Don’t let dicing onions reduce you to tears…. I have some tips that will help you make quick work of this less than ideal task! Sorry, for the bad humour, I just couldn’t resist!
The first step when preparing to dice an onion is to cut it in half lengthwise, so you have half of the root end on each piece. This helps to keep the onion together, and minimizes “slippage”. Once you’ve made that first cut, it’s also easier to peel off the skin.
Once you've cut the onion in half lengthwise and removed the outer skin, lay the cut side down and very carefully cut through the middle of the onion, leaving about an 1/8th of an inch before the root end.
When you’re making the cut shown in the above picture, make sure to slowly guide your knife straight back, using your opposite hand to hold the top of the onion steady. Once that cut is done, make even slices over the top of the onion, starting about 1/8th of an inch from the root end, slicing lengthwise. The next cuts will be across the onion to get even pieces. Again, you want to move the onion towards your knife blade, not move the blade over the onion. As you push the onion towards the knife, try to keep the slices as even as possible.
Note how the onion is fairly evenly diced. Again, keeping the size of each piece as uniform as possible ensures even cooking.
Since the onion has many layers, when you scoop the pieces up to put them in the pan, rub your hands together lightly over them as you drop them in, and the pieces will separate somewhat. You’ll also notice as they start cooking, they separate very nicely.
Filed under: Handy Skills Tagged: beginner kitchen skills, Cook, dicing, Fruit and Vegetable, knife skills, learn to cook, learn to dice vegetables, Onion, simple meal prep, Soups and Stews
