Forum: cooking.stackexchange.com
Tags: <equipment><salad><cutting>
Title: Best tool for quickly cutting vegetables into a salad?
Question: I like eating a salad for lunch, but would like to somehow optimize the time it takes to cut the vegetables. My salad usually contains tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, carrot, etc.   I  could  buy an electrical blender, but the end result is usually not as tasty since the vegetable parts are too small. Therefore I tried to look-up for some alternatives:  Starfrit Chopper  Prepworks Chopper  Freshware Chopper  Anyone have experience with such devices? Perhaps there's some great alternative that I haven't found yet?

Answers:
sents: text: You could chop all your veges with a knife once a week and put them in containers...
text: If you are set on a machine, pick up a Food Processor (like a Cuisinart).
text: It has attachments to slice or grate your veges quickly and uniformly, and has many other uses too (quick bread dough, sauces, puree soups, etc.)
text: A Mandolin slicer will also work, and you can julienne things, but make sure to get a good one.
text: I am not happy with mine at all.
text: The advantage to this is you can change the thickness of your slices (i.e. thick cucumber slices, thin radish slices).
text: The tomatoes you will just have to cut by hand though.
text: There are tools for that, but I haven't seen a consumer version (giant slicers/wedgers at McDs, many decades ago).
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/25100/JSM
score: 5
sents: text: Not trying to be flippant here, but perhaps the 5 minutes it takes to make your daily salad is not worth the added efficiency of a device of some sort.
text: Vegetables like carrots and celery can be prepped during less hectic days of the week.
text: Likewise, cucumbers can be marinated in wine vinegar, water & spices, to add a piquancy to the salad.
text: Cherry or grape tomatoes are much easier than slicing a big tomato.
text: Bell pepper strips last longer than chopped bits.
text: Lastly, there's a lot of veggies not mentioned by your use of 'etc' after the list of your favorites.
text: What else do you do with your salad?
text: Do you add non-veggies like seeds or nuts?
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/25699/IconDaemon
score: 5
sents: text: I'm firmly in the mandoline camp.
text: The break even point comes at about 200 g of vegetables for me, below that knife is quicker because of the cleanup time.
text: It also doesn't add to your electricity bill and is by extension environmentally friendlier than running a 0.5 KW food processor daily.
text: If your knife speed is different, your break even point will be at another amount.
text: Because a real food processor requires much more cleaning, I find that the break even point for it vs mandoline comes at about 800 g of vegetables.
text: I have never made good experience with small handheld choppers like the one in your first link.
text: Maybe I just happened upon bad products, but they were clumsy and didn't cut well.
text: A good use for them is raw onions - the enclosed cutter reduces tears because only very little of the vapors escape.
text: I have never used tools like your second and third link.
text: But I'm very skeptical about them.
text: If their cutting surfaces aren't razor-sharp, they will smash the vegetable rather than cut it properly.
text: You'd need a softish vegetable for them anyway
text: , I doubt that they can do carrots or potatoes.
text: Even if they are perfectly sharp when you buy them, they will go dull with time and there is no way to sharpen them.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/4638/rumtscho
score: 4
sents: text: Thank you very much for your help!
text: I eventually decided to get this tool
text: (Genius Salad Chef Junior).
text: Works like a charm.
text: Here's what I've tried it with: Cucumbers - great Tomatoes - works, but a bit hard to push through completely Apples - great Cheese - very hard to push through, but works Carrots - great Smoked salmon - doesn't work
text: It should be sufficient for most salads.
text: The bowl is sealable and can be used to store several portions.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/26883/JonathanReez
score: 2
sents: text: I would STRONGLY advise a GOOD chef's knife.
text: I am not a professional, but I would not trade either of my chef's knives for a gadget.
text: For anything LESS than MASS PRODUCTION (think "cooking for 50"), the knife is quicker and more versatile in the results.
text: Let me emphasize a GOOD chef's knife.
text: It should either be an 8" or a 10" knife.
text: The blade should be 1.5"-2" thick from top to bottom.
text: It should have a smooth blade, not serrated.
text: Hold the knife in one hand, and the vegetable in the other.
text: Make sure you hold the vegetable with your finger tips, but bend your hand so that the knuckles is closest to the knife blade, not your finger tips.
text: That gives you a good grip on the food without putting the fingertips under the blade, and the knuckles are high enough off the food that you should use them as a guide.
text: Hold the cutting spot of the knife against your knuckles and use them as a cutting guide.
text: With each slice, slide your fingertips away from the blade just enough to make the next slice uniform with the 1st.
text: Alton Brown on FoodTV gives a very good video lesson on knife use.
text: Until I got my 1st chef's knife (I have both the 8" & the 10", and I use them differently, depending on the size of what I am chopping), chopping vegetables was a horrible experience trying to use a carving knife - it was a long, slow, tedius, dangerous process.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/33102/David
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
Food processors and mandolins are recommended tools for larger quantities, but otherwise a good chef's knife is quicker and more versatile. In many cases, egetables like carrots, celery and bell peppers can be prepared in advance to save time and cut enough to .
Vegetables can be prepared in advance in many cases to save time. However, for faster chopping, food processors and mandolins are recommended tools. On the other hand, a good chef's knife is both quick and versatile.