Dicing Veggies

Does anyone have or know of a non electric chopper/dicer, that really works well, is easy to take apart and clean???

I have had or maybe still have several (some where in the kitchen) of the spring loaded center plunger style choppers, but I don't like them for some or all of the above reasons, plus they would not completely cut  the bell or hot peppers.  My need at this time is mostly in preparing veggies for the dehydrator.  The one I was given is small with only five trays and it takes me about an hour using a knife to clean and dice enough to fill the five trays, which I don't mind as I keep my knives sharp.  But if I upgrade to a larger ten tray model and start canning again I'll need something a little faster and easier.

I do have and use a hand grater, mostly for hard cheese and potatoes for hash browns.  One of the hand cranked processors with the cone cutter would be OK if the cleaning was easy.

I remember at or near this time of the year making and canning harvest relish, which was mostly what veggies were still producing before the first frost came.  Hand chopping everything!  I know my hands couldn't take that kind of work today!

Any suggestions?

Peace

Look up dicer under vevor.com

https://www.vevor.com/dicers-c_10676/vevor-commercial-vegetable-dicer-vegetable-chopper-4-blades-french-fry-cutter-p_010206161843

Have you tried a mandolin?

The year I got my air fryer disaster I got a potato french fry cutter that I really love.

This is similar for chopping veggies:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYYGC78D/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3

Anne Miller wrote:Have you tried a mandolin?

I love my mandolin!

Mandolin's require respect because they can hurt you if you are not careful, they usually come with a guard to keep you away from the blade. I know some people wear a cut resistant glove when working around the blade also.

As a trained chef, I recommend getting a really good japanese santoku knife. In the school, our teachers made us spend days dicing veghies for the school canteen. When we complained, the old and wise teacher said that there is no greater skill than mastery of one's knife.
I agree. I can dice huge amounts of produce just with my trusty old companion, a great santoku.

John F Dean wrote:Look up dicer under vevor.com

https://www.vevor.com/dicers-c_10676/vevor-commercial-vegetable-dicer-vegetable-chopper-4-blades-french-fry-cutter-p_010206161843

This thing looks brilliant.

I also have a mandoline, and the knife skills, but I can't use my knife hand for the next 3-6 months and I wish I had one of these. The mandoline works for some things, but not for chopping. At this point I need to either get help, or cut really, really slowly with my non-dominant hand-- not great when you're doing more than one onion.
This past weekend I had to process 10kg of tomatoes; the business I was supposed to chop, I ended up just cutting into 4 or even 2 pieces and later blitzing with the immersion blender instead. Sometimes you need a workaround!

Tereza Okava wrote: At this point I need to either get help, or cut really, really slowly with my non-dominant hand-- not great when you're doing more than one onion.

A textbook example of why humans need to focus less on "hand dominance" and encourage a bit more ambidextrousness. I was actually discouraged from working on skills with both hands for my younger son, when the school wanted him to be right dominant. I was looking at a much longer time frame than they were!

That said, we too would be very careful dicing veggies with our non-dominant hands. Buttering bread is one thing, chopping carrots is another.

Apparently Mezzaluna knives come with single or multiple blades:


These might be workable without thumb use on your dominant hand, or be easier to use safely with your non-dominant hand.

Alas, I have nobody else to blame for knife handedness but myself-- like many lefties who went to school, I am ambidextrous for pretty much everything I learned as a kid. I can write with both hands, use chopsticks, sports/aim/shooting on both sides, etc. But things I learned to do as an adult, and spent lots of hours creating muscle memory (knife skills, crocheting, knitting) I didn't bother learning on both sides, and sad left hand is not up to the task.
I can peel/cut a mango with both hands, but dice/chop/julienne large quantities using my chef knife (or the cleaver, for that matter), it's almost automatic and I'm not comfortable with the wrong hand- not least of all because my knives are screaming sharp and not fooling around!

And I hear the OP on hand strength when you're doing large amounts. None of us are getting any younger than we used to be!

Tereza, I feel for you ❤️. I would be an invalid without my right hand!
Really something to ponder. I should start training the left paw as well!

Update:  I may have found just what I wanted.   Non electric, easy to disassemble and easy to wash/clean.  It is a hand cranked rotary grater , but with a set of five blades of different patterns, two easy in, easy out blades fit into the cone.  No more bleeding knuckles from hand washing cones or the inside of a box grater.

Is it made with old world engineering and of the finest materials?  No It is all made of plastic, with the blades made of stainless steel.  It cost less than $25 plus a few bucks for shipping.  Would it hold up to everyday heavy use, I doubt it, but I think it will be fine for a single person using it mostly for prep of veggies for drying.

I shredded two large potatoes for dinner tonight in about thirty seconds, Cleaning up was a breeze.

If you want you can look up susteas.com

Peace

The Vevor arrived a couple of days ago. It works like it is supposed to.   It dices things as hard as carrots nicely.   The blades are easy to change.  Washing the blades are more if a challenge in that a quick rinse won’t work.  It takes some deliberate scrubbing.  And yes, the blades are sharp.