Can you recommend a food processor and what do you use yours for regularly?

[Figgyroll]

My ancient Kenwood mixer has finally given up the ghost and I've been looking at buying a food processor. We're a family of four adults and I cook from scratch every day and like to bake too.

I think a small food processor might be a waste of money but the top of the range, large ones are really expensive and I probably wouldn't use half of the accessories.

Any recommendations? What do you use yours for?

I have a magimix - quite old & I hate it with a passion! It is heavy, hard to clean etc.

I use it for breadcumbs, a few pates, pastry & not much else. I can't be arsed to use it for chopping veg etc.

I cook from scratch daily, but there are only 2 of us 95% of the time.

Sorry not to be more positive.

But I love my stick blender as I make a lot of soup & my electric whisk for beating egg whites, making mayo etc.

I am very pleased with my Kenwood Prospero, which is like a Chef but smaller. The processor bowl is a bit small, though - sometimes I have to do it in 2 batches.

I use it for cakes and pastry, and the processor for chopping or grating, if the recipe needs large enough quantities to make it worthwhile.

Thank you for your replies. I needed to do breadcrumbs earlier for my meatballs and forgot I had a little £10 electric chopper from Tesco hidden away in a cupboard. It did a grand job and I used it for the onions too. I'm sure it would do loads of other things so that, along with a mixer, might be all I need.

I just thought, if I had a proper food processor, I might be tempted to make doughs and pastries (rather than buying the Jusrol packs .

I have a stick blender do that is probably okay for smoothies and I use it for soups. Maybe, with a combination of chopper, mixer and blender, they are all I might need.

What do you think?

I do find it handy for pastry. Rubbing in takes quite a while by hand. Never done dough in a food processor, though stand mixers are great for it.

I used to have a medium sized Kenwood one which I liked a lot. I used it for grating cheese, cutting up lots of vege for soups, making hoummus and pesto, mixing up beany mixes for burgers.

I've just inherited an ancient Kenwood one, so will be watching this thread! I hadn't thought of breadcrumbs - do you use the grater bit or chopper bit for them?

I've got a Prospero too, there were a whole load of new Prospero owners on a thread together this time last year (waves at Tunip) and it gets used several times a week. The only other gadgets I use now are a mini chopper for small quantities eg curry pastes, chopping a few nuts and a stick blender for soups.

Mine has FP and liquidiser attachments, the stand mixer itself has a whisk a beater and a dough hook. I use it at least two or three times a week, mainly for baking in the bowl, but also use the FP (which has a grater and slicer discs as well as a blade) frequently for chopping veg, breadcrumbs, rubbing fat into flour for pastry etc. I've been so pleased with it, it takes up very little space, just sits in a corner of the worktop.

Kenwood Multipro.

Absolutely love it, I use it for EVERYTHING. I've just made a curry, actually, and I chopped all the onions, chilli, ginger, tomatoes in it.

Thrilled to find this thread as I have been looking at food processors for weeks and can't make my mind up. How did I not know about the Kenwood Prospero?? My mum only just replaced her Kenwood Chef that she got as a wedding present 48 yrs ago and I must sadly admit to getting quite excited at the thought of having my very own K beater!! Off to find the old thread Whoknows is referring to......

It ran to more than one thread Piffpaff - we all went a bit crazy! It is probably on the first page of the baking topic, as that was created at about the same time and we had the thread moved there IIRC. Or that might have been the second thread.

My Kenwood mini chopper is all I need, it's fabulous and I use it almost every day.

It's great to hear your comments. I'm off to look up the Prospero.

This is one of the processors I'm thinking of.

www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4201771.htm

Quick Prospero question - does the food processor bit have a proper chopper (e two blades that whirl around at the bottom of the processor bowl) or does it just have spinning discs that you push the things to be chopped through? I can't tell from the photos I'm looking at.

Yes, it has a normal food processor blade (I'd call it one double blade rather than two blades?) as well as the discs. (And very sharp it is too.)

We have a magi mix. Def. love it, it does everything and v easy to use!
www.magimix.com/index.php?rid=102&lg=

Thanks tunip -double blade was the phrase I was looking for but just couldnt find . So, it ticks all my boxes which means I'll just have to trot off and get one I think!! Woo hoo!!!

Watch out with the Prospero, there are different models and they don't all have the same accessories included, mine came with the blender I think but not the FP, I ended up buying that separately afterwards. I mainly wanted it as a stand mixer as I already had a FP, but decided to Freecycle it and get the FP accessory for the Prospero to save on counter space.

Magimix here - use it to make breadcrumbs, cakes, pastry, smoothies, cauliflower rice, I use the grater attachment to grate Parmesan in bulk but mostly i prefer to chop by hand. I use my food processor so much that I bought a liquidiser to supplement it, but the liquidiser is a bit crap in comparison. I love my stick blender too!

Another happy Prospero owner from the original thread last year. Mine has a FB & various other attachments. I love it. I use it to grate cheese, make breadcrumbs & pastry as well as for cakes & icing.

A quick update - I bought a Prospero and I love it! It's exactly what I was looking for. Another great piece of kit bought thanks to Mumsnet!