Onion Substitutes for a Low-FODMAP Diet: Scallion Tops, Chives, Asafoetida

Michael Eisenwasser 7 min read

Onion sits at the base of almost every savory dish most of us grew up cooking. Pull it out and the dish tastes flat in a very specific way.

This is the practical follow-up to the is onion low FODMAP guide. That one covers why onion is a problem and where it hides. This one is about the substitutes: what they are, how to use them, and how to plug them into actual recipes.

The six substitutes that matter

Six ingredients cover almost every role onion plays in cooking. Most low-FODMAP dishes lean on two or three of them at once, layered the way a regular recipe layers onion with garlic.

1. Green scallion tops (spring onion greens)
2. Chives
3. Garlic chives (Chinese chives)
4. Leek greens
5. Onion-infused oil
6. Asafoetida (hing)

Each covers a different slice of what onion does. Scallion tops and chives give the fresh, bright note. Leek greens cook down sweet and soft like sauteed onion. Infused oil carries savory depth into fat-based cooking. Asafoetida mimics cooked-onion flavor in braises and curries. None of them alone replaces onion. Together they get most dishes back to recognizable.

Green scallion tops

The dark green tops of a scallion are low FODMAP at generous serves. The white bulb is high FODMAP at typical serves, so most cooks trim it off and toss it.

Where the greens shine:

• Garnish. Sliced thin over eggs, rice bowls, soups, stir-fries, tacos.
• Stir-fries. Add near the end so they keep a little bite.
• Salsas and chopped salads. Replace raw red or white onion one-to-one by volume.
• Dumpling and meatball fillings. Finely minced, they give the oniony pop you'd get from grated onion.

Practical tip: buy a bunch, trim off the white bulbs, freeze the greens in a zip bag, snip frozen straight into the pan. Check the current Monash app for the exact gram threshold in your region.

Chives

Fresh chives are low FODMAP at standard cooking serves and they cover the mild raw-onion role better than anything else on this list. Freeze-dried chives work too.

Best uses:

• Baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato salad.
• Omelets, scrambles, frittatas. Snip in at the end.
• Cream cheese, sour cream, ricotta, cottage cheese. Fold in for dips and spreads.
• Cold salads and grain bowls. They hold up in dressing-based dishes better than scallion greens.

Chives and scallion greens are partly interchangeable. Chives are milder and more herbaceous. For a background onion note, chives. For a sharper bite, scallion greens.

Garlic chives (Chinese chives)

A separate plant from regular chives, flat-leaved and more garlicky than oniony. Low FODMAP at standard cooking serves. Asian grocery stores carry them, sometimes labeled "nira" or "kuchai."

Built for:

• Dumpling and potsticker fillings. Chopped into ground pork or shrimp.
• Stir-fries. Especially with eggs, tofu, or shrimp.
• Noodle soups. Added at the end.
• Korean and Chinese pancakes.

Use them to layer in garlicky flavor without using more garlic-infused oil than the dish can carry.

Leek greens

The dark green leaves of a leek are the low-FODMAP part. The white and pale-green bulb becomes high FODMAP at much smaller serves, so the two parts need to be treated as separate ingredients.

Leek greens are the closest thing to sauteed onion on this list. They cook down soft, turn sweet, and build body in a way that chives and scallion greens never will. Go-to uses:

• Soffritto base. Fine-diced with carrot and celery, slow-cooked in olive oil.
• Soup and stew bases. They add the "onion was here" sweetness broth needs.
• Braises and long-cooked sauces. Bolognese, chili, curry, beef stew.
• Savory tarts, quiches, galettes. Thinly sliced and cooked down in butter.

Wash leek greens hard. Grit hides between the layers. Slice lengthwise, fan open under running water, then chop.

Onion-infused oil

Fructans are water-soluble, not fat-soluble. Steep onion in oil and the flavor compounds dissolve in, but the fructans stay with the onion solids, which you strain out. Same mechanism that makes garlic-infused oil work.

