Cooking at home is great, but having enough time to do all of the necessary chopping and dicing of your ingredients can be a challenge. And, who can forget those tears that often come from direct exposure to julienned onions? The solution? A kitchen gadget that can greatly shorten the time from prep to plate: the vegetable dicer. The best vegetable dicers are ones that can do all of the hard work for you, take up minimal space, and are easy to clean.
When shopping for a vegetable dicer, there are two types to choose from: electric or manual. Electric devices tend to offer more versatility and less effort. Some go beyond basic dicing and can puree and shred with the touch of a button. However, you’ll need to be able to position these near an outlet, which means you may have less freedom on where your prep work takes place.
Manual dicers are more simplistic in their design, so they may require a little more elbow grease on your part to operate — they work with the press down of a blade, the pull of a rope, or the crank of an arm. While the lack of motor components means that some are limited to just chopping and dicing, there is an added benefit that all parts are usually dishwasher safe.
No matter which style you choose, safety will be an important factor when you operate a vegetable chopper because the blades can be sharp. Some models come with blades encased in protective frames and others should be handled with care when removing them from the plastic piece that locks them in place into the bowl.
I’ve compiled a list of the best vegetable dicers on Amazon below. All of them are made from BPA-free materials and will help cut your food prep time in half.
Although this is billed as an onion chopper, it’s not limited to just that one vegetable. Amazon fans gave it an impressive average of 4.6 stars across more than 14,000 reviews because of its ability to evenly dice produce like potatoes, celery, and carrots, helping you prep for a myriad of meals (soups, salads, stir-fries, etc.). To operate it, load your ingredient onto the top and press down on the cover. The pieces will fall straight through your chosen grid into the container.
All the plastic components are BPA-free and the entire unit is dishwasher safe (top rack only). It comes with two blades, for dicing vegetables into small or large chunks, and for added safety, each blade is protected by a plastic frame, so you don’t have to touch it when inserting or removing it. And since it doesn’t require electricity to function, you won’t have to worry about positioning it near an outlet in your kitchen. Just keep in mind that unlike a food processor, this pick is best for chopping or dicing just one vegetable at a time, and it doesn’t have the capability to shred or puree.
Fan review: “I use my Mueller Onion Chopper Pro almost every day. I am finding more ways to use it and it is seriously my new best friend in the kitchen. I cook A LOT and get little help from my husband so tools that speed things up are essential. It’s winter and soup is our go to meal with all this snow. Well that means a lot of chopping and dicing.”
This electric Ninja chopper dices, purees, chops, and blends, so you can use it in lieu of a bulky food processor. The compact design makes it perfect for smaller kitchens or those with limited storage space. It chops several vegetables at once so, you can easily throw together some homemade salsa or guacamole in a pinch. It comes with a bowl and four blades, which are all dishwasher safe, so cleanup is a breeze. Reviewers love how versatile it is, with many mentioning they even use it to make smoothies. Just keep in mind the bowl component only holds 2 cups, so if you’re making a lot of salsa, you may have to chop your ingredients in batches.
Fan review: “Bought this to replace my previous “chopper/Blender combo” – this is so simple – easy to operate and clean – does the job – it is small but perfect for my husband and myself – used it for the first time yesterday – cooked a healthy Lentil Soup – chopped everything perfectly : onions – celery – carrots – garlic – etc. – highly recommend -”
This BPA-free manual food chopper from Brieftons is powered by a pull string so when you tug it, the sharp steel blade inside spins to chop your ingredients. Reviewers mentioned it only takes two-three pulls to evenly cut down a full batch of veggies into tiny, minced pieces. It comes with two dishwasher-safe blades (one for dicing and the other for mixing), and the bowl is available as two or four cups, so if you’re planning on preparing a lot of food at once, like for soups or salads, you may want to consider the bigger option (pictured).
Fan review: “This thing has been a HUGE hit! Daily use for almost a year and it still works like new. Super easy to use, super easy to clean. But the real quality of this thing shows when chopping. It chops VERY evenly. You want coarse? It’s ALL coarse. You want fine? It’s ALL fine. You might only need to pull the handle twice to be thoroughly done. It’s MUCH quicker than expected.”
In addition to accessories that allow you to mix, chop, blend, whip, juice, shred, and slice, this versatile food chopper from Ultra Chef also has the largest capacity bowl of all the picks on this list. And it’s entirely manually operated! Some reviewers reported it even works well for pureeing. It has a crank on the top that rotates the blade inside when you turn it.
The anti-slip based keeps it from moving around while the blades are spinning. Each blade has a plastic layer around it so you don’t have to actually touch the blades when switching them out. It’s BPA-free and both the bowl and accessories are dishwasher safe.
Fan review: “I love this gadget! Works extremely well for many kitchen processes. Makes super salsa without pureeing it. Chops onions in seconds. [...] I have not had a single issue. I have been using this for some time now and I really like its versatile uses. I have sliced potatoes for home chips, cucumbers for my own dill pickles. Chopped all manner of veggies and fruits. Mixed dry mixes, sauces, and drinks. Very much worth buying.”
electric dicer
The sleek, compact design of this mini electric dicer is perfect for small kitchens where you may not have counter space. It has a pulse control, so it’s designed to chop, mince, shred, or puree, depending on how many pulses you use. The small size is great for one person, or you can use it for chopping batches of veggies for larger meals. Plus, all removable parts (the BPA-free bowl and lid and the blade) are dishwasher-safe, so it’s very easy to clean.
Fan review: “For a one person household, this is perfect. I don’t have to drag out my large food processor for little jobs. It holds about a cupful and does the same job as [a] larger processor. Cleaning is easy.”
Post time: Apr-03-2020