In our tests, we found that a 14-cup capacity food processor bowl was ideal for most people. The Sous Chef powered through an entire russet potato in less than a secondnoticeably faster than any of the other models. Although theres some overlap in what they can do, food processors and blenders arent interchangeable appliances. In spite of this malfunction, we were still able to explore the recipe database, which was easy to navigate. It also comes with only the most useful attachments: a stainless-steel chopping blade and disks for shredding and slicing. But the smaller tube needs to be narrow enough to keep carrots and other thin items upright during slicing. Low-quality machines, which are typically lighter, often skid across the counter when processing dough, or the motor may even seize up. We recommend the inexpensive KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper for anyone who wants to make small batches of dips, spreads, or mirepoix. Good Housekeeping 350W 2-cup Mini Food Processor, Hamilton Beach Stack & Press 3-Cup Glass Bowl Chopper, Reverses directions so you can use sharp and blunt sides of blades, Must hold either button down to run continuously, Splatter guard doubles as storage lid for work bowl, Head can pivot during processing if you dont hold it in place, Slim design takes up minimal space on your counters, Must pack feed tube for the most even slicing results, Built in cord-wrap under base for compact storage, Available in two blacks, two reds, grey, white and light blue, If its not charged, you have to wait for the battery to re-up, No buttons just press the top to pulse or run, Removable basket helps create uniform cuts, Available in black, green, purple, red and white, Knife work required to fit the ChopDrop basket, Bowl is microwave-, oven-, freezer- and dishwasher-safe, Includes lids so you can chop and store in the same bowl, Built-in pour spot for transferring foods to serving bowl, Lid allows liquids to be added while processing, Available in two blacks, two reds, two light blues, yellow, grey, silver and white, Some users find the lid difficult to remove. Mini food processors are useful in any kitchen because they produce even results without the elbow grease of chopping by hand and they dont require any knife skills or knowledge of how to sharpen a knife for tasks like chopping vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts and cheeses, prepping homemade baby food, or making small batches of vinaigrette, pesto, salsa, or sauces. This mini, 3.5-cup processor is too small for making bread dough or coleslaw, but its the ideal size for chopping one onion or making small batches of mayo or vinaigrette. This food processor is dead simple, great at its job, and lasts forever. Most were evenly chopped, but there were a handful of nuts that remained in large pieces. The motor on the Elemental was noisy, and the base is very lightweight. Mini processors are most useful for tasks such as chopping one onion, preparing salad dressing, or making a small batch of pesto. The Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro is more powerful than the Cuisinart Custom 14, so its the machine youll want when youre cooking for large groups or if you process food several times a week. If youre a cook who needs to get dinner on the table quickly, a food processor can feel like an additional pair of hands in the kitchen. The Breville Sous Chef diced tomatoes and onions evenly, and it chopped nuts to a more consistent texture than the Cuisinart. But the KitchenAids design makes it particularly easy to do so. Our testers were impressed with the dicing kit, which chopped firm vegetables like potatoes and carrots into even cubes. In our tests, the Cuisinart evenly chopped almost everything, including juicy tomatoes. You can sometimes find cheaper, secondhand parts on eBay, but just be sure you get the right model number. This mini food processor includes a drizzle basin in the lid that acts as a funnel to slowly incorporate oils and other liquids. Bowls with fewer parts and accessories are easier to assemble and clean, as are bowls with fewer nooks and crannies between the parts. Weve been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. It also tore parsley, whereas the KitchenAid produced a clean, even cut. The included slicing disk makes approximately 5-millimeter slices, which is fine for most tasks, but youll probably want the 2-millimeter slicing disk for making homemade potato chips. The lid has two holes and a long wellso you can add liquid when making dressings or mayonnaise,allow for air flow, and reduces clogging. Its 1,200-watt motor and smart design save you time in use and cleaning. If youre ready to make the jump from occasional home cook to home chef, these are the pro-level tools we recommend. We appreciate that Breville provides a storage case for the attachments, but the box takes up almost as much cupboard space as the machine itself. It wasnt able to chop as evenly as the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro or the Cuisinart Custom 14. The Food Chopper also minced parsley cleanly, whereas the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus tore it, causing it to oxidize faster. With some careful layering, you can store all of the Cuisinarts blades and disks in its work bowl, with the lid on, which saves a bit of storage space (and keeps you from gouging a hand on a loose blade in a drawer). Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. Weve been testing food processors since 2013, and we remain convinced that the simple, sturdy, and powerful Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor is the best choice for most home cooks. Both the high and low speed options allow you to pulse. How easy are the blades and lid to assemble? Most full-size processors come with a wide feed tube thats fitted with a food presser, which has a narrower feed tube (with its own presser) in the center. This test revealed more difficult-to-reach nooks and crannies than wed expected to find in some machines. Learn more about our, 8 Best Mini Food Processors of 2022, According to Kitchen Experts, Sarah Wharton, Good Housekeeping Institute, What to look for when buying a mini food processor. As Gilletz said, Its always better to go a little bigger than a little smaller. Christine Cyr Clisset is a deputy editor overseeing home coverage for Wirecutter. In fact, despite the 16-cup Sous Chefs many accessories, it was one of the easiest models to clean. Unlike those of some other models we tested, the Cuisinarts base remained stable on the counter, even when processing double batches of dough. One task this processor doesnt excel at is chopping whole almonds evenly, but thats typical of most mini choppers. Its one investment thats going to last you a lot of years. Combined, theyve logged thousands of hours on many machines. The Cuisinart FP-13DGM Elemental 13 Cup Food Processor and Dicing Kit didnt chop as evenly as our picks. TikTok's "Product Overload" Trend Is Dangerous, The Best Spanish-Language Shows on Netflix, This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. The Food Chopper has handled tough jobs, too: One Wirecutter staffer who owns this machine (and who doesnt have room for a larger machine in his tiny kitchen) has successfully used it to make pie dough in small batches. The Cuisinart Complete Chef chops, slices, and cooks food all in one 18-cup stainless steel bowl (it comes with attachments and built-in recipes for cooking things like risotto or beef stew). If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. (The only exception was almondsmore on that in the Flaws but not dealbreakers section, below.) The model can fully charge in under two hours, but will also give you enough chopping power for some tasks in 10 minutes, if youre in a pinch. Youll regret getting one that isnt big enough. If you cook for a family or simply cook a lot, a bigger machine makes more sense. And though were not huge fans of the mini bowls on most of the big processors, we liked the Sous Chefs 2-cup bowl best among the ones weve tried. But the way the bowl is put together can make a huge difference in how easy a processor is to use. You can usually purchase everything from a juicing attachment to julienne disks separately, but such extras often go unused. Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. The bowl has scratched a bit (because weve stored the sharp blades inside it), but otherwise it looks like new. And we made a firmer, more stable mayonnaise in the Cuisinart than in any other full-size model we tested. Sal Vaglica, The Best Food Processors, Serious Eats, October 17, 2017, Jean Anderson, author, Process This, phone interview, July 2013, Norene Gilletz, author, The New Food Processor Bible, phone interview, July 2013. While many people use their food processor for mincing vegetables, this appliance is also your best friend for easily grating cheese, slicing potatoes for a gratin, grinding fresh bread crumbs, or quickly cutting butter into flour to make pie dough. But you can buy additional slicing disks through Cuisinart if you want them. Thats because its lid has a small indent to hold oil and a small hole that allows the oil to pour directly onto the blades so you have a consistent, measured stream. The handle and pour spot are handy for transferring foods. