The Handy Aldi Kitchen Gadget That Chops Food The Old-School Way

There is a fine line between dicing and chopping, but either way, it can be a pain in the butt, er, hands. Especially if you're making something like a peach salsa, and you need to cut up the soft fruit, or fajitas, so you use Ina Garten's pro tip for slicing and dicing peppers, it's a thankless task that may require knife skills beyond your ability. While they do say that practice makes perfect, if you're in a time crunch, you might not want to go slow and steady — you're hungry, and you want dinner sooner rather than later. Well, lucky for you, Aldi comes in clutch once again with a handy manual chopper; it's an old-school pull-string design that actually really works.

This chopper, which is a return Aldi Find that tends to come out in late February or early March, costs just $6 at its latest release. It comes with three parts: bowl, lid with a very sturdy and ergonomic pull that fits onto the top when not in use, and the blade (the bowl and blade are dishwasher safe). You'll want to be very careful when removing the blade because that thing is sharp. But because the blade is activated by pulling the string, you don't need a power source to use it.

One thing to note, though: You're not completely free of chopping duties; due to its smaller size, you will have to cut most vegetables down into pieces for the tool to work. But from there, this chopper dices and minces like a dream.

Let's face it: Aldi's manual pull-string chopper chops, dices, and minces fruits and vegetables with ease. You can quickly make salsa, cut up aromatics to start on the skillet, or even puree fruit for pies. But it's useful beyond that, in ways that might surprise you. For example, it can be used on meat. Actually, because of how sharp the blades are, it will go through meat even more easily than vegetables. So you can quickly mince ham for ham salad, or if you prepare meals for someone with dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), it makes turning ground beef or turkey into smaller, more easily managed pieces a breeze.

It can also be your secret weapon if you're a baker. How often have you crushed nuts for a recipe using a plastic baggie and a rolling pin? This handy tool will quickly pulverize those kernels into smithereens, and you don't have to worry about the sharp edges putting holes in the thin plastic and making a mess. Does your recipe call for a graham cracker crust? Again, the manual chopper comes to the rescue. Or if you want to create a corn flake coating for your baked chicken, this nifty gadget takes on an onerous task and makes it, well, kind of fun.