Food processors
Find the best food processor for your kitchen with our buying guide and test results.
Find the best food processor for your kitchen with our buying guide and test results.
Chop, slice, grate, blend, puree, mix and knead. A food processor is your jack of all trades in the kitchen.
A processor should be equipped to deal with a variety of tasks, without breaking down or vibrating excessively.
Processors should be able to grate a range of foodstuffs well, without leaving ungrated lumps. You should be able to feed vegetables into the blender one by one.
Most machines have an S-shaped steel blade for chopping. Chopped food should be even in texture with no large lumps.
You should be able to make cake mixes, milkshakes and premix dough, without leaving lumps or unprocessed ingredients.
A pulse function gives a short burst of power. It’s useful for distributing the load of a mixture and improving uniformity.
If you're thinking of buying a food processor, here's what to consider.
Like full-sized processors, mini food processors can process soft and hard foods – such as vegetables, hard cheese and breadcrumbs. Some models have small feed chutes for adding liquids when you’re making mayonnaise and salad dressings. They're also handy for making pesto and curry paste – a task some food processors can’t do unless they come with a mini processor attachment.
But mini processors are less versatile than their full-sized counterparts. They only have a capacity up to a litre (some are as little as 500ml) and only have a maximum processing time of up to 1 minute. They don’t usually have slicing, grating or shredding blades and can’t knead dough or pastry.
Before you rush out and buy one, consider what you’ve already got in your cupboard. For example:
All the hand-held blenders we’ve tested come with a processor attachment.
Think about how many extras you will actually use. Consider the other appliances already in your kitchen – if you already have a standalone blender there's little point in getting a food processor with a blender attachment.
We've tested 30 food processors.
Find the right one for you.
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