I have a dream.....

[ItsTheOnlyWayToLive]

....and in this dream, I have a food processor, sitting on my worktop in all its glory, a halo shining over its head.

And then I appear in this dream, with half a carrot in each hand, lovingly peeled, which I place in the FP, and turn it on, and zap. The carrots are sliced/chopped in seconds, no effort whatsoever. Cue much smugness.

Do dreams come true? Do these magical things exist? (food processors, not carrots ). Do they chop root veg as easy as in my dream?

No seriously. I've been on Amazon, (dh looking suitably nervous) reading reviews, and wondering which one to buy. Any recommendations? I believe the Kenwood ones are ok, its just I've read you have to chop the veg first before you put it in the FP, which to me is defeating the object....

I don't want to spend a fortune, and I don't want a mahoosive one either.

The reviews are giving me headache... (nothing to do with copioys wine consumption last night, honest)

Can anyone recommend?

Copious *

I had one, I tried to like it, but they never live up to the hype...

all the preprep to make stuff fit in the tubes, always a nasty wodge of something that won't grate properly, overworked pastry like flagstones, rubbery sponge cakes or shit coloured fruit cakes cos the blade chops up all the fruit into slurry

and the washing up....

nah....buy a nice set of knives and a nice heavy chopping board!

Thanks for that, cats, I don't to be wasting money, and as much as I hate the labourious task of chopping, I'd rather just do that if they're not as good as claimed to be.

My idea was to chop n freeze veg for future recipes, especially expensive veg, trying to save time and money

Magimix 4200XL - best £250 I ever spent. I make pastry in there & it turns out light; bread is made perfectly & veg is chopped just like you imagined

Eek, was definitely thinking of spending less than £250, how long have you had yours, gin? Do you think it has paid for itself?

I have the Duronic mini chopper which was about twenty quid on Amazon. It will do as you ask with root veg. And bread for breadcrumbs. And other stuff you want chopping into little bits. And it's teeny tiny compared to a great big food processor.

God yes definitely - it has a 25 year guarantee too. They do mini-choppers for about £150 if that's more your thing?

I have a kenwood and it's fab. you do have to cut the veg so it fits into the feeder, but thats fairly large chunks so not alot of cutting really and it chops and grates everything wonderfully.

Just been looking again on Amazon, the Kenwoods were the ones I took notice of, but I don't want a biggie, just a compact one that I can leave on the worktop. The thing I'm then worrying about with the compact ones is that you have to cut the veg smaller in the 1st place.

The Duronic one has caught my eye too, for size and the money aspect. Think I'd need to buy the double blade for that one, which is fine.

I don't want to find myself spending a fortune and only being able to do certain things.

I have a slow cooker, so I want one as an aid for the recipes I want to use in it. I shall search more. Thanks for your input

Ok, update:

I have ordered a Kenwood CH180 mini chopper. Chickened out of buying the slightly bigger compact chopper, because I'm a, ahem, chicken.

Not exactly what I first had in mind, but as I do curries in the slow cooker, its handy for the pastes and stuff, also for chopping chillies, onions and garlic. It can chop carrots and stuff, so it says, but we'll see.

It was only £14.99 from Amazon, reduced price, and very compact, so if its rubbish I haven't wasted too much money, and it has a good review rating. Got it on SS delivery, so we'll soon see

I've had the FP120 for 5 years now and it's still going strong.

Washes easily between foods and I bung it in the dishwasher at the end of cooking.

The one you have bought is recommended by Delia as a great mini processor. So for a first purchase it's cheap enough to try out and experiment with, as long as you realise that the volume of ingredients you can put in is limited. Great for finely chopped onions, nuts etc. Even if you bought another one this would be fine for smaller ingredients, herbs etc.

I already have a mixer with dough hook so I don't need to make large pastry quantities in mine, but it is big enough for a family crumble mix. I'll never make a crumble mix by the rubbing in method again! Also has an immense cream whipping gadget on it.

I looked at that model too, Jolly, it was on my list.

I think I've made the right decision, but we'll see. I could buy the fp120 and still keep the ch180 if I find it too small, for the very small quantities.

And if its ok for Delia..

I have a 25 year old food Moulinex processor, it has served me well. One thing I rarely use it for is carrots, too much faff washing it all up again.

The fastest piece of kit for carrots is a good old fashioned good quality box grater, using it or slicing or grating and washed in seconds.

I once too had your dream, it now resides in the cupboard :)

Well, thats just it redpriest, that is why I didn't want to buy an expensive bulky one that didn't do what I wanted.

I'll stick with chopping carrots. At least I can chop the other stuff I hate doing like garlic, onions etc, that'll make up for it

Just an update:

My Kenwood mini chopper has arrived! Very happy, chopped my onions very finely, and chopped the carrots too (had to try, couldn't abandon the dream totally ) It's very keen though, may need to lay off the pressure on the button a bit, sheesh, but so far so good.

Is there a recipe for carrot and onion soup, I wonder ??

And the one Amazon sent us was the slightly upgraded version, with a little hole for pouring oil in for dressings, and charged us for the previous model

....I need to get out more, don't I?