Best Cuisinart Food Processors In 2021
Cuisinart’s food processor includes interchangeable 13-cup and 4.5-cup work bowls — so you can use it to prep salsa or coleslaw for a large party or just for two. It also comes with an adjustable slicing disc, a reversible shredding disc , a dough blade, a dicing disc, a versatile chopping blade, a cleaning tool, and a storage case cuisinart soup maker to hold your accessories. In our tests, this machine earned high scores at nearly every task, including kneading bread dough and shredding mozzarella cheese. This sleek kitchen workhorse speeds along your prep and cooking, with a large capacity work bowl for making quick meals, from weeknight dinners to weekend celebrations.
And Cuisinart’s food processors have a solid reputation for overall durability—anecdotally, we know of some that have lasted for decades. The Cuisinart has a strong motor and a heavy base that keeps it stable. 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 , this didn’t negatively affect the Cuisinart’s performance. 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. They’re versatile and large enough to handle bread dough, and often come with a a second small work bowl for smaller tasks and an assortment of accessories, too.
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 cuisinart soup maker 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.
However, according to several critical reviews, the Mini-Prep Plus series is apparently not up for grinding. To be more specific, the ground results from the process is likely to escape the unsealed cups. The auto-reversing SmartPower blade with sharp edges to chop/mix/ puree soft produce and blunt ones on the other side to grind will get all the actions done without replacement of the blade.
The Sous Chef’s thoughtful design was what really sold us on this machine. Other machines require you to fit the bowl over a shank on the base, but the Sous Chef has a flat attachment, with the shank attached to the inside of the work bowl. 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.
And given that this processor is huge—more than 18 inches tall and nearly 20 pounds—you’ll need a big counter to keep it on. We recommend the inexpensive KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper for anyone who wants to make small batches of dips, spreads, or mirepoix. It chopped vegetables more evenly than the other mini models we tested. On top of that, its handled jar with push-button activation was the most convenient to use. And this KitchenAid is a great option for people who don’t want to invest in a $200 machine. You can’t knead dough or shred ingredients in it, but you can grind or chop small portions of vegetables or nuts, which is more tedious to do by hand.
Though the 3 cup version is more popular, they are fundamentally the same machines featuring differently sized work bowls. Standard Cuisinart safety mechanism and turn-to-lock for the cups and lid are expected. With much, much less pressure on the buttons, oil from your fingertips are to be less imprinted, resulting in easy-to-clean marks if there were any.