The $20 Kitchen Tool That Makes Eating More Vegetables Easier
Lower the Bar Series
Have you ever looked longingly at those giant bags of onions at warehouse stores?
They often cost about the same as a much smaller bag at the supermarket.
The savings are tempting.
But then reality sets in.
“There’s no way we’ll finish all those onions before they turn into a moldy, smelly mess.”
So you walk away.
You aren’t avoiding onions.
You’re avoiding all the work that comes with them.
A simple manual vegetable chopper changed that for me.
Not because it’s fancy.
Not because it’s trendy.
Because it removes one more barrier.
Small Tool. Big Difference.
A manual vegetable chopper isn’t magic.
You still need to trim vegetables and cut them into pieces that fit inside the grid.
But once they fit, every press takes less than a second.
There’s something oddly satisfying about loading the chopper, pressing down, and watching a pile of onions quickly become containers of neat, evenly diced pieces.
Before long, you’ve prepped enough onions for several meals, and what usually feels like a chore suddenly feels manageable.
An Unexpected Bonus: Fewer Onion Tears
If you’ve ever chopped several onions by hand, you know how quickly your eyes start protesting.
Because the blades are enclosed and the chopping happens quickly, many people notice far fewer tears than when chopping everything by hand.
It’s a small perk—but one I’ll happily take.
Where It Really Shines
I don’t pull out the vegetable chopper just to dice half an onion.
For small jobs, a knife is usually faster.
But once the chopper is on the counter, I almost always chop extra.
Several onions instead of one.
Extra celery.
More bell peppers.
Whatever I’m already working with.
The extra goes into containers in the refrigerator, ready for future meals.
That’s the real shortcut.
Instead of chopping onions three different nights, I chop them once and enjoy the payoff all week.
The Lazy RD in Me says:
Don’t create extra work. Get more value from the work you’re already doing.
Ready-to-Use Vegetables Are Vegetables You’ll Actually Use
Here’s something I’ve noticed over the years.
Once vegetables are washed, chopped, and waiting in the refrigerator, they’re far more likely to end up in tonight’s dinner.
A handful of onions goes into soup.
Celery finds its way into a stir-fry.
Bell peppers end up in scrambled eggs.
When the prep is already done, adding vegetables feels almost effortless.
One less decision.
One less excuse.
One more serving of vegetables.
Ready-to-use vegetables are vegetables you’ll actually use.
Less Food Waste. More Money in Your Pocket
We’ve all opened the refrigerator and discovered a lonely half onion that should have been used days ago.
Or vegetables hidden in the back until they became tomorrow’s compost.
Preparing extra vegetables while the chopper is already out helps prevent that.
Ready-to-use vegetables get used.
That means:
- Less food waste.
- Fewer forgotten vegetables.
- No more half-moldy onions stinking up the refrigerator.
- More value from the groceries you already bought.
Sometimes saving money isn’t about spending less at the grocery store.
It’s about throwing away less of what you already purchased.
Today, our household of two regularly takes advantage of those larger bags from warehouse stores. Once the vegetable chopper is out, I prep several onions in minutes and store the extras for meals throughout the week.
That little $20 tool has paid for itself many times over—not just in time saved, but in less food waste, lower grocery costs, and making vegetables much easier to use.
Why Not Just Use a Food Processor?
Food processors are excellent for shredding cheese, slicing vegetables, or making sauces and doughs.
But most standard food processors don’t produce evenly diced vegetables. Models that do usually cost more, require a special dicing attachment, and take longer to assemble and clean.
For quick vegetable prep, a manual vegetable chopper is often the simpler choice.
It takes seconds to set up.
No electricity.
No bulky machine to haul out of the cabinet.
Just load, press, empty the container, and repeat.
When I’m batch cooking, I usually prep several vegetables before washing it, so cleanup happens once instead of over and over again.
Chop a lot. Wash once.
More Than Just Dicing
Many newer vegetable choppers come with interchangeable blades for different dice sizes, slicing, grating, julienne cuts, and even spiralizing zucchini into vegetable noodles.
Some also include extras like a citrus juicer.
I mainly use mine for dicing vegetables during batch cooking, but it’s nice knowing the other attachments are there when I want them.
If one of those features helps you put more vegetables on your plate, that’s a bonus.
Lower the Bar
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive.
It doesn’t require fancy gadgets.
Sometimes one simple, affordable tool is enough to remove a barrier.
If a simple $20 tool helps you buy vegetables with more confidence, cook them more often, waste less food, and make healthy meals feel easier, that’s money well spent.
Because healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated.
Sometimes it starts by removing just one more barrier.
Have a favorite kitchen shortcut? Share it in the comments—you might help someone else lower the bar.