In the case of manual food choppers, you will need to cut down food so that it is small enough to fit in the chopper. If you’re not confident in your chopping skills, both manual and electric choppers are easy ways to avoid spending too much time with your knife. For small chopping tasks, the inexpensive KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper offers the best value and performance we’ve found in a mini processor. This machine is a good supplement to a full-size model, or it’s a great alternative, if you don’t want to spend a lot.
Browse our full selection offood processors and choppersto find exactly what you’re looking for. They make light work of heavy meal prep jobs, and they’re user friendly and easy to clean. If an electric chopper is more your speed, the Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus Food Processor not only makes quick work of chopping small foods, from nuts to apples, but can also emulsify your salad dressings. In our tests, we found that a 14-cup capacity food processor bowl was ideal for most people.
The Cuisinart Complete Chef chops, slices, and cooks food all in one 18-cup stainless steel bowl (it comes with attachments and built-in recipes for cooking things like risotto or beef stew). We were eager to see how it would compare to the Thermomix (a wildly expensive blender that cooks, and which has something of a cult following outside of the US), but we weren’t able to get it to work. We probably just got a lemon, but that doesn’t bode well for a $700 appliance (at the time of this publishing). An error consistently appeared on the screen each time we attempted to run it, even when the correct lid and blade attachment were in place. The customer service representative we spoke to wasn’t able to offer much guidance since they weren’t familiar with the model (they even confessed it doesn’t sell often). In terms of pure performance, the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro was hands down the best food processor we tested.
To start, we tested how evenly each food processor could chop a variety of ingredients, including onions, fibrous carrots, soft tomatoes, delicate parsley, and whole almonds. We also made a 1-cup batch of mayonnaise in the processors to see how quickly and evenly they could produce a stable emulsification. We made pizza dough in each full-size processor to see if the motor could withstand the rigors of kneading.
We also made sauces and purees and considered the final texture of the results. 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.
We’re partial to the darker color, but it’s easy to match your other appliances with two options. If you don’t want to store the attachments in the bowl, it would be worthwhile to purchase a case for about $30. Bed Bath & Beyond is a nationwide chain of home furnishing “SUPER-STORES” offering one of the largest selection of products for your home anywhere, at everyday low prices. Christine Cyr Clisset is a deputy editor overseeing home coverage for Wirecutter.
A 14-cup food processor, like the Custom 14™ 14 Cup Food Processor, is just right for families or large gatherings. Or, if it’s just you making small batches, a compact option like the Elemental 4-Cup Chopper/Grinder is perfect for simple chopping, grinding or puréeing. We have a wide range of sizes available, cuisinart toa60 including 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14-cup work bowls. The Cuisinart Elemental Four-Cup Chopper performs the same jobs as a clunky food processor, without occupying all of your precious countertop space. Weighing 3.3-pounds and measuring just over 7-inches wide, it’s perfect for small kitchens.
That said, if you only use a food processor occasionally, the Breville’s high cost probably outweighs its benefits. And given that this processor is huge—more than 18 inches tall and nearly 20 pounds—you’ll need a big counter to keep it on. Between your food chopper and your bench scraper, you will save a lot of time with ingredient prep, and you won’t have to worry about chopped food scattered all over your kitchen. These choppers are usually operated by a cutting grid, and the food is chopped into a plastic lid or container. They are ideal for cutting vegetables like onions, peppers, carrots, celery, and mushrooms.
Though its 750-watt motor is less powerful than those on some other models we tested, such as the 1,200-watt Breville Sous Chef (our upgrade pick), this didn’t negatively affect the Cuisinart’s performance. Making pizza dough was our most motor-intensive test, and the Custom 14 kneaded it effortlessly, without wiggling across the counter like some other processors we tried. A food chopper can run you anywhere from $10 to $50, so understanding what you want out of this appliance is crucial to making the right decision when shopping. Generally speaking, a manual food chopper will cost less than an electric version, so if you’re wanting something that’s more budget-friendly, go for the former.