Here we will show you how to both chop and slice an onion, an essential skill and first step in many savoury dishes. Though it was a skill it took Estella a little while to master, it’s easy enough with a bit of practice, just follow these steps.
For onions it is best to use a cook’s knife and make sure it is nice and sharp, though be careful when handling it.
Jake sticks his nose in
When using a sharp knife always cut away from yourself, never towards your hand. And hold the item you are cutting so you can keep your fingers away from the blade!
Frist, top and tail your onion so it looks like this:
Then carefully cut a slit in the side of the onion, deep enough to reach the first layer or so. Remove at least the top, papery skin and sometimes the first layer of onion if it looks brown or tough in places. You should end up with a nice clean onion.
Chopping
To chop an onion, first cut your onion in half from top to bottom, then flip one half onto its side and hold firmly like this so you can slice into the onion without the knife ever touching your fingers:
Slice firmly down onto the onion, putting pressure on the pointed end of the knife first then pressing down backwards toward the handle. Repeat until you have even slices across the onion.
Next, hold the sliced onion tightly together and slice across to create small dice, then separate the pieces.
Congratulations! You have chopped your onion. This is quite a roughly chopped onion, which is what you need for many dishes. If the recipe specifies finely chopped however, you need to make both the initial slices and the cross cuts much closer together so you end up with an onion like the one on the right.
Slicing
To slice an onion, take your onion half and lay it on the flat side, then hold firmly at one end. Slice from the end furthest away from your hand, to get regularly spaced slices. These can be broad or fine, depending on the recipe, but the roughly the size below is the most common. When you get close to your hand, flip the remaining onion over so the curve is towards the knife – this will give you more room to slice, keeping the knife away from your fingers.
Separate the pieces. Congratulations you have sliced your onion!
