Food processor reviews: Features explained
Food processors are designed to make life in the kitchen easier
Food preparation appliances: the basics
Food preparation kitchen appliances are a great choice for keen cooks making meals from scratch, anyone who likes to batch cook meals and freeze them, or for anyone who wants to eat home-cooked food without spending hours in the kitchen preparing it, or having lots to clean up afterwards.
These kitchen appliances are designed to make life in the kitchen easier for you.
You'll still have to weigh and prepare food, but you'll save precious time by letting the food processor or mixer tackle the trickier tasks, often in seconds.
Plus, the results are a lot more consistent than can be achieved by hand.
Food processor, kitchen machine or mini chopper?
Food processors
A food processor's main tasks are chopping, slicing, mixing and grating. They're smaller in size than kitchen machines (also known as a stand mixers or food mixers).
Most models will come with a knife blade and a dough blade (or dough hook) as well as shredding and slicing discs. Some food processors come with extra accessories, such as a blender, mill or mini chopper, and some can even do additional tasks such as chipping or making mayonnaise.
Most food processors include attachments for mixing cake batter, whipping and whisking, but if this is the main reason for buying a food preparation appliance then a kitchen machine (or stand mixer) may be a better choice, as these appliances really excel at these tasks.
Kitchen machines are better at whisking
Kitchen machines
Kitchen machines are much larger than food processors, and usually come supplied with a big balloon whisk, a dough hook and a beater. They can also come with extras attachments such as a blender or a food processor, which make the appliance much more useful, but will also push the cost up.
The KitchenAid and Kenwood Chef also have a range of additional attachments you can buy such as a mincer, ice cream maker, or juicer.
A kitchen machine's main tasks are mixing cakes, kneading dough, whipping and whisking.
Kitchen machines excel at these tasks – much more so than food processors, due to their large capacities and big, metal balloon whisks – and are ideal for taking the hard work out of matching large batches of cakes, dough or batter.
Mini choppers
If you just want to chop the odd onion, or blend a small portion of baby food, then a mini chopper may be the answer. A mini chopper is a much smaller version of a food processor, and some can cost as little as £20.
Mini choppers are specifically designed to chop or purée small quantities of food quickly. They aren't designed for mixing, whisking, whipping, for chopping really hard items or for liquids, though.
Check out our mini chopper video to see how quickly you can make fresh tomato salsa.
What food preparation appliance do I need?
A food processor is a good investment if you prepare lots of homemade food, as it will help you save valuable time in the kitchen, taking the hard work out of many tasks, especially if you chop, slice or grate large amounts of vegetables.
If you make lots of cakes, dough or batters and need to whisk egg whites or whip cream, a kitchen machine will suit better.
Even if you have a food processor or kitchen machine, there may be times when you need to quickly purée a small amount of food, chop an onion or even make a quick dip.
In these instances, using a mini chopper will save you messing up your regular-sized appliance, and will be a good addition to your kitchen.
Food processors come with a wide array of attachments
Food processor attachments and accessories
To get the best out of your food preparation appliance, think about what you'll want your food processor to do - then make sure it comes with the tools you need.
Common food processor attachments and their functions:
- Knife blade Standard blade included with all appliances. It’s used for mixing, mincing, mashing and puréeing, as well as chopping. Sometimes called a multi-purpose blade.
- Dough hook or blade For kneading yeasted recipes, such as sweet and savoury breads. Most food processors will come with a dough blade.
- Shredding and slicing blade Blades come in different sizes, so you can shred and slice to a fine, medium, coarse or thick finish. Some models come with a chipping blade to make homemade chips or french fries. Blades will either be separate or on a single metal reversible disc, with one side used for shredding and one for slicing.
- Grating blade Similar to the slicing and shredding blades, the grating blade can be used for cheese or vegetables.
- Jug blender A jug blender attachment makes the main appliance more versatile, as you can purée food, make mayonnaise, blend milkshakes or sometimes crush ice (check the instructions first). Most manufacturers recommend you blend only cooled liquids. Sometimes the blades can get stuck, though – be very careful when freeing them.
- Potato rasp Can be used for grating hard parmesan cheese, potatoes, vegetables, coconut and nutmeg.
