bunch, the oven makes more sense, but it will take much longer (at least 30 minutes longer if you include pre-heating). The accessibility of an air-fried scallion means you don’t have to commit to an entire sheet pan—you can roast a couple, or several, or a single scallion in under 10 minutes, then repeat if needed. I am averaging about three roasted scallions a day, one for each meal.