Can You Really Slice An Onion Quickly With A Vegetable Peeler?
There are a few things in life you should learn before moving out on your own. While doing laundry, filing taxes, and getting renter's insurance are essential tasks, learning how to run your kitchen effectively is equally important. Fortunately, an endless supply of culinary hacks on the internet can aid in this rite of passage.
One of the most fundamental obstacles to overcome in the kitchen has to deal with fruits and veggies. Washing, chopping, pitting, slicing — these can all be daunting, even dangerous, without guidance or help. Insider notes that in 2018, nearly 9,000 hospital visits were essentially caused by avocados. Many misguided attempts, including extracting the pit and slicing the fruit in hand, led to a high rate of avocado-induced stays. More so, sharpened kitchen knives send 350,000 people to the ER annually, per Beaumont Emergency Hospital.
While many chefs suggest tucking and curling your fingers to avoid these visits, chopping veggies can still be unnerving. And when paired with acidic or strong-smelling ones, such as onions, it can be hard to see what you're doing through teary eyes. So, how do you thinly slice your veggies quickly without fear of injury? Turns out, if you have a veggie peeler, you don't need to use swimming goggles or fret over taking a trip to the ER.
This TikTok hack works wonders
Onions can be a tricky thing to conquer. And it's not just from the onion's flaky skin or from its potent, tear gas-like aroma. Sometimes, the real struggle comes from simply slicing the onion thin enough to be used in a burger or salad. Onions are an excellent addition to many meals, but they can overpower the main course when cut too thick. Thankfully, social media is ready to save yet another day with an easy onion-slicing hack.
TikTok account @casa_tips shared a unique way to get those skinny slivers of onion, and all it requires is a veggie peeler and a fork. The video, viewed nearly 94 million times, shows the user piercing a pre-trimmed red onion with the utensil before quickly moving the veggie peeler across the top. As it rapidly saws through the onion, sliced layers of transparent rings fall into a neat pile. Easy enough, right?
He continues to explain through sequential videos the best way to accomplish this task. First, the user must pierce the onion near the bottom with the fork facing down. Then, offset the veggie peeler's alternating motion by pushing the end of the utensil against the counter. To even out the cuts on the top, transfer the peeler from left to right until the onion is almost gone. Then, flip it over and repeat.
Other tools you can use to dice onions
Outside of the veggie peeler hack, there are multiple tricks you can use when cooking with onions. But before any slicing and dicing, you must first remove the onion's outer layer. This can be tricky and increasingly irritating when picking flakes off one by one. To end these trying times, First For Women suggests halving your onion (with skin intact) before laying it face-down on the cutting board and abruptly striking it.
Depending on who you ask, there are multiple "best ways" to effectively chop an onion. Some may say to let a knife and cutting board do their job, while others argue to throw it in a food processor and call it a day. Taste of Home even suggests tossing your onion in a sealable plastic bag and smashing it with a meat tenderizer. However, there are some nifty kitchen tools you can use to aid your onion-chopping antics on a small scale.
A single veggie dicer is perfect for cleaving and mincing vegetables one at a time. It's ideal when cooking a single meal and quickens the chopping process nearly tenfold. Or, get a multifunctional chopper to dice veggies straight into a container with the abrupt slam of a lid. It makes meal prepping a breeze and allows vegetables to be cut into various sizes and shapes.