If an electric chopper is more your speed, the Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus Food Processor not only makes quick work of chopping small foods, from nuts to apples, but can also emulsify your salad dressings. The blades are very sharp, so take care when handling them, but a plastic piece on top of the blade cuisinart choppers assembly provides a place to hold it safely. Browse our full selection offood processors and choppersto find exactly what you’re looking for. As for cleaning, The New Food Processor Bible’s Gilletz recommends putting water and a few drops of dish soap into the work bowl and running the machine.
The work bowl is tall rather than wide, so in testing it did a good job chopping small amounts of garlic. It also did well chopping onions, nuts, tomatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. It wasn’t perfect at chopping green peppers, but it was acceptable for recipes. Besides chopping, we used it to make a tomato puree and peanut butter, and it performed well with those tasks. Food processors are versatile appliances every home cook should have in their kitchen.
Not only is stainless steel resistant to water, but it’s highly durable and easy to maintain. The ease of use of a food chopper essentially boils down to whether it is manual or electric. While both models are fine for cooks of all levels, an electric food chopper definitely takes some of the labor out of the process. It will run you a bit more money, but operating it is as simple as the push of a button. There’s a handy pouring spout for dispensing liquids, and a drizzle hole in the lid that’s handy for making emulsified sauces or for slowly adding liquid to purees.
Mini processors are most useful for tasks such as chopping one onion, preparing salad dressing, or making a small batch of pesto. 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. The blades are formed in a wave pattern and rotate for even chopping, while the nonskid cuisinart air fryer oven base keeps the chopper from wandering around the counter when it’s being used. We tested it with a variety of vegetables, including onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and carrots, and it did a good job with them. Like many choppers, it did less well with green peppers, but they were still acceptable for our recipe. When chopping is done, this is easy to disassemble, and it’s dishwasher-safe.
You’ll need a blender if you want to make silky smoothies or to puree liquids like soup, which can splatter and leak out of a food processor’s doughnut-shaped bowl. It wasn’t 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. The Cuisinart FP-12DCN Elite Collection Food Processor also has this handy feature, but most models (including the Cuisinart Custom 14) require that you loosen the lid before removing the bowl. We recommend this large, 16-cup processor only if you’re cooking for a crowd multiple times a week. The Sous Chef is more than twice the price of the Cuisinart Custom 14, and it’s more powerful (and much bigger) than most people need. Most orders are shipped out in 1-2 business days, but please allow a maximum of 5 business days for your order to be shipped out.
We cleaned each model eight times, so we were achingly familiar with the gunk that can get trapped in more-complicated lids. We also appreciate the Cuisinart’s hollow handle, which doesn’t trap food particles and moisture as much as the Breville Sous Chef’s enclosed handle. They make light work of heavy meal prep jobs, and they’re user friendly and easy to clean. Most blades are made of stainless steel, because they can withstand rust or corrosion. Since the blade will be coming into contact with lots of moisture-heavy foods like onions and tomatoes, it’s a good idea to make sure that it’s resistant to rust.
When this innovative appliance first debuted in 1973, chefs and home cooks across the country quickly realized that Cuisinart food processors could drastically speed up food preparation. Today, thanks to new technology and added functions, Cuisinart choppers are even more efficient at making food for your favorite dishes. To meet your unique culinary needs, find a selection of food processors in a variety of sizes, ranging from a mini 4-cup to a large 14-cup one. Some Cuisinart food choppers also feature special slicing and shredding capabilities for foods such as cheese and vegetables. Use this handy machine to do everything from making homemade hummus to whipping up a zesty summer cabbage slaw.