Doesn't anyone sell diced onion in a jar?

[snfaulkner]

I felt he used too many onions, but it was still a good sauce.

[Elemenopy]

All right, I use 6-8 onions per week (cooking for family of 6) so I got this down. Here’s what you do:

Buy big onions, trust me. Chop off a bit of the top (sprout) end of the onion. Peel off the top layer, skin and flesh, and rip it off at the root–this “wastes” a layer of onion, but screw it. Put it in a baggie in the freezer for stock, if you do that sort of thing (I do).

Now slice the onion in half from root to “sprout.” You want basically half a root in both sections. This holds it together.

Now lay the onion down on the cut side, and make long cuts from the sprout end to the root, without cutting through the root. Keep your hand in a claw grip so you don’t slice your fingertips off. This makes crescents. You could now slice the root off for nice stir-fry/curry pieces. But you want diced. So now slice perpendicularly till you get to the root end. Done. Do it for both halves, put excess in a Baggie for tomorrow. Or the freezer, whatever.

[bump]

FYI, Trader Joe’s sells diced onions in a bag in the refrigerated section. It looked like maybe a 10-12 oz bag, and it sold for 2-3 bucks, so definitely a LOT more expensive than buying the 59 cent onion on the produce stand and cutting it up.

(saw that when I went to TJ’s during lunch yesterday not 15 minutes after posting in this thread)

[SmellMyWort]

I use a little red onion in my salad probably 4-5 days a week and use an onion keeper. Just slice off what you need and put it back in the keeper.

[Rhythmdvl]

@DCnDC

I use my mandoline to perfectly tiny-dice a small red onion and keep it in a small container in the fridge. It takes literally seconds, it’s good for like a week, and it’s pretty much a week’s worth of diced onions ready to go for anything (and I basically sprinkle some on everything).

Worth repeating. Everyone should own a mandolin (note: that I’m a majority shareholder in Acme Mandolins has nothing to do with this mandate). Whenever it’s time to use it, I’ll clean and prep a few more of just about whatever I’ve got because it’s that fucking awesome. Red onion sliced; red onion diced–into two Tupperwares they go for the next week. Nice pepper rings to throw in a quick salad (lettuce pre-washed in the spinner). Hey look, an unsliced tomato! Not anymore; there will be pre-sliced convenience for the next couple sandwiches. Hey you eating the bananna. Give me that. I don’t care if you don’t want it sliced, I’ve got my damned mandolin out. What’s that? You comin’ at me with a potato? Really? I got an insert for that. And hey just where do you think you’re going with those grapes anyway?!
Ahem.

Anyway, get a mandolin. They’re awesome.

[Kimballkid]

Just send $6.95 if you want it, $9.95 if you don’t, to Acme Mandolins.

[TBG]

@Spud

I take a whole unpeeled onion… or more likely a zip-lock bag from the fridge with an onion that already had a “spoonful” removed. Put the onion on a cutting board root side down, and take a Chef’s knife and cut one of the sides for as much or as little as you need. Put the onion back in the zip-lock. Pull off the peel and outer layer and toss in the trash. Chop, dice, mince… whatever you need. Takes seconds and costs a fraction of buying pre-processed.

I’ve never understood why people think this or peeling Garlic is difficult.

Peeling garlic isn’t difficult, just an annoying, time consuming task.