How to Cut Vegetables Using Kitchen Scissors
This tutorial is proudly sponsored by 3M Scotch™ Premium Kitchen Scissors. Retailing at major stores in Singapore at S$15.90 for non-detachable, and S$19.90 for detachable. |
This tutorial shows you how you can use your kitchen scissors effectively to cut a variety of vegetables (basil, spring onions, chilli, mushrooms, cabbage & capsicum) in different ways.
See Also: How to Cut Carrot Flowers
You can even make a chilli flower garnishing! My knife skills are certainly lacklustre, so using a good pair of kitchen scissors to cut these vegetables gives me better control, precision and safety.
Leafy herbs such as basil
Stack a few basil leaves together, roll them up like a cigar and snip off a thin layer each time to get finely shredded basil.
Spring Onions
For finely chopped green onions or scallions, gather a bunch of spring onions and snip off a thin layer at a time. You can also snip them directly onto the food, hence eliminating the need for a chopping board. To make curly flower spring onions for food garnishing, make 4 or 5 slits lengthwise on a 5cm long spring onion without cutting all the way through. Dip the spring onion in a bowl of ice water and it will curl up like a flower shortly after.
Chilli
Besides using kitchen scissors for thinly sliced chilli, you can also make an eye-catching chilli flower garnishing. After trimming the end of the chilli, make several lengthwise cuts from end to near the stalk. Dip the cut chilli in ice water bath for 10-20 minutes where it will gradually curl up like a flower. Using kitchen scissors minimizes direct contact with the chilli seeds, hence reducing the risk of chilli burn on your hands.
Mushroom, Cabbage & Capsicum
For effortless diced mushrooms, simply make lengthwise cuts (without cutting all the way through), then cut horizontally across. For leafy vegetables such as shredded cabbage, stack a few cabbage leaves together and cut according to your recipe needs. Capsicums (Bell Peppers) can be cut in various ways (wedges, long strips or diced). For diced capsicum; simply make lengthwise cuts without cutting all the way through, then cut horizontally for instant diced peppers.
I love to cut vegs with scissors especially the ones which are pungent, less mess and also saves me a lot of pain especially when handling the fiery cili padis. Must check the Scotch scissors out.
Learnt some new techniques fm you, will try it out soon.
same here, I’m terrified of chilli burns so I hold the chilli by the stalk and cut with my other hand, minimising contact with the chilli seeds.
3M also have kitchen scissors ah? That’s new. I often use kitchen scissors to cut green onions to finger-lengths. Next time I should just conveniently use the scissors to “finely chop” the green onions.
Nice tutorial. I loved my kitchen scissor too especially to cut the long noodle or veggie for my little girl.
Pls let me have an easy simplified ‘Poon choi’ receipe. Please explain the cooking method
of the individual precook dishes like vege, because i am not an expert in cooking, my head stressed with CNY so soon, so think of stacking in 1 pot dish and a soup.
Maybe some dishes could be ready bought eg : roasted pork, chicken, duck…etc ???
Thanks
I will attempt Pen Cai next weekend and will post the recipe before CNY if I’m successful.
This is a great tutorial! I use kitchen scissors to cut spring onions and chili but now I shall try other vegetables too!
Haven’t thought of shredding veggies with scissors yet. Always used it on meat. This is a good idea
Looks like an easy and safe way of cutting vegetables.