As the holidays quickly approach I’ve been thinking that I would get a stainless steel food processor for my mom, as she also loves to cook.
Food processors are very commonplace in homes nowadays, but some people don’t really understand how they are different than a regular blender. I was surely one of those people for the longest time. I often made the mistake of thinking that a regular blender is just a processor and vice versa. Well, although the overall look and design may be similar, they are completely different in terms of functions and features.
Food processors utilize interchangeable blades and disks depending on the specific task. For example, shredding or mixing blades are different from the ones used for chopping. Additionally, since foods that are normally processed consist of large, solid pieces, the attached bowl is usually bigger, and wider than others.
The advantage of food processors over regular blenders is that their blades require minimal liquid to operate efficiently. Regular blenders can sometimes get stuck moving the food particles around when there isn’t enough liquid present. This is one of the biggest issues I usually run into when using a regular blender to make frozen fruit smoothies, and other recipes using solid ingredients.
Meal preparation can often long, tiring, and sometimes tricky if you don’t have a food processor. When you have to perform the time consuming process of manually chopping and mixing all of your ingredients together, you end up exerting way more energy than you really should.
Mini Stainless Steel Food Processor
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Not everyone wants or needs a full-sized food processor. If you cook for only one or two people, or just want to keep something around to make salsa or hummus in a snap, a small food processor will do just fine, and at a fraction of the price.
Smaller sized food processors are great for tiny kitchens as they take up less space than their full sized counterpart, and are much lighter to carry.
This Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Processor is perfect for preparing smaller type foods such as grinding firm cheeses to chopping fine herbs.
It features a distinctive Auto Reversing Smart Blade, giving it the versatility of processing both hard and soft foods quickly and easily.
The touchpad includes processing options to either chop or grind, and also comes with parts that are dishwasher safe.
Manual Stainless Steel Food Processor
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A hand crank food processor is becoming a must have in many kitchens these days.
These hand driven food processors were once abandoned when electric food processors came into existence, because people liked the idea of being able to chop, mix, and grind food at just a touch of a button.
And while electric food processors certainly help to save physical energy and time in the kitchen, many cooks are beginning to realize that they also tend to over process foods, often pureeing rather than chopping or mincing.
Personally, the best manual food processor with a stainless steel blade is this Kitchen King Manual Food Processor.
The bowl locks into the base which gives you unbelievable leverage when you chop, dice, or spin your food. Use the salad spinner to clean your fruits and vegetables, and the julienne setting for grating carrots or making perfectly cut fries.
Additionally, you can chop all your ingredients in one step using the tri-blade. The versatility of this blade allows you to whip up a tuna or egg salad, and even dices up peppers, tomatoes, and onions for homemade salsa!
By manually controlling the blade spins, you get to finely tune your food’s texture so it doesn’t become pulverized. Plus, your fingers are away from the blade. Also, the food goes right into the bowl, so there is no cutting board or countertop to clean.
Commercial Stainless Steel Food Processor
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When it comes to food preparation, you want an appliance that will make things easier for you, not more infuriating.
As such, I found this Breville Sous Chef to save you time by reducing the necessity of pre-cutting most fruits and vegetables in advance. It features a super wide 5.5 inch feed chute, which allows for the slicing of vegetables of different shapes and sizes, while the several blade and disc options allow for custom results.
It also comes with a convenient internal storage area which helps house its set of 8 blades and discs for the various preparation options it can perform.
One of the discs included offers 24 variable slicing settings which gives you the option to customize slice thicknesses from a very thick 8.0mm down to an extremely thin 0.3mm.
Other blades in the set include a mini blade, a dough blade, and a micro-serated universal S blade, while the discs include a reversible shredding disc, a whisking disc, a French fry cutting disc, as well as a julienne disc.
The unit also comes with a 2.5 cup mini processing bowl, a larger 16 cup processing bowl, and two additional bowls, for the processing of a range of portion sizes. The 16 cup bowl is great for large quantities of dough or soup, while the 2.5 cup mini bowl is more ideal for small servings of nuts or sauces.
I’ll have mine in time for the upcoming holiday preparations, which I can already tell will be a huge help. We’re entertaining family at our house this year, so this will definitely come in handy when making larger quantities of food. Plus, my mom will be pleasantly surprised when she gets to unwrap her very own!