I hated chopping onions until I bought this life hack vegetable chopper — and it's under $20
This $16 gadget has revolutionized my meal prep routine — here's why I'm obsessed.
I don't cook often, but when I do, I get a lot of recipes from my mom, and almost every single one of them includes onions.
For the most part, they don't bother me, but when a recipe calls for finely dicing or chopping onions, that's where I draw the line. Maybe I'm just impatient or using the wrong knife; whatever it is, I know I cannot be bothered to chop up onion that finely, and my eyes cannot handle it either — the tears are very real.
For the longest time, I avoided making meals that required chopped onions until my sister introduced me to a pull chopper. I had never heard of a pull chopper before, but I took her word for it and got one — and it has made all the difference in my kitchen.
The Starfrit Pull Chopper has a 4.3-star rating on Amazon.
- Fast, easy & efficient
- Gradual chop
- Varying chopping levels
- Easy to clean
- No wires or electricity required
- Small and compact for storage
- Too small for larger chops
The details
The Starfrit pull chopper is a manual food processor that uses a three-blade cutting system and a self-retracting pull cord. Each time the cord is pulled, the blades turn eight times, chopping up your food. The more times the cord is pulled, the more finely the food is chopped — if you pull enough, you can even get a puree-like consistency.
It can be used to chop vegetables, fruits, meat, herbs and even ice.
The multi-purpose chopper, consisting of three parts, is easy to maintain and clean. The lid should be hand-washed, but the other parts are dishwasher safe.
Why it's great
When I tell you I am someone who avoided making certain meals, some of which I thoroughly enjoyed, just to avoid chopping some onions, I am not exaggerating one bit. Now, though, since I got a pull chopper, bring on the onions.
Not only does it chop down my onions quickly, but it is so fun and satisfying — I may even have a little too much fun pulling the cord sometimes and end up over-chopping.
If you overload it, the cord can be a bit tough to pull, but even then, I'm all for it; it feels like a challenge or a one-minute arm exercise.
Prior to the Starfrit Pull Chopper, I did try and find other solutions. I used my electric food processor, but it was too fast, resulting in over-chopped, mushy onions. Instead, the manual pull chopper gives me more control over the size since it's a slower, gradual chop.
Plus, I don't want to spend my time pulling out a chunky electric chopper or processor for an onion; the clean-up is rarely worth it.
The pull chopper became my perfect solution: it is lightweight, small, and easy to clean and use. It also doesn't require any electricity and it isn't too noisy — a plus for someone who usually cooks when their toddler naps.
Room for improvement
My only real improvement suggestion for the pull chopper is that it could be slightly larger so you could chop more in one go.
That being said, I do love the size, so yes I wish it was a tiny bit bigger, but I don't mind doing multiple batches if needed.
What reviewers are saying
With just more than 400 reviews and an average rating of 4.3 stars on Amazon, most buyers are quite impressed with this small yet powerful chopper.
It's an "amazing product!" writes one shopper. It "saves so much time in prep and cooking."
"Wish I got [it] sooner," they add.
More than onions, the chopper is "great" for chopping garlic and tomatoes, writes another. "Would definitely recommend this to anyone," they say. Plus, it's "easy to clean."
The Starfrit Pull Chopper has a 4.3-star rating on Amazon.
- Fast, easy & efficient
- Gradual chop
- Varying chopping levels
- Easy to clean
- No wires or electricity required
- Small and compact for storage
- Too small for larger chops
Similar to my experience, shoppers caution against overfilling the device.
With the amount of vegetables it can chop "without jamming," "I'd rather manually dice with a knife," writes one user. "It's extremely easy to jam."
Another buyer shares, "Remember not to overfill." That said, it's still so "quick and easy to use" that it's the "best little chopper."
The verdict
This was definitely worth the buy for my onion chopping problem, so I would highly recommend it for that. However, I haven't tried anything but onions, so the jury's still out on how it performs with other foods.
That said, given its fair price point, even if I only use it for onions, it's still worth it for the time and tears it has saved me.
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