In addition to the multitude of nutrients and health benefits you get from eating onions, they can be quite useful in everyday life. It is truly Nature’s Ninja in that the onion can double as an ingredient in cough syrup and even clean your backyard grill. Read on about the onion’s duplicative powers.
Double Agent: Cough Syrup
As a natural remedy, the onion is touted as a great one for coughs and colds. Our expert, Dr. Irwin Goldman, says: “Yes, I think there is pretty solid evidence of the antimicrobial properties of onion and in that sense they may be valuable in protecting people from colds and other related problems.”
Make a natural cough syrup by alternating layers of onion slices covered with raw honey. Add garlic and ginger, or herbs such as sage or oregano; steep 8-12 hours or overnight. Strain and use 2-4 teaspoons of the liquid as a cough syrup. This syrup should be stored in the refrigerator and used with 2 or 3 days. For children under a year, omit honey and use simple syrup with equal parts water and sugar.
You may also want to try this recipe we found from Everyday Roots.
Double agent: Windshield ice scraper
When winter catches you off-guard without an ice scraper, just find an onion. Cut it in half and let the juices flow, and wipe it on your frozen windshield. The sugars in the onion coat the glass of the windshield. These sugars, when mixed with the snow and ice that falls on the glass, lower the freezing point of the water that is in the snow and ice. The more sugar that is used, the lower the freezing point- and therefore the colder it would need to get- in order to freeze on your windshield. It’s the same concept as adding salt to roads — the salt lowers the freezing point of the water and so it would have to get much colder to freeze on the roadway. Source: Dr. Irwin Goldman, professor in the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Double agent: Backyard grill cleaner
This video from Grilling Every Season gives you four tricks. Cut an onion in half, heat up your grill, and run your onion across the grates. Its juices work as a natural cleanser. When you’re done, toss the onion in the coals, and it will become a great flavor agent for your meats. Read more here.
