How to Cube an Onion the Easy Way
Onions add so much to even the most basic recipes. While many people love the taste of an onion in a variety of dishes, and even enjoy the smell of an onion sautéing in a pan full of butter, getting the onion prepped and recipe ready is another issue entirely. This issue can literally bring tears to the eyes of many cooks. Not to mention, getting the peel off, the onion cut uniformly, and having it come out perfectly tender just seems to be all too much for some.
This most certainly does not have to be the case. In fact, learning how to cube an onion is quite simple once you understand the basic technique. To help get you started, here are some great tips, straight from a chef’s kitchen.
Step 1: Obtain a good quality chef’s knife, and cut off almost the entire stem end. You should leave a small amount of the end to hold on in order to peel the skin off. From this point, peel all of the skin off of the outside of the onion.
Step 2: Next, put the cut end of the onion on a cutting board or a plate, with the roots facing upward. If there are a lot of roots, simply pull them off with your hands. From here, slice the onion in half the long way. Leaving the roots on the onion will hold it together nicely during the slicing process.
Step 3: Now that you have two halves of the onion, place them each flat side down on the cutting board or plate. Begin making long, multiple cuts from the top to the bottom, while leaving the end with the root intact.
Step 4: The number of cuts you will make depends on how finely you want to dice your onion. The more cuts you make, the finer the dicing will be.
Step 5: Once you have made the long cuts, turn the onion ninety degrees, and make several cuts across the onion in the other direction. Be sure to keep your fingers curled inward so you do not cut yourself. Again, the number of slices you should make will depend upon how finely you would like the onion diced.
As you can see, there is really nothing to dicing an onion. Once you master these steps, you will never again dread the process of adding a tasty onion to all of your favorite dishes.
Here is a youtube video to illustrate the process: