Picture this, you are in the middle of cooking dinner, and you realize that your dish needs a little something else to give it that extra bit of flavor it is missing. You need to add onions.
You could pull out your cutting board, grab a knife, maybe find that pair of onion goggles you bought a while back, and just start chopping away.
Or you could use the power of your blender. It’s time to experiment!
I know what you are thinking already. The blender? Really? Isn’t that just a bit overkill? In fact, are you really even saving any time by chopping the onion with the blender?
Don’t Use a Blender to Chop Onions If…
- You want to control the exact shape, size, and consistency of the final chopped onion pieces.
- It is going to create a lot more dirty dishes, and you really, really don’t want to wash anything else.
- You love chopping onions.
Yes, indeed, using the blender to chop an onion might be overkill. But there are still a couple of reasons why you might want to consider it.
Why Use a Blender to Chop Onions?
- If you don’t have onion goggles, you can save yourself from crying. Or at least hopefully you won’t cry as much.
- Maybe you have a lot of onions that need chopping.
- You want small pieces of onion but lack the fine motor control to masterfully chop with your kitchen knife.
- You were planning on using the blender for another part of the recipe, so you aren’t really making any extra dishes for yourself.
- You don’t mind if the cut onions are a little “watery.”
- You just like using your blender.
And let’s be honest, reason six, you just like using your blender, can be reason enough.
Prepping the Onion
The unfortunate part is, even though the blender will be doing most of the work, we still have to prep the onion a little bit. You will still have to pull out your cutting board.
Chop the onion into at least four pieces. You can also cut the onion into eight pieces, but you shouldn’t really have to go smaller than that. Peel off the dry outer layer of onion.
Load the Blender
Place the onion pieces into the blender.
Pulse!
Set the power level from one third to one half, and pulse the blender. Four to eight pulses should be enough to get the job done. You can pulse chop the onions more or less to reach your desired size of the onion pieces.
Sometimes when you are chopping the onion, large pieces can stick to the side of the blender container. If this is happening take the blender off of the base, and then use a spatula to scrape the pieces from the side back into the bottom of the container.
Safety First!
Remember to never stick your fingers in the blender container! Even if the container is safely off the motorized base, the blades at the bottom can be quite sharp. Always turn the power off, and take the blender container safely off the motorized base before scraping the sides with a spatula. And always follow all the instructions and warnings specific to the blender you are using.
And Now You’ve Got Chopped Onions
Wooohoo! Hopefully you saved some time and had some fun!
Commentary
Chopping the onions in the blender can be fun and a time saver, but depending on how you are planning on using the onions in the end it could be the wrong choice. The onions chopped in the blender do not have the same consistency as the onions that are chopped by hand.
For some reason the onions chopped in the blender seem to be more “watery.” This probably has something to do with how the blades of the blender randomly and chaotically slice the onions. When you precisely cut the onions with a kitchen knife, you don’t seem to release as much of the water and juices from the onions.
Watch the Video of the Onions Being Chopped
Below is a short video showing the experiment of chopping onions in the blender. Enjoy!
Conclusion
So, if you don’t mind chopped onions that are a little watery, or you have a lot of onions that you need to chop, it might make sense to use your blender. But overall I would usually recommend chopping onions the old fashioned way with a kitchen knife.
Loquacious Taste 