The 3 Best Food Processors In 2021
For small chopping tasks, the inexpensive KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper offers the best value and performance we’ve found in a mini processor. It evenly chops a range of ingredients, including tough jumbo carrots. This machine is a good supplement to a full-size model, or it’s a great alternative, if you don’t want to spend a lot.
It wasn’t able to chop as evenly as the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro or the Cuisinart Custom 14. The machine also seized up while preparing pizza dough and was noisier than other models we tested. 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. Mini food processors have bowls ranging in capacity from about 1½ cups to 6 cups, but we focused on those with a capacity of about three cups. Models smaller than that are too limited, and if you think you need one that’s larger than three cups, you’re probably better off with a full-size model. Using a food processor is like having your own personal sous chef — owning one will save you from having to do tons of tedious and tiring prep work.
Oster Pro also offers a more basic package featuring a 6-cup blender and 3-cup food chopper, featuring a stainless steel S-blade and 16 speeds from pulse to puree. No electricity is needed for this model, as it works with the simple pull of a handle. The two blades spin cuisinart soup maker in opposite directions, so they’ll spend their time chopping rather than moving food in a circle, while stationary arms at the top and bottom send food into the blades. A few pulls will give you chunky nuts or salsa, while more pulls can give you a smooth puree.
The Sous Chef 12 wasn’t able to chop tomatoes or almonds as evenly as the Sous Chef 16 Pro. Its smaller, 12-cup capacity was also more limiting than the Cuisinart’s 14-cup bowl. In spite of this malfunction, we were still able to explore the recipe database, which was easy to cuisinart soup maker navigate. The preprogrammed recipes seemed straightforward, but there are only 201 total. That may sound like a lot, but this model lacks the capability to add more recipes to its digital database down the road , so you’re stuck with what you get at the time of purchase.
“On” is good for grinding meat and puréeing ingredients for soups and dressings. You can use the “Off-Pulse” button to pulse the food processor — perfect for very quick meat slicing or vegetable chopping. There are safety mechanisms hidden all over the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup. If the groove of the pusher doesn’t feed into the feed tube, the food processor simply won’t turn on. From the top feed tube down to the 18-pound base, the Cuisinart Custom is a workhorse appliance for any kitchen.
The unit of discussing has two operating modes, one for chopping/mixing soft ingredients and one for grinding nuts and such. When you want to use the discs, the bulkier cover with feed chute is required. Thus, in scenarios of only chopping, mixing, pureeing, the compact flat cover of the 11-cup unit will prove to be much handier. When you switch between them or put them in/out of your dishwasher,always hold the discs by their edges and the blade by its hub. So rest assured that it won’t take long to take the unit apart to clean and store it.
When users choose to chop, the blade spins in one direction using the sharp edges. Meanwhile, the blade will spin the opposite direction exploiting the blunt edges for hard texture ingredients. As to why the item is half the 14-cup unit, it has a thing to with the slicing disc. The Pro-Custom 11-cup is with an extra compact flat cover with one drop-in hole which makes thing less complicated if your daily demands in the kitchen don’t often include shredding/slicing. That is what we meant by saying the model is “half” a mini processor (because the minis can’t shred or slice). To pick up a proper Cuisinart food processor, one simply can’t ignore the Custom series, especially the medium and large models.
The Food Chopper also minced parsley cleanly, whereas the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus tore it, causing it to oxidize faster. One task this processor doesn’t excel at is chopping whole almonds evenly, but that’s typical of most mini choppers. Some processors, such as the Magimix by Robot-Coupe 14-Cup Food Processor , have a wide gap between the shredding disk and the bowl lid, which allows large pieces of food to slip into the bowl. This mini, 3.5-cup processor is too small for making bread dough or coleslaw, but it’s the ideal size for chopping one onion or making small batches of mayo or vinaigrette.