How to Slice and Dice an Onion
- 1). Cut off the protruding ends of the onion in line with the round surface.
- 2). Peel off the outer layers of skin and any loose or bruised layers.
- 3). Slice the onion end to end with the grain into two equal halves.
- 4). Hold the onion firmly with the flat edge down against the cutting board, then slice straight down starting at one small rounded end. Each slice should create a section, but leave it connected at the far end near the bottom; don’t quite slice all the way through with the knife. The width of these sections should be the same width as you want the cubes to be—about ¼ inch. Maintain a firm but gentle grip to prevent the onion from falling apart.
- 5). Turn the onion 90 degrees and slice two times parallel to the flat edge against the board so that three sections perpendicular to the ¼ inch sections are created. Again, be careful to leave the last couple of degrees of the cut to remain attached to help hold the onion together.
- 6). Slice off ¼ inch sections carefully holding the onion in the same position using a slow but steady top to bottom slicing action. As you draw the knife out of the onion with each slice, you will see it crumble into cubes because of the grain and the previous slices. Continue slicing until you are holding the part of the onion where you did not complete the slice.
- 7). Turn over the small section of the onion you are holding in your fingertips to see if there is enough onion left to get anymore onion out of, but generally plan on throwing this part away.
- 8). Spread around the crumbled onion looking for any sections that didn’t fall apart evenly and chop further.
