While standard food processors have between 8 and 14 cups of capacity, mini food processors offer 2 to 5 cups for small jobs, such as preparing homemade dressings and dips. Though they don’t have grating or slicing attachments, they can chop an onion or whip up a batch of salad dressing in seconds. Plus, they save you the headache of cleaning a large machine without sacrificing too much power. That said, we also looked at mini food processors (also called mini choppers). 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.
All we had to do was load a halved onion and push down to shove it through the blades. Iconic Cuisinart® food processors chop, purée, slice, and shred with ease. The Cuisinart FP-13DGM Elemental 13 Cup Food Processor and Dicing Kit didn’t chop as evenly as our picks. Our testers were impressed with the dicing kit, which chopped firm vegetables like potatoes and carrots into even cubes.
The SmartPower blade has a patented auto-reversing ability with a sharp edge for delicate chopping and pureeing soft foods, while the blunt edge grinds through spices and harder foods. Additionally, the revolutionary BladeLock System keeps the blade secure during processing and pouring. As for cleaning, The New Food Processor cuisinart toaster costco Bible’s Gilletz recommends putting water and a few drops of dish soap into the work bowl and running the machine. A bottle brush is handy for cleaning around the feed tube, inside the food pressers, and along the sharp blades. Never submerge the base of a food processor in water; only wipe it down with a damp cloth or sponge.
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. Not only is stainless cuisinart toa60 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.
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. If you’ve ever struggled to fit a blade over a pile of flour in a processor bowl, you’ll appreciate this design feature. Like the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus (our former mini chopper pick), this model runs only while you hold the “on” button down.
The full-sized food processors we test come in a variety of sizes and capacities, ranging from 3 cups to an impressive 18 cups. They’re too big for processing small volumes of food, such as minced garlic or chopped herbs and nuts. Some food processors come with mini chopping cuisinart choppers bowl attachments to accommodate lighter loads, but if you’re only chopping small batches, all you need is a food chopper. 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.