One of the rules I live by in the kitchen is “prep once, use twiceâ€, and this applies especially to onions. What I mean by that is if I know I need onion in several recipes over the course of the next week or so, I “prep†or dice as much as I need all at once, which ends up saving me time. This is the easiest and best way I know to dice an onion, and once you learn it, you won’t do it any other way. You can store the unused portion of diced onion in your refrigerator for up to 2 weeks (I use a small glass bowl with a plastic lid) until you need it.
- Using your chef’s knife, cut the stem end off the onion. Peel all the outside skin off.
- Place the onion on the cut end with the root end facing up. Now slice the onion in half long ways. Leaving the root attached helps to keep the onion together while slicing.
- Take half of the onion and lay it down flat on your cutting board. Make multiple cuts along the length of the onion (cut end to root end), being careful not to cut through the root at the end. The number of cuts you will make is determined by how fine you want your dice. The more cuts you make, the finer the dice will be.
- Turn the onion 90 degrees and make multiple cuts across the width of the onion being sure to keep your fingers curled under so you don’t cut them. Once again, the number of cuts you make will be determined by how fine you want your dice to be.
- Repeat steps 3 through 5 with the other half of the onion.