A quick way to cut onions without tears: Melbourne Foodie Melanie Lionello shares her simple hack

Here’s the RIGHT way to chop onions: Why this simple but ‘lifesaving’ trick to chop vegetables so finely has made the internet go wild

• A Melbourne nutritionist has shared a handy hack to finely chop onions
• Melanie Lionello demonstrates her trick in a video that has been viewed 11 million times
• He says the hack is ‘life-changing’ and won’t bring tears to your eyes
• Melanie makes slices from root to stem along the length of the onion
• He then flipped the onion on the side and made a series of thin vertical cuts

By Louise Allingham For The Australian Daily

Published: 00:27 EDT, August 2, 2022 | Updated: 00:27 EDT, August 2, 2022

A foodie has shared his simple and hassle-free hack to chop onions in less than 30 seconds.

Cookbook author and nutritionist Melanie Lionello demonstrates a ‘life-changing’ trick she says will ‘save so many tears’ in the now viral clip.

The Melbourne chef, who heads From My Little Kitchen, cuts the onion stalks whole and places them on a cutting board with the roots facing up.

Scroll down for the video

Melbourne foodie and nutritionist Melanie Lionello has gone mega viral with a simple way of chopping and dicing onions in under 30 seconds that won’t make your eyes water.

After peeling the skin off the onion, he made several slices across the entire onion from root to stem with each piece meeting in the middle.

Melanie then turned the onion at an angle and made a series of thin vertical cuts from the stem to the root.

He was left with a diced onion strip that was perfect for cooking and eye drying.

‘I was a few years old today when I found out that I could chop onions like this. Please let me know I’m not the only one,” he said in an Instagram video.

The cookbook author cut the stems from the whole onion, placed it on a cutting board with the roots facing up and made several slices all the way around the vegetables.

Melanie then turned the onion at an angle and made a series of thin vertical cuts from the stem to the root.

The video has been viewed more than 11.4 million times on the platform as well as hundreds of thank you comments.

‘THIS IS A GAME CHANGE,’ one spectator exclaimed.

‘Wow I’m trying this, never cut onions like this but it looks so easy!’ write another.

‘I love chopping onions like this. It saved my eyes from tears,’ said a third.

‘Cutting it in half first so you have it firmly on a flat surface will make it safer to do, you can cut it yourself by doing it whole,’ suggests fourth.

Why do onions make you cry?

Onions contain chemical compounds and enzymes that mix to release irritating gases when onions are cut.

This helps keep the bulb from being eaten by animals as it grows in the soil.

Onions make your eyes burn for the same reason they make you cry: thanks to the combination of those chemicals and the enzymes that are synthesized when onions are cut.

This creates syn-propanethial-S-oxide, a volatile gas that makes your eyes burn and fill with tears.

Here’s how the process works:

1. Onions contain chemical precursors for gases and activating enzymes that float in onion cells in small walled areas (vacuoles).
2. Onions sliced, diced or bitten.
3. A mixture of precursors and enzymes, creates an unstable chemical irritant.
4. At room temperature, these irritants quickly become gases that are dispersed in the air.
5. Gas triggers pain receptors in your eyes and nose that are designed to protect you from chemicals, fumes, and other hazards.
6. The tear glands (lacrimal glands) in the eye then make tears to wash away the irritation.

Source: allaboutvision.com

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