Best and Cheap Food Processors: Detailed Guide 2024
Posted on |
There are a variety of food processors available in the market. Whether you make falafel every alternate week or you mince vegetables or just generally process food, there are many styles of food processors to look at. When purchasing a food processor normally we consider few things; whether it is falling within our budget and whether it has buttons or knobs, and how trouble-free and simple it is to clean them.
How you can identify whether it is a good food processor or not?
A top-performing food processor ought to be able to take on complete or big pieces of fresh fruits and vegetables, like onions, carrots, herbs, or potatoes and cut them into homogeneous pieces within few seconds. They ought to be able to perform tasks like grind hard cheeses, pure soups or sauces, make emulsions like mayo and even knead dough for bread and pies.
When you go for buying the processor, go for a model that consists of blades for slicing foods like tomatoes or cheese, too. We even suggest buying the one which has a large-sized feed tube in front and make sure it has a pulse setting both of these features will enable your chopper to work more spontaneously.
5 Surprising Things your Food Processor Can Do
- Grate Parmesan cheese. We just adore the micro plane fine zester/grater for a fast sprinkling of Parm on top a bowl of pasta but when the lasagna recipe requires a ½ cup or maybe more, hand grating can be tiresome… believe us, we have experienced it. If you simply chop your pack of cheese into chunks about 1-inch in size and process them in the processor built-in with the blade and not with the grating material, you’ll be stunned at the results.
- Knead dough. There are no more reasons left for not making your own pie crust. You just need to measure the ingredients perfectly and the processor mixes them quickly.
- Mince parsley. While usually there’s a perimeter to how much you can process, when we talk about curly parsley leaves, you can simply set them on to the top of the bowl.
- Whip up dressings and dips. Since they have been designed and brought into market, food processors have been known for their ability to make mayonnaise. There is a tiny small hole present in the cap of the feed tube. If you insert the oil through the hole, it pours into the eggs at just the correct pace to be immersed and turn into delicious mayo. But just let us be honest, who these days make their own mayonnaise as they are easily available in the market. However, this technique works like a magic when you have to make a mustardy or creamy salad dressing.
- Mix cookies. Simple cookie recipes that do not require to pour in ton of butter and flour, can be easily whizzed in the processor.
5 Food Processor Mistakes to Avoid
- Tossing in a complete onion. Before you chop, cut food into even size chunks for smoother processing. It even facilitates in dropping chopped pieces through the feed tube while the food processor remains in action rather than loading them all in the bowl before you start.
- Paying no attention to the pulse button. By hitting pulse to start the processor from time to time, you’ll get smoother and better results. If your food processor doesn’t accompany an automatic pulse feature, just press it on and off now and then.
- Not applying pressure. When you shred or slice, try to put forth equal pressure on food as you push it down to keep it stable in the tube and achieve consistent results.
- Using it rather than a blender. You are not sure when to use blender and when to use a food processor? If you desire to get a crude texture, a food processor will give you the best results. Blenders are known for fine grinding and pureeing smooth mixtures.
- Walking away. Just always remember never to do something else while the food processor is in operation, mainly if you’re making a heavy load like yeast dough as the processor can “walk” on, or even fall off of, the counter top.
So here we have come up with best food processors available in the market.
1.Trouble-free to use food processor
Oster total prep
The Oster Total Prep has been one of the trouble free-to-use food processors we have assessed. It is black in color with no-frills consist of an S-shaped blade for chopping, a dough blade, a reversible shredding and slicing disc, and even consist of a top and feed tube that are both tremendously simple to pull together.
And for rapid cleaning, all parts and accessories can be washed in dish washer. When we performed our tests, it uniformly whizzed diced onions and shredded carrots, though it did leave parsley slightly coarse when mincing. But at the price it is available in the market, who would care about this little thing?
It has a capacity of approx 10-cup
2. Best timeless food processor
Cuisinart Prep 9
The Cuisinart Prep 9 did extremely well at almost everything when we tested it, even complicated jobs like slicing tomatoes and shredding carrots. It’s a classic food processor with very fundamental, trouble free-to-use controls; it consists of just three buttons one for on, the second for off, and the third for pulse. These buttons makes this the supreme model for those who are new to using food processor.
It has a capacity of approx 9 cups and these nine-cup capacity is sufficient for most home cooks, but Cuisinart’s 11-cup sister model (the Prep 11 Plus) is perfect if you have visitors often and you make larger batches. This Cuisinart consist of a slicer disc, shredding disc, new chopping blade, detachable stem, spatula, and even a recipe book.
3. Best Large Food Processor
KitchenAid’s 14-cup food processor
KitchenAid’s 14-cup food processor is expensive, but the money is worth from this huge, long-lasting model. In addition it’s good looking enough to be placed enduringly on the countertop. It consist of blades which are being stacked and attachments to provide you vital resourcefulness, including a supplementary four-cup work bowl, two lids (one with and one without a feed tube), an adjustable slicing disc, reversible shredding disc, two multipurpose blades, a dough blade, dicing kit, cleaning tool, and a storage holder to tidily embrace it all.
Shop Here: KitchenAid’s 14-cup food processor
4. Best small food processor
Kitchen aid mini processor
Are you searching for a food processor but you do not have enough storage space to place to a full-sized model? This compact model is a wise choice for little kitchens, dorm rooms, or those who are likely to make small portions, as it just consist of one multipurpose chopping blade. It does not allow you to slice tomatoes. But we discovered the absence of attachments made it a treat to use. It offers pulse at two speeds one for chop the other one for puree), all parts can be washed in dishwasher, and there are 16 shades available in the market form which can easily choose and match it to your kitchen.
It has a capacity of approx 3.5 cups
Shop Here: Kitchen aid mini processor
5. Most versatile food processor
Cuisinart Elemental Food Processor
Cuisinart’s food processor consist of interchangeable 13-cup and 4.5-cup work bowls, so it can used to prepare salsa or coleslaw for a big party gathering or just for two as well. It consist of a flexible slicing disc, a reversible shredding disc (for medium or fine consistency), a dough blade, a dicing disc, a versatile chopping blade, a cleaning tool and a storage holder to cling onto your accessories. When we performed the tests, this machine got high scores at almost all task, which includes kneading bread dough and shredding mozzarella cheese.
It has a capacity of approx 13-cup
Shop Here: Cuisinart Elemental Food Processor
6. Best value food processor
Hamilton Beach’s Stack & Snap
Hamilton Beach’s Stack & Snap verified that there is need to spend a heavy amount of money in order to get a high performing food processor. When we did testing, it was good in grinding parmesan cheese, mincing parsley and slicing tomatoes paper thin. It comes in black and stainless steel base which has a feature of grey push-button controls in order to slice/shred, make pure or do mixing and pulsing.
It has a capacity of approx 12-cup.
Shop Here: Hamilton Beach’s Stack & Snap
7. Best overall food processor
Breville’s Sous Chef
Breville’s Sous Chef is amazing when we talk about performance. It has the feature of bells and whistles to provide you ultimate versatility. This food processor includes a micro-serrated S-blade, an adjustable slicer with 24 settings that range from paper-thin to thick-cut, a reversible shredder, a dough blade, and more.
Shop Here: Breville’s Sous Chef
Using a food processor is like having your own special chef that will save you from doing tons of exhausting work in the kitchen.
