Whether you’re prepping tomatoes for salads, salsa or taco night, learning how to dice a tomato is essential for a home cook to master. This step-by-step guide to dicing tomatoes includes advice on the right tools, safety tips and mistakes to avoid, from the experts in Food Network Kitchen and Eric Rowse, lead chef-instructor of Culinary Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education’s Los Angeles campus.

Essential Tools for Dicing Tomatoes

You'll need these two tools to slice, dice and cube tomatoes:

• A cutting board. Choose a wood or composite cutting board depending on your preference.
• A sharp knife. A workhorse knife like a chef’s knife, santoku or nakiri is the top pick for Rowse and Ginevra Iverson, FNK's Executive Chef. A serrated paring knife is a good stand-in and can also be useful for certain tasks, like removing the core from the tomato. Some knife block sets come with “tomato knives,” which Rowse explains are steak knives with finer serrations. “They can be useful but only because most home cooks end up with dull knives that crush a tomato rather than cut it,” he explains.

Safety Tips for Handling Knives While Dicing a Tomato:

• Tuck your fingers under your hand. This will keep them away from the knife's sharp blade and pointy tip.
• Cut away from you. Use your knuckles to guide your knife.
• Keep the work area dry. “Tomatoes have a lot of moisture so it’s important to keep the work area dry so it does not become slick and unsafe, Rowse says.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Dicing a Tomato

Diced tomatoes look like evenly sized, small cubes of tomato. Here is a step-by-step guide for how to dice a tomato for tacos, salsas, soups, salads, pasta sauces and more, including tips for achieving a uniform dice size.

Step 1: Prep the Tomato

Wash the tomato and pat dry with a kitchen towel or paper. Place the tomato stem-side up on a clean cutting board and remove the stem.

Step 2: Remove the Core

Place the tomato on its side. Insert the tip of a sharp paring knife into the top of the tomato to remove the hard core (the part where the stem attaches to the tomato). Gently push the knife down about 1/4 inch and cut around the hard core using an angled circular motion. Use the knife tip to lift out the hard core and discard.

Step 3: Slice the Tomato

Start at the tip (opposite the stem end). For even tomato slices, make a claw with your non-dominant hand and place your fingertips on the end of the tomato. Rest your knife against the flat part of your knuckles and walk your fingers backward as you carefully slice straight down through the tomato to create 1/4-inch-thick round slices. Keep in mind that the farther you move between slices, the thicker your tomato slices will be. If slicing a tomato for sandwiches or burgers, you can stop here.

Note, if you don’t want to include the tomato seeds... instead of slicing the tomato, quarter it. Place the quarters on a cutting board with the skin side down and cut out the seeds and jelly. Then, you can slice and dices these pieces to create precise cubes with minimal moisture.

Step 4: Cut the Tomato into Strips

Cut the slices into 1/4-inch-thick strips.

Step 5: Cut the Tomato into Small Squares

Rotate the tomato strips 90 degrees. Make parallel slices about 1/4 inch apart to create little squares.

Tips for Achieving Uniform Dice Size:

• Slow down. “If you aren’t used to cutting things smaller than a 1/4 inch, slow down," Rowse says. "The closer the blade is to your fingers, the greater the chance of getting cut, especially if you’re in a rush."
• Practice, practice, practice. “Practice makes precision.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Dicing Tomatoes

Choosing overripe tomatoes.

“Overripe tomatoes are harder to cut because they are very soft and release more water, which makes for a less safe work area,” Rowse says. Look for firm, ripe tomatoes for best results.

Using a dull knife.

Iverson and Rowse both stress the importance of using a sharp knife to help maintain texture and avoid mushiness. “A sharp knife makes cleaner cuts and is safer to use,” Rowse says. “Make sure to always use a slicing motion, whether it’s forward or backward, in combination with the up and down — if you just “chop,” you are crushing through the knife rather than cutting.” If a sharp knife isn't available, opt for a serrated paring knife, Iverson advises.

Cutting tomatoes too far in advance.

“The quality of cut tomatoes goes downhill pretty quickly and fresh tomatoes are the perfect breeding ground for bacteria,” Rowse says. Store diced tomatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for no more than 1 day for best results.

Not draining cut tomatoes before storage.

“If you left the seeds and jelly in the tomato when performing any of the knife cuts, drain before using if stored overnight,” Rowse says.

Storing cut tomatoes in a reactive container.

“Tomatoes are acidic and will react with aluminum and plastic, so non-reactive containers in glass or stainless steel are best,” Rowse says. For more info on how to store a cut tomato, check out our primer on The Best Way to Store Tomatoes.

For more info on tomatoes, check out our primer A Concise Guide to the Different Types of Tomatoes.

Related Links:

25 Fresh Tomato Recipes Your Whole Family Will Devour

18 Tomato Salads That Are Cool, Refreshing and Full of Flavor

25 Things to Make with Canned Tomatoes