Cooking made easy - How to cut an onion

Cooking made easy – How to cut an onion

Now this may sound simple, but when I first started to learn how to cook, I became frustrated when I came across instructions that assumed a level of knowledge I didn’t possess. The fact is, if nobody has ever shown you how to chop, dice or slice an onion, you don’t know what to do or even what the difference is between slicing and dicing. So when I would come across a phrase like: “next, dice the onion,” I wouldn’t know what to do.

This is a step by step guide as to how to chop, dice or slice an onion. Chopping and dicing are basically the same thing.

Dicing or chopping an onion.

You will need:

Equipment:

• A cutting board

• A sharp knife

Ingredients:

• An onion

First, peel the onion by cutting the top and bottom off and removing the brown outer layer of skin. Next, lay the onion on the board with the already cut portion resting on the board. Cut the onion in half across the top or bottom.

Next, turn the onion so that the flat, cut side is down on the board and cut the onion into strips. Depending on the size of the onion, probably this will be five or six cuts.

Next, keeping these pieces together, turn the onion through 90 degrees so that you can cut in another direction. Now cut the onion across the other cut at right angles. Once again, depending on the size of the onion, five or six cuts will do it. The onion will now come apart into small pieces and you have a “diced” or “chopped” onion.

Slicing an onion

You will need:

Equipment:

• A cutting board

• A sharp knife

Ingredients:

• An onion

If you need to slice the onion, only one cut direction is needed. Once again, peel the onion by cutting the top and bottom off and removing the outer skin. Place the onion on the cutting board, rounded side touching the board. Slice the onion into strips. The inner pieces of the onion will fall apart from the outer and you have onion rings.

These same instructions apply to almost any vegetable. If you need to slice, dice or chop a courgette or a tomato, this is the way to do it. You can adjust the thickness of the slices to suit whichever recipe you are cooking. For example, if you are making a Spanish Omelet, you will want very thin slices, but if you are making a stew, you will probably want thicker slices.

Bon Apetit !