Learning how to cut onions is a crucial tenant of home cooking awesomeness—because onions are such a versatile, complex addition—or base—for your favorite meals, from risotto to tacos. Slicing and dicing are likely going to be your most-used cuts, but, hey, maybe you want to go full-Jaques Pepin and cut your onion into a flower. Here's how to do all of the above.
Sliced
This cut is terrific for caramelizing (hello, French onion soup and patty melts) or adding raw to salads and pizza.
Using a chef's knife, trim off both root and stem ends of the onion, and then peel.
Cut the onion in half from the root end to the stem end.
Stabilize the onion by putting it cut-side down on the cutting board, holding the root end of the onion in your non-dominant hand.
Starting at the stem end, thinly slice the onion to your desired thickness.
Diced/Chopped
Diced onions, sauteed in oil or butter, are a fundamental flavor base for countless dishes, from pasta sauce to stuffing to breakfast hash. They're not just used for subtle flavor, though—some dishes are completely built around diced onions, like this cheesy onion dip. Oh, and sometimes they're used raw on hot dogs—if the raw bite is too much, you can soak 'em in water to mellow the flavor.
Using a chef's knife, trim off both root and stem ends of the onion, and then peel.
Cut the onion in half from the root end to the stem end.
Stabilize the onion by putting it cut-side down on the cutting board, holding the root end of the onion in your non-dominant hand.
- Make vertical cuts from stem end almost to the root end, leaving 1/4 inch of the root end intact so the onion will hold together. The wider your slices, the bigger your chop or dice will be. Here's a quick guide to the sizes you want (there's no set definition of the size of these cuts, but these guidelines are a good place to start):
- For finely chopped onions (aka small dice), cut slices at 1/4" intervals
- For chopped onions (regular dice), cut slices at 3/8" intervals
- For roughly chopped onions (aka large dice), cut slices at 3/4" intervals
- Cut perpendicularly through the slices on the onion at the same intervals to make cubes.
Other cuts
Slicing, chopping, and dicing are the most common cuts, but you can also cut your onion into rings and grill them (perfect for burger-topping) or fry them up into onion rings.
Peel the onion and stabilize on a cutting board with your non-dominant hand.
Use a chef's knife to very carefully slice the whole onion to create perfect rounds.
Separate out the rings and then use them to make onion rings, of course.
If you're feeling real detail-oriented, you can even cut up your onions into flowers—fancy bloomin' onions, anyone? Here's how to do it:
Make four vertical cuts in each onion, making sure to leave the roots attached.
Fan out the cuts to reveal eight wedges in each onion.
Now you know how to cut onions, so what are you waiting for? Get to making our favorite onion-centric recipes.