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing to save people time, energy and money when making buying decisions. The Cuisinart doesnt come with a storage case for its attachments. But we find dough blades unnecessary and have successfully prepared doughs using regular chopping blades for years. This is one of Cuisinarts most basic models, but it consistently chops, slices, and kneads better than any other food processor weve found for under $200. That said, we also looked at mini food processors (also called mini choppers). However, we think its actually easier to see the ingredients in the bowl when the feed tube is positioned in the back of the lid. The preprogrammed recipes seemed straightforward, but there are only 201 total. The 3-cup bowl is a comfortable size for prepping many ingredients, and the option to chop or grind provides versatility. And we didnt notice any straining or stuttering of this models 240-watt motor, even when it was chopping a fibrous jumbo carrot. In our tests, this mini food processorchopped parsley, garlic, and onion quickly and evenly, and it made some of the smoothest, creamiest hummus we've ever tested. The Breville Sous Chef 12 BFP660SIL food processor did well in our tests, but it didnt outperform the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro or our top pick, the Cuisinart Custom 14. It diced onions more consistently than the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus, and it chopped a quartered tomato evenlywe had to cut a tomato into smaller pieces to get the same results using other models. This affordable 2-cup mini food processor has a 2-in-1 lid that functions as a splatter guard and a storage lid. Mini food processors have bowls ranging in capacity from about 1 cups to 6 cups, but we focused on those with a capacity of about three cups. We independently review everything we recommend. It evenly chops a range of ingredients, including tough jumbo carrots. The Sous Chef is the only model we tested that had an LCD timer (which counts up and down), and this model also has retractable cord storage. In our tests, the Cuisinart tackled a multitude of chopping, shredding, and blending tasks exceptionally well, and its built more solidly than other processors in its price range. Weve been long-term testing the Cuisinart Custom 14 since 2013, and it remains a workhorse in the kitchen. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, 17 Best Grilling Accessories to Up Your BBQ Game, The Best Window Air Conditioners for Your Home, 9 Best Ice Cream Makers for Homemade Desserts, Weve been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. The feed tube is very wide, so thin items like carrots fall to the side, and the rounded lid creates a wide gap around the perimeter of the slicing blade, allowing large pieces of food to slip through, into the bowl. Weve been long-term testing the KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper since 2017. It comes with a handful of accessories and disks that are needed to complete common kitchen tasks, but nothing extra. These useful kitchen tools were the most-purchased Wirecutter kitchen picks in 2021. We also appreciate the Cuisinarts hollow handle, which doesnt trap food particles and moisture as much as the Breville Sous Chefs enclosed handle. However, since this was the only task this model excelled at, we dont think its best for most people. Year after year, weve made slaws, grated cheese, blended dips, chopped nuts, and kneaded pizza dough in itand it continues to work well. Sarah is the Senior Editor & Analyst for the Good Housekeeping Institute, where she tests products and covers the best picks across home, kitchen, tech, health and beauty. review process. At first the Cuisinart seemed kind of puny next to some other models, which boasted nesting bowls, taller bases, and big boxes of attachments. In our tests, this processor even performed better than the mini bowl attachments that come with some of the larger processors. You can toggle between two settings chop and puree and the control function is run with a press of your thumb on top of the handle. Most mini choppers dont have hefty bases like full-size processors do, and the Food Chopper is no exception. But, as Cuisinart told us, if youre using the blade more aggressively or more frequently than the average consumer it can become dull. If that happens, both Cuisinart and Breville sell replacement blades. We read a few reviews by people who disliked how the Cuisinart Custom 14s lid locks with the feed tube in the back rather than in the front (which is standard for most models). Finally, the Cuisinart Custom 14s work bowl was easier to clean than the bowls of most of the other models we tested. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. We were eager to see how it would compare to the Thermomix (a wildly expensive blender that cooks, and which has something of a cult following outside of the US), but we werent able to get it to work. And given that this processor is hugemore than 18 inches tall and nearly 20 poundsyoull need a big counter to keep it on. The Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus was our former mini chopper pick. She previously edited cookbooks and craft books for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and she started reviewing kitchen gear back in 2013. It also comes with a standard blade post so to chop without the basket for foods like nuts, cheese, and bread crumbs. Subscribe now for unlimited access. We share seven strategies for reducing food waste that skip the guilt trip and focus instead on a holistic approach to cooking. The narrow feed tube