Chopped Onions, a Comparison of Techniques

I use chopped onions often enough that I frequently freeze it in batches for later use. When I do the chopping, I’ll do several onions at a time. Needless to say, I’d like to make it as quick and easy, and tear-free as I can.

On the left side of the picture above is a pile of onions chopped the way I like them when I do it by hand. This is the size I grew up using and would just as soon always have. I’m too lazy to do it that way a lot of the time, though, so I frequently use my Cuisinart.

On the far right, under the top blade, are two piles. The one nearest the blade is what I ended up with when I passed the onions through the Cuisinart once. The second pile, closer to the bottom of the picture, is what I ended up with when I lined all the onions up and passed them through a second time, crosswise. It was a pain to do the second pass, but still faster than doing it by hand. As you can see, they came out a bit finer than I really wanted, but still good.

Then I tried putting and onion through using the chopping blade. If you squint, you can see two piles in the center of the picture. The bottom middle is how it came out when I put half an onion through with quick, short bursts. I consider it too fine. The pile closer to the blade is what I ended up with when I tried to put through an entire onion. In order to get all the larger bits chopped, I ended up making it all far too fine.

So I guess I’m back to square one. If I’m only chopping a couple of onions at a time, I’ll do it by hand. If I’m doing a bag at a time (yes, I do this now and then) I’ll use the top blade of the Cuisinart. But maybe I wont bother with the second pass.