SeasonSort Week of Sep 4 · updated Fri

Onions

Peak season in the Midwest · down 22% this week

$0.99 /lb

This week

↓22%

Vs last week

Calories/serv

1 g

Protein/serv

Seasonality of onions

This vegetable is at its local-harvest peak from August through October, and is sold in stores year-round. This week it's peak season in the Midwest — buying it in season usually means better quality and, as the regional prices below show, a lower price.

Nutrition · per 110g serving

Calories

1.2 g

Protein

10.2 g

Carbs

0.1 g

Fat

1.9 g

Fiber

Per a typical 110g serving, scaled from the per-100g figures in USDA FoodData Central (Onions, raw).

Cheapest onions this week, by region

Buying onions in the Midwest saves about 49% versus the Northwest this week.

Buying onions

How to pick a good one: Heavy for their size, with dry, papery, tight skin and no green shoot at the neck. The neck should be tightly closed and completely dry — any softness there is where rot starts. Skip any that smell strongly of onion through the skin.
What a good price looks like: The 3 lb bag is $2.50 to $4.50 and is nearly always the cheapest way to buy them, often half the loose per-pound price. Under a dollar a pound is a good buy, and they keep for a month or more in a dark, airy cupboard. Sweet onions like Vidalia carry a seasonal premium worth paying only when they are eaten raw.
What you actually get: A medium yellow onion is about 150 g and gives roughly 1 cup diced. A 3 lb bag holds eight to ten and is the standard unit for a household that cooks. Peeling costs about 10%. Onions lose roughly three-quarters of their volume when properly caramelised, which is why a mountain of sliced onion becomes so little.

Storing and cooking onions

How to store it: Cool, dark, dry, and airy, never in a sealed bag and never beside potatoes, whose moisture makes them sprout. Whole onions keep a month or more. Once cut, wrap, refrigerate, and use within a few days.
In the kitchen: Chilling an onion for fifteen minutes before cutting genuinely reduces tears, because the compound that irritates your eyes is volatile and cold slows its release. Keep the root end intact while you cut — it holds the layers together and makes dicing far easier. For anything long-cooked, slice with the grain, pole to pole, and the pieces hold their shape instead of dissolving.
Getting the most out of it: Onions are the cheapest flavour in the store, and the larger bag almost always wins on price per pound if you cook regularly. Slow-cooked onions freeze extremely well, so caramelising a big batch when they are cheap is time and money well spent.

Cook with Onions · cheapest dishes first

See all 5296 recipes with onions →Filter by diet, time, budget, and macros.

Price from the USDA National Retail Report. Nutrition per typical serving, computed from USDA FoodData Central.

Onions — FAQ

When can you buy onions in season?

This vegetable is at its local-harvest peak from August through October, and is sold in stores year-round. This week the Midwest has onions marked peak season.

What's the price of onions right now?

As of the week of September 4, 2026, the price of onions in the Midwest is $0.99/lb, down 22% from last week.

How many calories and how much protein are in onions?

A typical 110g serving of onions has about 44 calories, 1.2g protein, 10.2g carbohydrates, 0.1g fat, and 1.9g fiber, per USDA FoodData Central.

What can I make with onions?

SeasonSort indexes 5296 recipes that use onions, each with its cost per serving computed from this week's prices — starting from about $0.02 a serving. The cheapest are listed on this page, with a link to the full filtered list.