Evening all, a friend regularly cooks me spag bol and it is more and more noticeable they are having trouble chopping the garlic, onion celery etc. 

 

With the black Friday sales I would like to buy a food processor to ease the load but looking online I can't work out what is needed and due to mobility issues I can't easily "go shopping". 

 

I'm thinking of the type that have a blade shaped like a propeller and under $200 would be good. 

 

Appreciate any advice,  s.m

 

PS chopping fresh herbs would also be useful. 

 

 

Edited November 23, 20232 yr by sdotmouse
Confusion

PPS chopping cabbage for coleslaw would also be useful I think. 

I think Kitchenaid makes the best inexpensive food processors - take a look at their range here. 

 

A quick rundown for you: 

 

- the bigger the capacity of the FP, the better and more versatile it would be. Best of all is to have a FP with a variety of different sized bowls. The downside is the washing/cleaning, it is a large bowl to wash and occupies a lot of drying space. 

- more powerful motors are generally useless in a home kitchen environment. 

- the more accessories it comes with, the better. 

- do not use the "propeller" (the spinning blade at the bottom of the bowl) for chopping veggies, onions, and coleslaw. That turns your veggies into a puree. For chopping, you need discs. These sit at the top of the food processor and you push your food through it and it falls into the bowl. There are several designs, for example: 

 

 

This disc is used for cutting cubes. You need to pre-slice your veggies into long sticks for it to cube, otherwise it will produce batons. 

 

 

This disc is a rough grater, good for hard veggies and cheeses. I don't use it myself. I prefer finer grate for cheese. 

 

 

This disc slices veggies. 

 

But most of all ... even though I have a food processor, I am much faster with a knife. The only exception is when I am prepping a large amount of food, where the annoyance of the FP (have to pull it out of storage, then wash it up and put it away again) is enough of a price to pay for the time saved cutting. I very rarely use my FP for this reason. 

 

For chopping fresh herbs, a knife makes quick work out of it and you get a much better result than the food processor. In the FP, herbs tend to stick to the bowl and you never get even cuts. You always have to pull the herbs out and finish it on a chopping board which wastes time. 

Keith,  thanks so much for the detailed reply, I will follow your suggestion. 

 

And fully appreciate the pulling it out, setting it up, cleaning it routine v just getting out the knife! 

 

Cheers,  s.m

just bought the 7 cup job for $189

Good to hear, enjoy your purchase. BTW I hope that you have a good, sharp, knife. IMO that is a better way to spend $200 than on a food processor, but of course that depends on what kind of cooking you are doing.