The nakiri knife is a Japanese knife that specialises in chopping, cutting and slicing vegetables. With its straight blade and seemingly missing tip, nakiri knives have a striking and memorable design, but how can you get the most out of your nakiri knife?
Unsure on whether a nakiri knife is right for you? Our guide explains their uses, specialisations and how nakiri knives differ from other knife types.
A nakiri knife is a Japanese vegetable knife. With its specialised design, it excels at slicing, cutting and chopping a variety of vegetables – from larger to smaller produce – and its large, broad blade can also be used to crush garlic cloves, nuts and more.
Although a nakiri knife has a large, broad blade, it shouldn’t be confused with a cleaver. Nakiri knives should never been used to cut through large cuts of meat, bones or cartilage. They should also never be used to prep frozen foods. Unlike cleavers which are hardy and heavy, nakiri knives are much more fragile.
Translating to “leaf cutter” or “vegetable cutter,” nakiri knives are designed to prepare an assortment of vegetables but can also be used to chop and slice herbs and some fruits like apples, melons and tomatoes too.
Because of its generous size, you can chop a variety of vegetables regardless of size, from aubergine to parsnips, onions, garlic and anything in between. Its blunt tip avoids piercing vegetables when prepping, meaning you can prepare more delicate produce like courgettes, while the nakiri’s broad, rectangular blade makes it fantastic at scooping up chopped produce.
Nakiri knives excel at the fine dicing, mincing, chopping and slicing of vegetables and some fruit, while also being great at crushing garlic cloves too.
With the nakiri knife’s straight cutting edge and no-tip blade, you should always perform ‘push cutting’ (cutting in a straight down motion) when chopping vegetables, herbs and fruit. This is because the standard ‘rocking motion’ of Western knives can end up damaging the blade of a nakiri knife.
The shape of the nakiri knife’s blade is a deliberate design choice, allowing you to have maximum contact with the chopping board for a precise, clean cut. Whether you’re chopping onions, slicing delicate greens or mincing garlic or herbs, the flat edge and thin blade of a nakiri knife is perfect for producing uniform and/or paper-thin slices.
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