Love and the Onion

A good friend of mine once told his girlfriend (who is now his wife) that, "love is like an onion, it has many layers!" Although this is probably the LAST thing that you want to tell someone when they confess their love to you for the first time, it is a profound statement. The onion is a fascinating vegetable that has countless uses and a myriad of ways to be cut. Some people despise cutting up onions because of the tear production that often is a byproduct of the dissection. I, on the other hand, love to chop onions because of this technique that I learned a number of years ago. These three easy cuts allow you to dice a quarter of an onion in no time and leave you with uniform pieces that a perfect for almost any dish.



Once your onion is peeled and quartered you simply make 4 to 5 slices starting at the bottom of your onion quarter and moving up towards the top. Keep the knife parallel to your cutting board. Be sure to cut as close to the back of the onion as possible without cutting all the way through the onion. The root end will hold your onion together.



Next you want to make vertical cuts that are perpendicular to the cuts that you just made. I would start at the side that is furthest from you and work up the curve of the onion quarter and back down to the side that is closest to you. Again, do not cut all the way through the onion. The closer together you make these cuts the smaller your dice will be.



Finally, place your knife vertical to the cutting board and perpendicular to the cuts that you just made. Start at the end opposite the root (or at the cut end) and work down towards the root end with a nice even chopping motion. Again, the closer you keep your knife on each chop, the smaller your diced onion will be!! This may take some time to figure out, but I think that you will really enjoy the three easy steps to producing a nice uniform dice on your onions. Try it, I think you will like it!!