Chopping means simply cutting something into small, usually even, pieces. You need to chop vegetables, most often onions and garlic, for many different cooking techniques, including sautéing. Chopping a vegetable follows a pretty simple procedure. This example shows how to chop an onion.
Cut the vegetable in half.
If you’re chopping an onion, you also need to peel back the papery skin and cut off the top, leaving the root end intact.
Place each half cut-side down and slice the vegetable lengthwise in parallel cuts.
Leave 1/8 to 1/4 inch between the slices.
Make several horizontal cuts parallel to the board.
You can decide how thick you want these cuts to be.
Cut through the vegetable at right angles to the board.
Make the pieces you cut as thick as desired. If you’re working with an onion, just discard the root end when you’ve chopped the rest of the onion half.
