Kitchen Tip Tuesday - Dicing onions

When we were in Charleston, Hubby signed me up for 2 coming classes. In the first one I learned how to cook shrimp and grits. During the second one, I cooked up a potato salad with arugula. Other people in the class cooked other parts of the meal.

One of the things they taught was how to dice up am onion with little tears.

The most important piece of knowledge to know about an onion is knowing why people get teary eyed when they cut up am onion. There is an enzyme in the root that causes your eyes to become irritated.

So when I cut up an onion now, I first cut the top off and then cut it in half so you have two flat sides. 

With the top of the onion off

Cut in half (Messed up a little when I took the top off.) Flat side laying down on cutting board.

After cutting the onion in half, remove the skin.  It's easier to do it then.

An onion has natural grooves. Cut along those from where the top had been towards the root but do not cut the root. 

Cutting along the grooves.  I cut until it starts to slope down.  That way I won't get cut into the root.  I also have to turn the onion around after I've cut it half way.

Then I cut across the onion so that I have small diced onion.

1.  Cutting across the onion.  I stopped when I got to the part of the onion that was started to slope down.

2.  Scooping up the onions.

3.  Diced up onions on the cutting board.

4.  Diced up onions on a plate.  They were ready to be portioned out into 1/2 c. portions.

1.  I used a garbage bowl to put the onion scraps in.

2.  Diced up onions in 1/2 c. portions.

3.  Ready to go into the freezer.

4.  I cut some of the onions into slices.