I hate chopping onions. Not because of the crying — I have made peace with that. I hate it because it takes forever. By the time I dice one onion, mince two cloves of garlic, and chop a bell pepper, 15 minutes have passed and I have not even started cooking. On weeknights, that is the difference between a home-cooked meal and ordering takeout.

Why a Manual Chopper Beats a Food Processor

I have a food processor. It lives in the back of a cabinet and comes out maybe twice a year because cleaning it takes longer than just chopping the vegetables by hand. The blade, the bowl, the lid, the pusher, the gasket — by the time it is all washed and dried, I have lost the will to cook.

A manual vegetable chopper is basically a grid of sharp stainless steel blades attached to a lid that you press down. Put an onion half on the grid, close the lid, press, and you get a container full of evenly diced onion in about three seconds. The whole thing rinses clean under the faucet in about 15 seconds.

What I Actually Use It For

• Onions: Peel, halve, press. No tears because the onion is enclosed during the chop.
• Garlic: Peel cloves, toss them in whole. Press once for minced garlic. Two cloves at a time.
• Bell peppers: Cut in half, remove seeds, lay flat on the grid, press. Perfect strips or squares depending on the blade insert.
• Carrots and celery: For soups and stews. The blade handles hard vegetables fine as long as you cut them into chunks that fit under the lid.
• Potatoes: For hash browns or breakfast potatoes. Par-cook them a bit if they are large, then chop.

On a typical weeknight, I can go from whole vegetables to everything chopped and in the pan in about 5 minutes instead of 15. The thing that used to be the most tedious part of cooking is now the fastest.

What to Look For

The market is flooded with identical-looking choppers in the 15 to 30 dollar range. The differences that actually matter:

• Stainless steel blades, not plastic. Plastic blades dull almost immediately and will not cut through carrots or potatoes.
• A container that holds at least 4 cups. Smaller containers mean you have to empty it constantly, which defeats the purpose.
• Interchangeable blade grids. Most come with a small dice and a large dice grid. Some include a spiralizer or a julienne blade. The large dice is what I use 90 percent of the time.
• The catch container should have a non-slip base. Pressing down hard on a chopper that is sliding around on the counter is frustrating. Rubber feet or a silicone base ring fix this.

I cook at home four or five nights a week now instead of two or three, and it is almost entirely because chopping vegetables is no longer a chore I dread. A 20-dollar kitchen tool changed my eating habits. That feels silly to say, but it is true.