A mini food processor can do anything a full-size food processor can do—you know, aside from big-batch food prep. Any task that requires chopping, slicing, or shredding can be tackled with a mini food processor, whose ridged and razor-sharp blades cut through ingredients as a chef’s knife would—but a lot faster. The KitchenAid Mini Food Chopper ($50) has a handled prep bowl like the winning Cuisinart and a two-speed motor; it chopped onions with ease and made a decent hummus. Overall, we found it just didn’t match up against the winning Cuisinart in terms of effectiveness and power and was twice the cost of our budget pick. The blades are formed in a wave pattern and rotate for even chopping, while the nonskid base keeps the chopper from wandering around the counter when it’s being used.
Its versatility lies in the special Auto Reversing Smart Blade, which makes it easier to process both soft and hard foods. Designed in Italy, the Mini-Prep Plus’ sleek touch pad controls afford easy cleaning and an elegant look. And despite its space-saving size, it’s more powerful than other choppers. So now you can prepare small quantities of food faster and more efficiently than ever before. 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.
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. It’s worth investing in the best mini food processor even if you already have a full-size model in your kitchen. The small versions are a home cook’s best friend, cuisinart toaster costco making the time-consuming process of finely chopping vegetables a breeze and blitzing together just the right amount of blended sauce or dressing. They’re small enough that you don’t have to dedicate any prized counter space to them and can instead pull yours out of the drawer or cabinet whenever you want to make your dinner prep a little easier.
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. The Breville Sous Chef 12 BFP660SIL food processor did well in our tests, but it didn’t outperform the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro or our top pick, the Cuisinart Custom 14. The Sous Chef 12 wasn’t able to chop tomatoes or almonds as evenly as the Sous Chef 16 Pro.
There are buttons to choose either chopping or grinding, which spins the blade to chop through food with the sharp edge or bash with the flat edge. The bowl holds three cups, so it’s enough for a batch of salsa or onions for a recipe. If you’re 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. It will allow you to prep a range of food—whether you’re grating cheese, chopping nuts, slicing vegetables, or kneading dough—at lightning speed. We’ve 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.
After testing models with storage boxes, we found that such boxes are convenient for keeping attachments organized, and they’re worth investing in if your model doesn’t come with one. You can also organize blades and disks in a designated Tupperware-style container, basket, or other receptacle. We store the Cuisinart Custom 14’s extra blades cuisinart choppers and disks inside the processor’s work bowl, but be advised that this can scratch the bowl. This KitchenAid comes with relatively few parts and it disassembles easily for cleaning. We especially appreciate that the bowl has a handle, since we struggled to remove bowls that didn’t have one, especially when we were working with greasy hands.