If you’re going to spend any time in the kitchen, you’re going to have to learn how to chop vegetables. Proper chopping, slicing, and dicing techniques help us reduce waste, stay safe, and improve the taste and texture of our dishes.   Those of us who grew up under tyrannical chef-fathers, toiling away in the Dickens-Esque sweat-shops of their prep kitchens (sorry Dad, just trying to make a point…), may have spent months or years doing little else than chopping veggies, and take the techniques required in stride. For those who grew up playing outdoors, with other children, in the sunlight…the following steps will walk you through how to prepare almost any fresh vegetable for cooking, in your own kitchen.    Gettin’ ReadyFirst, we need to prepare our veggies for chopping, as necessary, by rinsing, peeling, trimming, discarding roots, etc.  It doesn’t matter how pretty, clean, or pristine they looked at the grocery store, there’s always the chance of residual contaminants from chemicals…