How to Regrow Vegetables Activity for Kids | America's Test Kitchen Kids

activity

Lots of recipes use scallions—tacos, stir-fries, lettuce wraps, and more. But don’t throw away your scallion scraps. Instead, use them to grow more scallions in just a week!

Print Activity

Prepare Ingredients

Scallions

Water

Gather Equipment

Chef's knife

Cutting board

Tall drinking glass or Mason jar

Get Started!

1

Scallions

Use chef’s knife to cut off scallion greens, leaving roots, white bulb, and 2 to 3 inches light green part intact. Save scallion greens for another use, such as **Rice Noodle Bowls with Pork and Scallions**.

2

Water

Add about 2 inches water to drinking glass. Place scallion bulbs in water, root end down (top of light green part should be sticking out of water). Put glass in sunny location.

3

Every day, discard water from glass and replace with fresh water.

4

Watch your scallions grow! When scallion greens have grown 5 to 7 inches above white and light green parts (after about 1 week), use chef’s knife to remove new scallion greens, leaving roots, white bulb, and 2 to 3 inches light green part intact.

5

If desired, repeat steps 2 through 4 to regrow and harvest scallion greens again. You can regrow a single scallion 2 times.

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Food for Thought

How Does Your Scallion Garden Grow?

Scallions (sometimes called green onions) are part of a group of vegetables called alliums (“al-ee-ums”). They’re related to garlic, onions, chives, and leeks. The white part of the scallion grows underground and stores nutrients for the rest of the plant—the light and dark green parts—that grow above ground.

The scallion roots absorb water. That water, plus energy from the sun and nutrients stored in the scallion white, helps grow a new scallion green—fast! The greens can grow as much as 1 inch per day! A scallion white contains enough nutrients to regrow scallion greens two more times before the plant runs out of fuel. Just think, you’re getting three scallions for the price of one!

The dark greens at the top are new growth, the whites store nutrients, and the roots absorb water!

Regrowing Garlic

If you have leftover garlic cloves, don’t throw them away! Instead, use them to grow garlic greens. Garlic greens taste similar to chives and scallions. You can use them the same way. Here’s how to do it:

Add ½ inch water to small glass or shallow container.
Place leftover unpeeled garlic in water with root end (the flat part) facing down.
Replace water daily.
When garlic greens are around 5 to 7 inches tall (after about 1 week), use chef’s knife to remove greens.