Understanding the proper way to chop a vegetable is essential whether you're slicing, dicing, or mincing. Because there are so many different kinds of knives, it is also confusing. How can you tell whether chopping a specific vegetable with a serrated knife or a boning knife will be simpler? How should a home cook handle veggies that need specific handling due to their distinct texture or the recipe being used? With so many varieties of knives, and multi-cuisine that are offered today, one can easily get puzzled and end up cutting the vegetable in the wrong way.
When chopping vegetables, it's important to remember some key principles, such as selecting the appropriate knife for the task at hand, maintaining proper knife sharpening, utilising the proper cutting board, positioning fingers correctly, and cutting vegetables into equal sized pieces. Let’s go a step further by looking into the ideal methods for chopping vegetables.
Carrots
Using the right knife that is heavy enough to cut through the tough produce is essential while chopping carrots. Another general rule is to expose as much surface area as possible, which applies to most veggies that are heavy in sugar and starch. This way cooking a carrot will cause its natural sugars to caramelise, giving it a sweeter flavour and accelerating the cooking process.
Cucumbers
A substance found in cucumbers called cucurbitacin gives some kinds of the fruit a slight bitterness. How should this crisp, chilly vegetable be prepared for cutting? Use a sharp Santoku-style knife to easily prepare cucumbers by dicing or julienning them. Cucumbers should always have their ends removed before being cut in half lengthwise, regardless of what you're doing with them. This will give the cucumber a level surface, preventing it from rolling around and becoming much more challenging to cut.
Eggplant
Even experienced chefs are intimidated by eggplants. Some people completely avoid utilising vegetables due to its delicate nature and slightly unpleasant flavour. While sautés and stir-fries frequently suggest cubes or sticks, many layered eggplant dishes call for planks or slices. Whereas cubes or sticks are frequently suggested for sautés and stir fries. The harsh ends of the eggplants should always be removed before further processing, regardless of how you slice it.
Potato
The versatile potato depends on precise cutting technique to perform its purpose whether you're frying it, hash-browning it, mashing it, or adding it to a salad. Using a knife that is long enough to completely cut through the potato is essential. Additionally, it's crucial to ensure that your potato is flattened. This vegetable is risky to process because of how easy it can roll around due to its form. If the potato doesn't have an obvious flat side to utilise, cut a little chunk off one side to make a level surface. Last but not least, to guarantee regular cooking times, cut your potato into sections of uniform size.
Onion
Although they are the foundation of so many recipes, onions can be challenging to work with. The fundamentals of chopping, dicing, and mincing an onion, first, trim the onion's non-root end. Next, slice the onion in half, starting at the root. It will be much simpler to peel as a result. After that, preparing the onion only requires the use of a chef's knife that is sharp. You'll have a handle to grip onto and an onion to stabilise it while you cut it if you keep the root attached. Additionally, this will keep the onion together and safeguard your fingers.
Avocado
Although technically a fruit, avocado is used in savoury dishes more like a vegetable. It can be hard to get inside because of its relatively huge pit and tough skin. Use a sharp chef's knife to make vertical cuts all the way around the avocado's pit, dividing it into two halves so you can safely access the creamy flesh. The pit can be removed by scooping it out with a teaspoon or by carefully hacking at the pit with the heel of your knife. Following pitting, you have two options for removing the avocado's peel: by hand, or by using a spoon to remove the flesh.
Bell Peppers
Bell peppers can be difficult to cut because of the tiny seeds that fly everywhere if you don't handle them carefully. Thankfully, there are a few ways to prevent this. Cut the pepper's flesh into four halves lengthwise, avoiding the stem, starting with the pepper's stem up. The pepper's seeds will still be connected to the pepper's core, which is still connected to the stem, making disposal simple.
Garlic
Although garlic is a common ingredient in many dishes, putting it in food from the bulb can be difficult. Garlic has a paper-like covering that sheds all over, making your hands smell, and is sticky to handle. All that is required is a chef's knife or Santoku-style knife of high quality. Put the garlic cloves on a cutting board after you've separated them from the head of garlic. Smash the cloves one at a time using the blade's wide end. The cloves will be separated from their papery covering as a result, making them less sticky to handle and easier to peel. Depending on what the recipe calls for, you can now slice, chop, or mince the garlic.
Cauliflower
The mainstay of the culinary world is cauliflower. But to get to its cruciferous deliciousness, you'll need a good chef's knife and a little bit of work. Every recipe for cauliflower starts by removing the leaves and then trimming the thick stem. After removing the stem, stabilise the cauliflower by placing its stem side down on a chopping board before slicing it in half. Florets can be manually removed one at a time, or you can cut each half into steaks for roasting or grilling.
Tomato
Although tomato is technically a fruit and not a vegetable, it is the heart of many savoury dishes. Due to its delicate flesh, cutting a tomato can be challenging since before you get a single slice out of it, it can easily be crushed into mush. To preserve the quality of this potent food, cutting tomatoes with a serrated knife or an exceedingly sharp chef's knife is essential. Simply turn the tomato on its side, remove the stem, and slice for perfect slices. Trim the stem first, then set the tomato's flat top on your cutting board and quarter it. The tomato is now ready to be sliced into wedges.