Have you ever wondered how people get onions diced evenly? It is not as hard as you may think…
Follow these simple step-by-step instructions and you’ll do great.
Get an onion and knife. Use a chef’s knife, not a small pairing knife like my mom does..also make sure your knife is sharp, there’s a saying that a dull knife is the most dangerous tool in a kitchen and it’s true. The more work you have to put into using your knife the higher the chance of slipping and cutting yourself.
Cut the onion in half from top to bottom the root will keep the onion layers held together making it easier to dice.
Shrek: Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions.
Ok enough movie quotes…back to safely cutting an onion…
Peel the onion. On the opposite side of the root, I cut off the end and take off the peel, the thin top layer and the slimy film that is on the onion.
On a clean cutting board, let’s start the dicing. Holding your knife in one hand and the root of the onion in the other hand follow these instructions!
You will first begin by making vertical cuts. With the onion cut-side down on the board, you will slice down. You will make several individual vertical cuts as you work across the onion. This is how you will determine the width of your onion dice, the closer together your cuts – the smaller the dice will be, try to do this as evenly spaced as possible.
As you can hopefully see in the photo below, on the right side of the knife I have made individual cuts already as move across the onion to the other side.
Once you’ve made vertical cuts down and across the onion as described above, you will continue to hold the onion by the root. You will want to turn your knife horizontally to make individual cuts in the opposite direction.
Make cuts horizontally from the end of the onion to the root. You will want to start closest to your cutting board and work your way up. You will make several horizontal individual cuts (but I always find I make fewer cuts in this direction as I do during the first step) Just like before, this will determine your thickness of your onion dice. The closer together your cuts – the smaller the dice will be, try to do this as evenly spaced as possible.
As you work your way up the onion it might start to spread out like below and that’s okay, just try your best to hold it together.
Slice down and ta-da! You have created consistent evenly diced onions.
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