Chop Onions Without Tears While Keeping Their Nutrients Intact—Here’s How!

It turns out that with just one simple trick, you can avoid eye and nose irritation while effortlessly handling onions!

 

 

Onions—whether red, white, or green—are versatile ingredients in cooking. However, the hardest part of preparing them is chopping, which often leaves people with teary eyes and a runny nose.

Onions are nutrient-rich, packed with vitamins B and C, calcium, selenium, quercetin, and sulfides. Their pungent aroma comes from sulfur compounds, which are volatile and possess antibacterial, antioxidant, immune-boosting, and metabolism-enhancing properties. The reason onions make you cry is that they contain amino acids like methionine and cystine. When an onion is cut, its cell walls break, releasing irritating gases that stimulate sensory nerves, causing eye and nose irritation.

However, by following this simple trick, you can minimize irritation and chop onions with ease!

1. Place a Wet Cloth Under the Onion Before Chopping

Lay a damp cloth on the cutting board and chop the onion over it. This allows the volatile chemicals to dissolve in the nearby moisture before they disperse into the air, reducing eye and nose irritation.

2. Avoid the Root End of the Onion

The highest concentration of sulfur compounds is in the root. Leaving the root intact until the end or cutting it separately can significantly reduce the release of tear-inducing chemicals.

3. Chill the Onion for 30 Minutes

Cold temperatures slow down chemical reactions. Refrigerating onions for about 30 minutes before chopping can reduce the activity of alliinase, the enzyme responsible for irritation. However, since onions don’t store well in cold conditions, avoid keeping them in the fridge for long—30 minutes is ideal.

4. Wet Your Knife Before Chopping

Since onion chemicals dissolve in water, using a wet knife can help wash away some of the irritants. While not as effective as chilling, this method is quick and convenient when you're short on time.

What You Shouldn’t Do

Some believe that soaking a halved onion in water for 10 minutes before chopping can prevent eye irritation. However, this method is not recommended.

Soaking onions in water can cause the loss of water-soluble nutrients like allicin, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus. Additionally, it reduces their natural sweetness, affecting the overall taste.

Try these tricks and say goodbye to teary onion-chopping sessions!