Food processors - do you use yours?

[Pronkey]

2026 is my year to cook more

Ive definitely upped my cooking game in the last few months. I make a lot of soups, breads, baked goods these days. Just works out so much cheaper.

I hate chopping and grating etc. Have been thinking about getting a food processor. Do you actually use yours regularly? I have a nutribullet but it struggles with chickpeas or anything harder. Probably need a new blade.

About to buy one in the sales. Do you actually use yours regularly?

I definitely use my kitchen aid daily and the nutribullet gets taken out fairly often so I’m in the “habit”.

Was batch making coleslaw for sandwiches and my God is it a pain

I never use mine. It's in the back of a cupboard somewhere.

For grating cabbage for sauerkraut, coleslaw if making a lot and crumble toppings. That’s it really. There’s usually only 2 of us so it’s usually just as quick to use a knife. I cook a lot too.

I use mine a lot at Christmas. Sometimes
the idea of the extra cleaning puts me off bothering for chopping etc.

I did, but then I spent £££ on buying more attachments for my Kenwood Chef. I'm crap at cutting stuff up and DC have ASD and aren't great with texture so I grate a lot of vegetables using the grater bit. And cheese. Loads of cheese. I use the blender attachment for smoothies and soups, but it's also great with the more fibrous veg like peppers that don't go through the grater bit. The grater came with loads of other blades like julienne and something else I've never used. I use it at least twice most days.

I’m trying to find a dishwasher safe one for this very reason!

Probably about once a month so not often but it does have its uses.

I used it loads the first few months I bought it. Now it sits in the cupboard.

I’m worried cause they tend to be so bulky I won’t want to take it out. My kitchen aid sits on my counter. Not sure I’d want an ugly food processor out all the time.

We have a kenwood one and use it all the time - for cutting, grating and mixing various cake doughs. Have it out on the side cos we use it several times a week. Also has a smaller jug / cup attachment the kids use to make smoothies and iced coffees / drinks. All goes in the dishwasher.

edited to add: no idea if it’s meant to all go on the dishwasher, but it does and has for years and is fine. Not the bit that plugs in obviously! 😆

I use mine for chopping up onions, garlic and mushrooms for spag bol. I use it to make crumble topping and pastry because I can’t abide rubbing the butter into the flour by hand! Also used for grating carrots and chopping leeks. It all goes into the dishwasher so cleaning it isn’t an issue.

Not a huge amount, but I'm glad to have if for the times that I do, as it's for activities that I don't really like: rubbing butter into flour for crumble or pastry, making breadcrumbs. I use it to blend soup. There's also a Nigella chocolate cake I use it for for birthdays. I don't mind finely chopping veggies, so always do that by hand.

I use it loads, probably about 3 times a week, although it is a bit of a pain taking it in and out of a cupboard. It chops veg much finer than I ever could for eg bolognese, and I use it for grating carrots for soup and also grating cheese in larger quantities. I also use it to turn bread into breadcrumbs, make crumble mix and occasionally shortcrust pastry although I don’t make that a lot. It’s a Bosch one and the bits can go in the dishwasher.

I don’t “believe in” gadgets. I’m aware how wanky that sounds, but honestly I think that simpler and smaller gadgets are all a person needs to make tasty food. Honorable exceptions are a stick blender for soups and sauces, a hand-held whisk/blender for cakes and puddings, a nutribullet, a mandolin (all small) and a slow cooker (mostly cheaper and safer than leaving an oven on low overnight). Everything else can be done easily and mostly better without gadgets invented to make us spend money. So I don’t have a food processor. My mum does, and spends so long getting it out and cleaning it and putting it away that she may as well just chop or crumble by hand.

Oh I didn’t realise it could do pastry. I personally hate rubbing the butter and flour together. Not a fan of touching wet food in general. Another reason to get one!

look for attachments of the kitchen aid

my bosch has many attachments that might also be available for your machine.

we use the bullet type attachment a lot. to make pesto, chop that hard end of cheese, make bread crumbs, chop nuts to add to oats...
the grating attachment for slicing or grating veg.
the blender for soups and smoothies.
the mixer for bread/pizza dough. to mix meatloaf mix, cake/pancake batter.

we use it most days.
everything can go in the dishwasher.

A word of warning if you want dishwasher safe - magimix say they are on the box, but then the small print tells you it is dishwasher safe to 50 degrees and to take it out before the drying part of the cycle. I hate mine with a passion. It leaks both liquids and dry goods from under the lid, and it's impossible to use the smallest bowl without dirtying all the others too. My previous cheap moulinex was much better.

I have my Kenwood Chef out on the counter, and I use it quite a bit. I also have all the attachments for the shredder / slicer, but I rarely use it now. It's a bit of a faff assembling it all, finding the right blade, then washing it all after. I think I can chop with a knife faster.

I do use the mixer a lot. And the nutribullet attachment. And the liquidizer.

I am not sure I would use a food processor than doesn't take attachments very much.

Just made some hummus today in my trusty 1980s Magimix, no problem with chickpeas at all!
Also use it for crumble and pastry 🥧

I have a big old bulky magimix which is a total workhorse and brilliant when I get it out but I often don’t bother as it’s heavy. I recently bought the kitchenaid cordless and it’s absolutely brilliant, I use it all the time. The food chopper bit is small but surprisingly powerful. Easy to clean, I don’t hesitate to get it out now just to blitz an onion or something.

it comes with the chopper but also a blender attachment and whisk. Really pleased with it and I’ve used it loads already

So you don’t believe in gadgets, apart from the ones you like to use 🙄

Yes found that to be a strange comment!

I use mine. Mainly for grating carrot and cabbage for coleslaw or cheese for sauces, making breadcrumbs or ground/chopped nuts, blending chickpeas etc for home made humous, finely mincing herbs. Anything that is a faff to do by hand.

I never use the dough hook or whisk. Prefer to knead my own bread and the hand held whisk is way better, quicker and less faff to clean. I also love the hand held blender for soups and smoothies.

I recently bought a mandolin grater, fantastic for onions and cabbage, peppers, cucumber etc..

Not very often and mainly for the things others have mentioned: I use it for pastry, crumble topping, shortbread, crushing biscuits for a biscuit base, making breadcrumbs (and for brandy butter at Christmas).

I don’t use it for liquids as I prefer to use a stick blender for that. The stick blender has a little mill attachment and I use that for making small quantities of hummus.

I have a nutribullet too, but never use that now. The stick blender is much better.

I rarely use mine, but it is useful to have.... Or it has been. It's a basic one so I only really use it for chopping large batches of stuff. If I'm only doing a small lot of chopping I find it quicker and easier to just do it myself rather than getting the machine out... and then having to deal with the extra washing up. If it went to the great scrapheap in the sky I don't think I would bother to get another one.

Having said that... I'm in poor health and can't stand for long, so I have developed strategies while cooking so that I don't have to do that, which mean that I don't really need to do a lot of chopping at one time. I buy frozen chopped onions, I buy ready made pastry, I no longer make pate. I sit down to chop when I can, and I try to do a little bit extra of the things I can freeze when I do chop, so I need to do it less often. I have a hand mixer for things like cake mix and whisking egg whites. I have a really easy method for making crumble that doesn't really need a machine of any kind. I don't make mayonnaise or hollandaise. So I don't really need one.