The Best Onion Choppers (Review) in 2020

Picking the right onion chopper can be frustrating for the simple fact that almost every other gadget you see in the market is designed in almost the same way. Well, don’t fret because we’ve prepared an onion chopper buying guide just for you.

What to Look for in Onion Choppers

Different folks usually have different tastes on their choice of kitchen tools, appliances, and gadgets. Some would go for something that is quite fashionable, to say the least, while others would prefer something more unpretentious. Some would love the power of an electric- or battery- operated gadget while others prefer going manual. Whatever the preferences are, your choice of the best onion choppers will ultimately take the following into consideration.

• Ease of Use

What’s the point of getting a tool if its mere use is already giving you a headache? The simpler the mechanism, the better it is. However, while it may have a simple cutting or chopping mechanism, it should also not deviate from its primary purpose – to chop. The point of this is to get an onion chopper that is very easy to use and also very easy to clean. For instance, if it is quite tedious to clean the blades or the disc plates, then you are only exposing yourself to unnecessary toil. As such, the vegetable chopper should help you prepare your onions in less time than it would take for you to chop it with a knife. Also, it should be very easy to clean.

• Safety

While we’re not talking about kitchen knives and cleavers here, remember that the rotary or chopping motion of the cutting edges is relatively sharp. One wrong move and you might be chopping off your fingers instead of the onion or any other ingredient you want to dice or chop. This is where onion choppers with built-in collection chambers are needed. At least you don’t actually have to worry about the blades cutting or chopping off any of your limbs. Plus, they also do a good job of collecting all of your ingredients in one convenient storage.

• Longevity

You would want a kitchen gadget that you can use for a significantly long time; not use it today and discard it tomorrow. A gadget’s durability is inherently a function of the materials used in its construction and how these materials are melded together to form a cohesive, integral unit. Remember, a failure in one of these components can significantly undermine the integrity and strength of the entire device. As such, when checking a device’s durability, you might want to consider the material used in its construction. Stainless steel provides exceptional strength although plastic is also tough. However, some plastics are prone to breakage so you’d have to look closely at such products.

• Storage

The idea about a kitchen gadget is for you to be able to access them whenever you feel like it. As such, the storability of these gadgets should be considered especially since these are technically bladed instruments. You don’t want them lying down on your kitchen countertop where your toddlers and preschoolers can easily reach them. Storage is more a function of the gadget’s size and compact design. Unfortunately, there will be some tradeoffs in such a consideration.

Choose something small that you can easily put inside your kitchen drawer and you’ll find yourself somewhat limited in the amount of ingredients that you can process at a time. If you’re preparing a meal good for the cafeteria, compact handheld devices simply won’t cut it since you’d be doing more chopping just to get the right amount of ingredients. Compare this with a large compartment device and you can easily process everything in a single pass. So, choose your gadget wisely.

Is the Onion Chopper Dishwasher Safe?

One of the inherent qualities of a good onion chopper or any kitchen gadget for that matter is its ease of cleaning, preferably one that you can simply pop inside your dishwasher. While most onion choppers are designed to be dishwasher safe, some actually have very specific recommendations as to where to place these gadgets in the washer. Typically, the top rack is where you need to place the various components of the onion chopper.

Know, too, that there are also products that are best washed by hand despite being dishwasher safe. The point is that if you have plenty of time and you don’t actually mind washing the dishes and your onion choppers by hand, then cleaning it the old fashioned way should be better.

Since it would be quite impossible to determine if the onion chopper you’ll eventually buy is safe in your dishwasher, just look at the materials it is made of. Now, check our list of the materials that are generally safe to be cleaned in the dishwasher.

• Aluminum – don’t use high water temperatures and very harsh detergents
• Stoneware
• Chinaware – glazed patterns may fade or discolor, however
• Crystal – leaded crystal run the risk of etching
• Glass
• Plastics – top rack only
• Stainless steel – rinse cycle first if you’re not going to wash it immediately
• Sterling silver – rinse cycle first especially if you don’t intend to wash it immediately; it should also never be allowed to get in contact with stainless steel.

Different Slicer Types

There can be a multitude of gadgets just for processing various food ingredients alone. While onion choppers are essentially one of them, these kitchen cutting devices can be categorized in the following types. The typology is inherent in the type of ingredient or food item that is being sliced, chopped, spiraled, or diced or however it is cut. Here are some of the more common types of slicers.

• All-purpose slicers – These slicers are not really specific to any kind of ingredient but they do have certain mechanisms that allow them to slice, dice, shred, wedge, and even core various ingredients, whether soft or hard.
• Corers and wedgers – These kitchen gadgets are more specific in removing the core and separating the wedges of certain fruits. For instance, wedgers are excellent for citrus fruits such as oranges, limes, and lemons. Apples, peaches, and pineapples are a lot easier processed using corers.
• Onion cutters – These are perfect for veggies and fruits that have a firm body like onions and nuts. Their design is such that they push the entire onion against a cutting mechanism instead of just maintaining a single point of contact.
• Lettuce cutters – The cutting area of these devices are larger than your conventional slicer, fully capable of cutting, dicing, and slicing whole cabbages, lettuces, and even melons and cooked chicken breast in one go.
• Tomato slicers – Tomatoes are very delicate ingredients. You’d need a very sharp blade to slice through the delicate skin and flesh of the tomato, otherwise you risk squishing it to pulp. It works with boiled eggs, too.

There are other types of slicers such as bagel cutters, bread slicers, pizza cutters, crinkle cutters, cheese slicers, spiral vegetable slicers, and French fry cutters, among many others.

Say goodbye to smelly hands and puffy eyes every time you process your onions. With these nifty kitchen gadgets, you’re more than fully capable of chopping onions the way professional chefs do.

Sources:

1. How to Peel and Chop an Onion - Real Simple