How To Chop Vegetables Correctly: 5 Kitchen Tips From A Professional Chef

Being a master chef means you have mastered the skills and techniques necessary to chop any kind of vegetable, while a layman, on the other hand, can barely cut an onion. Here's how you can be at the top of your game in the kitchen.

Before you start with the 5 different chopping techniques, you should always remember the following:

  • Put a damp paper towel or a damp, thin cloth under the cutting board so it doesn't slip
  • When chopping, take the hand holding the veggie, curve your fingers, and form a claw — this will protect you from any nasty cuts
  • Firmly grip the knife just behind the blade
  • Don't hack the knife up and down, but rather roll the blade from front to back

1. Dice

1.1 First make some horizontal cuts without cutting all the way through the onion.

1.2 Turn the onion 90 degrees and make some vertical cuts, again without cutting all the way through the onion.

1.3 Cut the onion as usual.

2. Mince

Instead of cutting the garlic into smaller and smaller pieces, just mince it – roughly chop and repeat until you have fine pieces.

3. Chiffonade

Instead of cutting each leaf one at a time or chopping it all over, put the leaves on top of each other, roll them up from the top, and then thinly slice.

4. Julienne

4.1 Cut a section from the carrot piece. Then place the carrot piece on the cut side to make it stable and then cut it into strips.

4.2 Stack these big strips and cut them into thinner ones.

5. Rolling Cut

Instead of moving the knife differently with each cut, perform half a turn with the carrot, rolling it forward and back when cutting, so that the knife can always be held at the same angle.

One last tip: While it's important to know the proper chopping techniques, it's equally important to use a good knife, so it's worth investing in a sharp, high-quality knife. And if you want to sharpen your cooking skills, be sure to check out these 15 pro cooking tricks for the kitchen.

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Also hefty