Buzz
There are really two kinds of kitchen gadgets: the true essentials—the ones that make cooking easier, faster, and more efficient—and then there are the frivolous ones. I love my fun gadgets, but I could live without them. What I truly need, however, are the heroes of the kitchen, like my food processor. This is your ultimate guide to buying, using, and maintaining this multi-functional kitchen powerhouse.
How to Choose the Best Food Processor
Let’s be real, a food processor isn't the most affordable kitchen purchase you’ll ever make, but a quality one will last for many years of delightful cooking. However, if you’re going to spend a decent amount on a food-chopping, dough-mixing, emulsion-making machine, it better deliver on all fronts. Here are some factors to keep in mind when choosing the right one:
Chopping: As shown in the video by America’s Test Kitchen, the effectiveness of a food processor in chopping depends on a highly responsive pulse button (the blade should only move when the button is pressed and should stop immediately when your finger is released) and small gaps between the blade and the sides and bottom of the bowl (small spaces prevent food from hiding). The shape of the bowl also plays a role here. Straight-sided bowls let food fall back towards the blades, while sloped sides can trap food.
Slicing and Dicing: A top-tier food processor should also excel at slicing and shredding with precision, without crushing or bruising ingredients, and with minimal waste. The key here is blade sharpness—a dull blade can juice carrots while shredding them and turn soft cheeses into a messy, wasted goo.
Mixing and Emulsifying: Mixing is another area where a food processor should perform well, and again, the distance between the blade and the bottom of the bowl matters. If the blade is too high, ingredients will sit underneath and never get mixed in properly. Straight-sided bowls are favored over sloped ones since slanted sides can cause splattering.
Clean-up: Lastly, a food processor should be easy to clean, because nobody wants to deal with the hassle of cleaning a complicated appliance. Look for one with a smooth design, free of hard-to-reach crevices where food can get stuck. If you have a dishwasher, opt for a processor with dishwasher-safe components, including the bowl and blades.
When it comes to food processors, America’s Test Kitchen highly recommends the Cuisinart Custom 14 Cup Processor, priced around $160 on Amazon. It outperforms a variety of competitors, including KitchenAid and Waring commercial models. This processor is also a favorite of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt from The Food Lab, although he prefers the 11-cup version.
After you've picked out your new favorite appliance, it's time to dive into cooking.
Using Your Food Processor
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the many delicious recipes a food processor can help you make, so take a moment to relax and focus on one recipe at a time. Beyond simple tasks like slicing and dicing, your processor can also be used to create the following:
Dips and Spreads
Pestos like the walnut pesto from the video, hummus, and pimento cheese can all be whipped up quickly and effortlessly using a food processor. Honestly, my Cuisinart does most of its work with cheese—whether it's shredding or slicing, both hard and soft cheeses can be processed into spreads, cheese balls (I highly recommend this Everything Bagel Cheese Ball from Bon Appetit), or even super-melty slices.
Sauces, salsas, and dressings
For silky sauces and soups, I always reach for my immersion blender, but for heartier sauces like romesco or marinades filled with grated ginger or garlic, my food processor is the star. It's also essential for making salsa, sparing me from the dreaded task of chopping onions and tearing up.
When it comes to emulsions, your food processor has a hidden gem: a small hole in the food pusher, allowing you to carefully pour ingredients for flawless emulsions. This nifty feature makes it easy to prepare rich Hollandaise, smooth vinaigrette, and velvety aioli.
Food processors are a game-changer when it comes to making all kinds of doughs.
My world changed forever the day I discovered how to make pie crust with a food processor. No matter the recipe, it's the fastest and most efficient way to incorporate fat into flour. Besides perfecting pie dough, the processor is also ideal for making pizza dough, fancy French bread, and sweet, sweet rugelach.
Tender ground meat
Grinding your own meat leads to juicier, more tender, and safer burgers, and you don’t need a meat grinder to make incredible burgers at home—your food processor will do the job. The video above explains why homemade ground beef is superior, and this article from Cook’s Illustrated guides you through the process. Personally, I wouldn’t stop at beef; lamb burgers ground at home sound absolutely delicious.
Bread crumbs may not seem like the most glamorous thing you can make with your food processor, but trust me, the crumbs you create will be far more flavorful than any store-bought version. Just toss in some stale bread chunks and give it a spin.
Crumbs and powders
If you're looking for a more gourmet option, you can use your food processor to make a fancy browned butter powder, just like the one in the video above, but be sure to have some maltodextrin on hand for the process.
Latkes and Hashbrowns
If there's one vegetable you should shred with your food processor, make it the potato. Homemade hash browns (not home fries; I’m done with ordering hashbrowns only to get home fries) and latkes are truly something special, and the food processor speeds up the process to get them to your plate in record time.
Easy Oreo Truffles
I’ll admit, the very first thing I made with my Cuisinart was a batch of Oreo cream cheese truffles. Sure, you don’t absolutely need a food processor to crush cookies and blend them with cream cheese, but using the food processor ensures that the Oreos are reduced to a fine powder and mixed in perfectly, creating a smooth, creamy, and chocolaty treat.
How to properly clean your processor
Although cleaning your food processor may seem like an easy task, it's something that still needs attention. To make this as effortless as possible, rinse the bowl and blade immediately after use to prevent food from drying and sticking. If you have a dishwasher, feel free to load up the dishwasher-safe parts and let the machine take care of the rest. For those who are their own dishwashers, fill a sink with hot soapy water and let the pieces soak for a while to loosen any stubborn debris. After soaking, scrub them down with a dish brush, paying close attention to every small nook—no one wants to find hardened remnants of hummus on their kitchen gear. Rinse everything off, dry thoroughly, and reassemble before storing. Once completed, you're ready to embark on your next culinary adventure.
Photo by Claire Lower.
