How to Choose the Best Food Processor?
Table of Contents
Top Best Food Processors Based on Reviews and Price
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Why You Need a Food Processor?
A food processor is an excellent home appliance that should be part of any home. In fact, it is an innovation and it can complete the tasks of many appliances like vegetable cutter, kneader, and many such appliances.
In fact, it can cut down on many time-consuming food preparation tasks in your kitchen. When they decide to buy a food processor, many people think about whether to buy a food processor or a mini chopper. A comparison will help with arriving at the right choice:
Food Processors VS Mini Choppers
Food Processors
A full-size processor generally comes with a wide range of attachments and can handle a wide range of tasks as mentioned earlier. For instance, it can take care of kneading, mixing, whipping, grating, slicing and chopping everything in a single unit.
This will be the ideal appliance to invest if you wish to bake in your home, but do not have the budget or space for a separate standalone mixer. Even, some units come with blender attachment to make smoothies and soups.
Features of Food Processors
- They come with many accessories
- Larger Capacity, making it ideal for bigger amounts
- Blender attachment
- Can handle most cooking and cooking prep tasks in a unit
Mini Choppers
If you need small amounts of pureeing and chopping, a mini chopper can do this for you. Mini choppers are affordable and smaller versions of food processors. They need much less space but have limited scope comparatively.
Features of Mini Choppers
- Small Capacity
- Generally restricted to pureeing and chopping
Now, with these things said, you might be interested in some useful considerations in the selection of the right food processor. Here are the top considerations to help:
10 Crucial Factors When Buying a Food Processor
1. Bowl Capacity
You know that the size of the bowl should decide the quantity of food you can process at any given point of time. So, the decision should be made based on the size of your family.
For instance, for a family of four, it would be wise to select the size of around 10 cups. In case, you will have frequent visitors and will cook large meals or if you need bigger meals for storage, you might have to go for a unit with a larger size bowl.
In most cases, a 14-cup food processor can do the job efficiently. Larger devices will be required for commercial food preparation.
The general bowl size rule is that a unit with a mini bowl will be of the 1-2 cups capacity, a small bowl can handle 3-4 cups of foods, while the medium-size bowl will handle 5-10 cups of foods. When you go for food processors with larger bowls, it can hold 11 or even more cups of food.
2. Power
It would be better to ensure that the food processor you chose should be powerful enough for handling even the tough jobs.
For instance, one that can shred a hard cheese, chopping raw carrots and kneading the stiff dough will help. Otherwise, you will face the risk of not combining the foods uniformly and not chopping veggies properly.
Even, in worst-case scenarios, the motor will burn out. If you go for a full-size food processor with a bowl capacity of 9 cups or more, you can choose a unit with a motor of at least 600 watts. The power of the unit will be decided by the motor used.
3. Attachments to Consider
Most food processors come with some standard attachments like grating discs, slicing blades, dough hooks, and chopping blades.
When talking about the attachments to consider, you should also check the paddles that come with the processor. If you will be frequently baking foods on your appliance, it is better to ensure that a dough paddle is present.
In general, you will have to pay more if you buy the attachment separately and not included in the unit. Some attachments that can be worth buying separately are mini-mills for spices.
Even, some attachments will help with grinding meat and kneading dough. It is better to check the attachments that will be helpful in your cooking before deciding.
4. Check Out the Blades
You know that sharp blades in food processors help with slicing veggies and fruits. When the unit has blades with small serrations, they will stay sharper as compared to straight blades.
Some bowls come with attached blades that you cannot remove from the bowl. But, it is better to go for the one with removable blades such that you can get the blades sharpened once they lose sharpness after several uses.
The quality of the materials used in the blades are made are essential to consider. For instance, if the unit has SS blades, you can expect better durability and performance.
Most units come with the standard S blade. Otherwise called the knife blade, it will perform most of the food processing works right from mincing meat to bringing together ingredients for a dip.
Some food processors come with quad blades with a couple of blades down the bottom and a couple of blades up the top permitting quick chopping without making the vegetables juicy at the bottom of the bowl.
5. Look at the Controls
It is better to select a food processor with pulse control mode. This mode will help pulse the foods until they reach the desired consistency. This control will particularly help if you wish to grind foods not so soft.
When talking about controls, you can also consider a unit with an electronic touchpad. The reason is that it will be easier to clean a food processor with this type of control as against other types like traditional toggle switches. Even, some units come with LED lights for easy operation even in low-light conditions.
6. Overall Size and Weight
Of course, you will have to consider the bowl capacity. But, you should also consider the overall size and weight of the food processor to ensure easy handling. You should have the idea of the space available in your kitchen countertop to decide the overall size of the food processor to buy.
When considering the size, you should measure the space available in your countertop in all angles including length, breadth, height, and width. The reason is that food processors come with feeding tubes or lids.
The feeding tube will increase the overall size of the unit. If you plan to place it in your cupboard and on the countertop only when required, you should check whether the size fits the cupboard and you can conveniently handle the weight of the unit for easy lifting and place.
7. The Feeding Tube
The best food processors will have a feeding tube. This will help you add vegetables and fruits to the unit without cutting.
However, if you feel that you have no problem with chopping the fruits and vegetables into smaller units before adding them to the food processor, you can select a unit with a smaller feeding tube.
So, the decision in this regard should be made purely on the basis of your personal preferences and requirements.
8. Dishwasher Safe Accessories and Attachments
If the attachments and accessories in the food processor are safe on a dishwasher, you can easily clean them after every use. Otherwise, you will have to carefully separate each one of them from the main unit and should carefully wash them by hand, which can consume a lot of time.
Rather, if the unit is stated by the manufacturer to be dishwasher safe, you can save a lot of time and energy washing each attachment.
9. Safety Features
Like any other appliance, safety is an essential consideration when shopping for food processors. For instance, some units come with safety features like blade locking mechanism, cover or bowl lock alignment to take the safety of the user to the next level.
Rather than hanging the power cord on the power socket when not in use, it will be safe to choose a unit, where you can safely store the power cord into the space provided in the unit itself.
Also, it is better to check whether the unit can safely attach itself to the countertop when chopping to avoid slips and falls.
Further, it should have an overload protection switch to make sure that you can get back the unit to working condition just in case it stops functioning because of overload.
10. Speed Variability
You know that some foods should be chopped at a faster pace just because of the hardness, while some foods will turn into pieces just at a slower speed.
So, when you shop for a food processor, do not forget to consider the speed variability offered. The better the speed variability it offers, the more versatile the food processor will be to meet your shredding, mincing and other needs at the kitchen efficiently and effectively.
Conclusion
It will not be an overstatement to state that food processors are revolutionizing the food industry. You can consider the points discussed above and choose the right food processor to make many jobs easier in the kitchen.
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