To make it: warm olive oil over low heat with rough-chopped onion for about 15 minutes, strain through cheesecloth so no solids remain, refrigerate immediately, and use within a few days. Food safety note: onion and garlic in oil can grow botulism bacteria at room temperature, so refrigeration is not optional. For longer storage, buy a commercially prepared certified infused oil.

Onion-infused oil is rarer as a supermarket product than garlic-infused oil, so most cooks either make it at home or skip it and rely on garlic-infused oil plus the other substitutes above.

Asafoetida (hing)

A sulfurous resin ground into powder, standard in Indian home cooking. A pinch hit with hot oil (a technique called tadka) tastes shockingly close to cooked onion and garlic at the same time.

A few rules:

• A pinch is the serving. An eighth of a teaspoon flavors a whole pot.
• Always bloom it in hot fat. Raw from the jar it smells harsh. In oil it mellows into that cooked-allium note.
• Buy wheat-free asafoetida. Many commercial hing products use wheat flour as a carrier, which rules them out for anyone avoiding wheat or gluten. Indian grocery stores usually carry wheat-free versions, sometimes labeled "gluten-free hing."

Best in dishes where cooked onion is central: dals, curries, bean stews, chili, tomato sauces, soups. Not a raw substitute.

Recipe-level swaps

The substitutes get more useful when you slot them into specific cooking techniques.

Soffritto (Italian base)

A classic soffritto is onion, carrot, celery, fine-diced and slow-cooked in olive oil until sweet. Low-FODMAP version:

• Swap the onion for an equal volume of sliced leek greens.
• Use olive oil plus a spoonful of garlic-infused oil.
• Cook low and slow. Leek greens soften in about the same time as onion.
• Add a pinch of asafoetida to the oil at the start for depth on tomato- or meat-based dishes.

This is the base for bolognese, minestrone, lentil soup (with canned lentils rinsed), braises, tomato sauces.

Sauteed aromatics (stir-fry, saute pan)

For a standard "heat oil, add onion and garlic" opener:

• Heat neutral oil plus a spoonful of garlic-infused oil.
• Optional pinch of asafoetida bloomed in the oil.
• Skip any white scallion bulb (high FODMAP) and go straight to protein and vegetables.
• Finish with sliced scallion greens so they keep some bite.

Soup and stock bases

Commercial stock is one of the sneakiest sources of hidden onion. For a low-FODMAP base:

• Buy a Monash or FODMAP Friendly certified stock. A handful of brands now make one.
• Make your own. Simmer chicken bones or vegetable scraps (carrot, celery, leek greens, parsley stems, bay leaf, peppercorns) in water for a couple of hours. No onion, no garlic cloves. A pinch of asafoetida in the pot gives it more of the "long-cooked" note.

Homemade stock becomes the backbone for low-FODMAP pantry staples cooking: risotto, soups, braises, pan sauces.

Salsas, slaws, and raw toppings

For anywhere a recipe calls for raw chopped onion:

• Use green scallion tops, sliced thin.
• Or use chives, snipped short.
• For red-onion color in a slaw or salsa, add a little sliced radish or diced red bell pepper for the pop.

A note on stacking

Each substitute here is low FODMAP on its own at the listed serve, but they still contain small amounts of FODMAPs. Pile scallion greens, chives, and leek greens into one dish in large amounts and you can stack your way over threshold. See the low-FODMAP vegetable list for how serving sizes work across a meal.

Tracking what goes in each dish and how your gut responds is the fastest way to find your personal line. That's the point of FODMAP Tracker.

Shopping list

A fully stocked low-FODMAP onion-replacement shelf:

• Scallions (use greens, discard whites)
• Fresh or freeze-dried chives
• Leeks (use dark greens, discard whites)
• A jar of Monash-certified garlic-infused olive oil
• A small jar of pure asafoetida from an Indian grocery
• Optional: garlic chives from an Asian grocery

Keep scallion and leek greens frozen in zip bags, snipped straight into the pan from frozen. For meal ideas that use this substitute stack, see our low-FODMAP recipes. For the same playbook applied to onion's sibling, see the garlic substitutes guide.

Track your symptoms and discover patterns with FODMAP Tracker. Includes a database of 1,000+ foods with FODMAP ratings.