insert on the Cuisinart Custom 14 (right) kept carrots upright while shredding. Earlier versions of the Cuisinart Custom 14 included a dough blade, and you can still purchase one through the Cuisinart website. In short, food processors chop and slice, blenders liquefy. This food processor also has a straightforward interface, with just two buttons, and one bowl. Weve found that its slightly annoying to clean under the on/off buttons, but a damp sponge or paper towel makes the task easier. This processor also comes with a limited one-year product warranty and has a 25-year warranty on the motorby far the longest warranty on a motor of any of the models we tested. Ideally wed like to test a working model in the future, but we feel we can dismiss The Complete Chef for now due to its size, weight, hefty price, limited recipe database, and lack of customer support. This model also functions without twisting parts or checking locks: You simply stack the bowl on the base and press down on the lid. In terms of pure performance, the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro was hands down the best food processor we tested. By contrast, our upgrade pick, the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro, comes with a plethora of disks and accessories, requiring more storage space. *At the time of publishing, the price was $517. With the processors that came with a disk for grating, we also tried shredding both carrots and soft mozzarella cheese (which can turn to mush if the grater blades arent sharp). Meanwhile, senior kitchen and appliance editor Marguerite Preston still uses a decades-old Cuisinart Custom 14 that she inherited from her parents. This model also takes up a ton of counter space and weighs 30 pounds; its definitely not something youll want to lug around your kitchen often. Yours should last you a long time. The obvious drawback to all of these attachments is that they take up a lot of space, and they may not get much use (how often do you make fries, for example?). If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Beyond the main blade and one disk each for shredding and slicing, you dont need much else. The only task the Cuisinart Custom 14 didnt excel at was chopping nuts. A mini food processor is a great way to speed up your prep work whether youre making dinner for two or doing meal prep like a pro. The 14-cup bowl doesnt leak, and the controls are exactly what you need. In our tests, we looked for blades and grating disks that were sharp out of the box and durable enough to remain sharp over years of use, so that they could chop delicate herbs and tough nuts evenly, grate cheese uniformly, and slice vegetables cleanly. Michael Sullivan is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter and has covered food processors since 2016. How easy is it to clean? You can pulse or run in both chop and grind modes; use chop ingredients like herbs, onions, meat and purees, and grind for spices the blunt side of the blade is more gentle and won't muddy up the oils that release. The Sous Chefs grater disk shredded soft mozzarella cheese easily. The cord is designed to coil under the base so you can tuck it out of the way for storage. For ultimate efficiency,you can prep, cook and store in the microwave-, oven-, freezer- and dishwasher-safe glass bowls that come with this mini food processor (two 4-cup bowls and two storage lids). But its oversized and significantly more expensive than the Cuisinart, and it comes with a bulky bundle of accessories that you may not need. Plus what you need to know before buying a small food processor for your kitchen. By comparison, we found that the 11-cup Cuisinart we tested wasa little too small, particularly when processing wet ingredients. Most brands sell replacement parts, which may come in handy after the limited warranty on parts expires. However, at just under 2 pounds, it has a slightly heavier base than other mini models, which helps keep it stable. For the minis, we assessed each one's ability to chop onions (with both the minimum and maximum load), mince parsley, and grind Parmesan cheese. Weve read through this guide and stand by our picks. To help us suss out the features you should look for in a great food processor, we turned to two best-selling authors of food processing cookbooks: Jean Anderson, the James Beard Awardwinning author of Process This, and Norene Gilletz, author of The New Food Processor Bible. And this KitchenAid is a great option for people who dont want to invest in a $200 machine. What range of settings are included? We were especially impressed with the whipping disc, which whipped egg whites andcream in seconds, perfect for quick desserts. It chopped vegetables more evenly than the other mini models we tested. This kitchen tool is also handy for blending dips like hummus, preparing homemade mayonnaise, and mixing pie or bread dough. Its too small for kneading bread dough and lacks the attachments to shred or slice, but its great for completing basic