- Maxi-blend canopy This large disk, found only on Kenwood models, can be used in conjunction with the knife blade to blend soups more effectively. It works by changing the way the processor blends, which Kenwood claims makes the food processor more efficient.
Different types of slicing, shredding and grating discs
- Citrus press or juicer A cone and sieve for juicing oranges, lemons, grapefruits and limes. If you want to juice hard fruits or vegetables, you'll need a centrifugal juicer attachment, though you may be better off with a juicer.
- Mill For making small quantities of puree, grinding coffee beans and spices, and chopping nuts and herbs.
- Whisk This can come in various guises – you might get an emulsifying disc or whisk paddle or beaters. On food processors, twin beaters are the most effective and metal twin beaters give the best results.
Whisk attachments
- Mini bowl A small bowl with its own blade that fits inside the main bowl. Chopping is slower because the blade is shorter and therefore less effective at circulating the food, but for small quantities it can be more effective and saves on washing up the main bowl.
- Spatula This is to help you scrape food away from the sides of the bowl.
Kitchen machine attachments and accessories
Flat beater accessories
Kitchen machines really come into their own with cake making tasks. Kitchen machines whisk egg whites and cream to perfection, with plenty of volume and stiffness.
These appliances also score well for cake mix and bread dough too, however they do need more time to knead the dough, as the attachments don't work as fast as food processors', though our tests show that, in this case, faster isn't always better.
Kitchen machines use a planetary mixing action; this means the mixture should always end up back in the middle of the bowl and not stuck around the edges.
Kitchen machines aren't as good as food processors at making mayonnaise because they aren't as fast, so the mayonnaise doesn't emulsify as well. We've also found that making mayonnaise in a kitchen machine means it’s more yellow in colour than mayonnaise made in a food processor.
Dough hooks for kneading
Common kitchen machine attachments and their functions:
- Beater A standard accessory for mixing ingredients to make cakes, biscuits, pastry, icing, filings and even mashed potato.
- Flat beater or mixer blade Used to mix cake mixtures, pastry, potatoes, biscuits and any other sweet or savoury mixtures that have a normal to heavy consistency
- Kneading or dough hooks Suitable for yeast mixtures and to knead all kinds of dough mixtures.
- Balloon whisk These large metal balloon whisks (sometimes called a wire whip) are best for whisking egg whites, creaming ingredients and for light cake mixtures or batters. You can also use these to make mayonnaise. The large whisk incorporates much more air into the mix, but shouldn't be used for heavy mixtures, as it could get damaged.
- Splash guard A plastic lid with a hole in it that fixes over the top of the mixing bowl to stop splashing when you're adding ingredients. On some models, this needs to be attached before you start using the kitchen machine.
- Jug blender Some kitchen machines come with a jug blender attachment. Perfect for blending smoothies, milkshakes or even to purée food. If there’s a dosing hole for liquids you can make mayonnaise, too.
- Mini chopper For chopping nuts, herbs and spices but nothing really hard, such as ice, nutmeg or coffee beans.
- Grinder or mill Grind spices, pepper or dried fruit. Some mills can grind coffee, too, but check your instructions first.
- Mincer This accessory means you can mince your own meat and fish to make burgers, fishcakes, patés, terrines or meatballs. On some models, there’s a choice of a medium or coarse mincing screen.
A mini chopper is a mini version of a food processor
Mini choppers
A mini chopper is a mini version of a food processor. Mini choppers rose to fame after Delia Smith used one as a ‘cheat’ gadget on her TV programme in 2008.
They take up hardly any counter space, can quickly chop or purée, and are great for blitzing a paste or dip in seconds. However, mini choppers can't process large batches of food, and shouldn't be used for processing hot food or liquids.
Most mini choppers aren't suitable for chopping hard foods such as coffee beans, ice or nutmeg, but some of the most recent models we’ve seen are capable of performing some of these tasks.
A mini chopper is ideal for making dips, chopping onions or herbs or puréeing baby food.
Most won’t come with any accessories, and aren’t suitable for making dough or cake mixtures.
There are some exceptions to this, such as the Magimix Le Micro, which comes with an emulsifying attachment for making mayonnaise.
- Discover the best food processor by using our interactive tool to compare food processor features
- Ready to hit the shops? Find out how we test appliances and what makes a Best Buy food processor
- See how easy it is to make salsa in seconds - watch our mini chopper video