tasks quickly, and its easier to clean and store than a full-size model. For this reasonand based on other reviews weve readwe were able to rule out many models from Cuisinart, Breville, Braun, Hamilton Beach, Magimix, Proctor Silex, KitchenAid, Oster, and Black+Decker that had bowls with capacities under 14 cups. Learn more about our We also checked the ease of use: How helpful is the owners manual? Making pizza dough was our most motor-intensive test, and the Custom 14 kneaded it effortlessly, without wiggling across the counter like some other processors we tried. This KitchenAid comes with relatively few parts and it disassembles easily for cleaning. We also made a 1-cup batch of mayonnaise in the processors to see how quickly and evenly they could produce a stable emulsification. This technologydoes a good job of prepping consistently sized ingredients, but it does mean more parts to clean. Flip the hinged center point open to add the motor; flip it closed to seal the lid on the work bowl. Like the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus (our former mini chopper pick), this model runs only while you hold the on button down. This means that, if you like to cook by ratio, you can put the bowl on a kitchen scale and measure ingredients into it with the blade attached, and then seamlessly connect the bowl to the motor base. Also, its mini bowl insert did not chop almonds evenly, so we recommend using its 16-cup bowl for this task. Food processor blades are not designed to be sharpened. Those that came out on top made our list of the best mini food processors. Besides being a bit loudand having hard-to-clean crevices underneath the blades core and around where the cord is storedits easy to use and continues to chop evenly. We especially appreciate that the bowl has a handle, since we struggled to remove bowls that didnt have one, especially when we were working with greasy hands. That said, if you only use a food processor occasionally, the Brevilles high cost probably outweighs its benefits. And despite its power, the Sous Chef was the quietest of the bunch at kneading dough. The grating disk also shredded soft mozzarella cheese without getting gummed up. How intuitive and easy are the controls? Since the Cuisinart mastered every other task, we dont think this is a dealbreaker. Some full-size models come with an extra, smaller bowl that essentially acts as a mini food processor, but in most cases, we found that a dedicated mini processor did a better job. After speaking with experts and spending years long-term testing several models, these are the qualities we look for in a good food processor: Sharp, useful attachments; few extras: All food processors come with an S-shaped blade for chopping, and most full-size models also include a couple of disks for grating or slicing. It wasnt able to chop as evenly as the KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper, and it moved across the counter as it struggled to chop a tough jumbo carrot. This KitchenAid also excels at emulsifications. In addition to the standard blades, the Sous Chef comes with a reversible shredding disk and an adjustable slicing disk that goes from a whisper-thin 0.33 millimeters to a generous 8 millimeters (its a true alternative to using a mandoline). The Food Chopper is covered by a one-year warranty, which is standard for appliances in this price range, and you can get the base in a wide range of colors. Most full-size food processors also come with blades for slicing and grating, which a blender cant do. We didnt try the machines french fry disk, julienne disk, or emulsifying disk attachments, but we did use the handy cleaning brush, which did a great job of getting trapped bits out of the slicing disk. The Sous Chef is solidly built, with a hefty base that weighs about 15 pounds (excluding the bowl). The Cuisinarts slicing disk isnt adjustable like the Breville Sous Chefs slicing disk, which has multiple settings, similar to a mandoline. With one blade, one grating disk, and one slicing disk, this 14-cup processor excelled at nearly every chopping and shredding task we attempted, working as well as or better than costly machines with more attachments. We have a guide to the best countertop blenders (as well as to the best handheld immersion blenders and the best personal blenders) if youre interested in getting one. Learn more. To start, we tested how evenly each food processor could chop a variety of ingredients, including onions, fibrous carrots, soft tomatoes, delicate parsley, and whole almonds. The Sous Chef 12 wasnt able to chop tomatoes or almonds as evenly as the Sous Chef 16 Pro. The Sous Chefs thoughtful design was what really sold us on this machine. A bottle brush is handy for cleaning around the feed tube, inside the food pressers, and along the sharp blades. Youll find replacement bowls, food pushers, blades, and various other attachments for the Cuisinart Custom 14 and the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro (though we should note that they can be quite expensive). If you dont want to store the attachments in the bowl, it would be worthwhile to purchase a case for about $30. The Cuisinart FP-12DCN Elite Collection Food Processor performed well in our tests, but it came with a gasket on the lid that frequently trapped flour and sticky ingredients. Heavy base: A good food processor will have a strong motor and a heavy base that anchors it to the counter so the processor can mix sturdy yeast doughs. At only 15 inches tall, the Cuisinart should also fit under most cupboards. The Cuisinarts three-year warranty on parts and five-year warranty on the motor arent the best among the models we tested, but theyre still pretty good. Pulse. The Good Housekeeping Institutes Kitchen Appliances and Technology Lab has tested more than 30 food processors, including mini food processors in recent years. Our pick: Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor, Budget pick: KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper, KitchenAid 13-Cup Food Processor with ExactSlice System, Cuisinart FP-12DCN Elite Collection Food Processor, Magimix by Robot-Coupe 14-Cup Food Processor, Cuisinart FP-13DGM Elemental 13 Cup Food Processor and Dicing Kit, Why We Love the Cuisinart Custom 14 Cup Food Processor, Wirecutters 100 Most Popular Kitchen Tools of 2021, Pro Kitchen Tools to Level Up Your Home Cooking. We decided not to test the Braun FP3020 12-Cup Food Processor since, at the time of testing, it was roughly the same price as the Cuisinart Custom 14, but with a smaller capacity. Breville clearly put a lot of thought into other design elements as well. In our efforts to choose which models to test, we also looked at reviews from other publications, such as Serious Eats, and examined user reviews on Amazon, Macys, and other sites. We couldnt justify paying more for a smaller machine. A mini model will process smaller quantities more efficiently than a full-size model, and its diminutive size means a mini model is easier to move around a counter, store, and clean. As long as you dont try to use the Food Chopper for heavy tasks, such as making nut butter, we dont think theres much risk of burning out the motor. Easy to use: Most food processors we looked at were relatively simple to operate, with not much more than an on/off button and a pulse button (good for roughly chopping things). Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. The Food Chopper looks almost identical to a full-size processor, except that it has a knob you can adjust to either chop or puree. The chop setting moves the blade at a slower rpm, and the puree button operates at a faster rpm. Deeper than the others, this bowl has a design that seemed to make uniformly mincing fresh parsley easier. With this method, the mayonnaise comes together without your having to control the flow of oil. Our recommendations include tried-and-true favorites as well as new models that have unique features like glass bowls for storing, whipping accessories, or cordless power. Both authors were early adopters, purchasing their first Cuisinarts shortly after the company introduced the appliances, in the 1970s. Mince fresh herbs without leaving behind the scent or prep salsa without staining the chopper:The durable glass bowl on this 3-cup mini food processor resists odors, and it wont scratch or stain. We cleaned each model eight times, so we were achingly familiar with the gunk that can get trapped in more-complicated lids. The blade and motor attach via a splatter guard that sits on top of the bowl and works with many other standard 4-cup bowls so you prep in your work bowl and then remove the processor unit from the top. This machine is a good supplement to a full-size model, or its a great alternative, if you dont want to spend a lot. We like the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor for its simplicity: This 14-cup models pared-down design makes it easier to use and to clean than models with more settings or multiple bowls. The larger tube should be big enough to easily fit a block of cheese or a potato, so you dont have to spend time cutting food into pieces that are small enough to fit. (Liquid tended to leak out of the Preps bowl.). Though its 750-watt motor is less powerful than those on some other models we tested, such as the 1,200-watt Breville Sous Chef (our upgrade pick), this didnt negatively affect the Cuisinarts performance. The Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor has been our top pick since 2013 because it does everything a great food processor should do, without any unnecessary extras. A food processor is the best tool for chopping and mincing, because its wide base allows the blades to slice through more at once, so you can coarsely chop ingredients quickly and evenly. Whether it's finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we'll help you get it right (the first time).

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small food grinder machine