See what MNers think of Kenwood’s new kCook and be in with a chance to win your own! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the 20 Mumsnetters who tried the Kenwood kCook.

Here’s what the people at Kenwood say, “Whipping up a one-pot wonder for your family has never been easier thanks to the new kCook cooking food processor from Kenwood which not only chops and stirs, but also cooks delicious dishes at the touch of a few buttons. All this, plus a fantastic specially-developed recipe app to provide a little inspiration at every meal time, makes the kCook the new must-have kitchen essential.

The three bowl tools coupled with the app make the laborious tasks of thinking up a meal, preparing ingredients and endlessly stirring over a hot stove a thing of the past. Simply follow one of over 200 recipes available on the app, or adapt them to your taste using the kCook’s manual modes which allow the speeds and temperatures to be changed.”

Testers, we’d like you to answer the below questions:

Q1. How would you describe the kCook to friends or family who had never heard of it before? What was your overall impression of it?

Q2. How easy, or not, did you find to use the kCook? What time saving tips did you find when using the kCook?

Q3. What family meals did you create with the kCook? Did they go down well with your family? We’d love it if you could post some pictures of your dishes on this thread.

Q4. Did you use the Kenwood recipe app? If so, what did you think of it? Did you discover new recipes you hadn’t tried before?

Q5. If it came up in conversation, do you think you’d recommend the kCook to friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?

Non-testers, what’s your favourite dish to make in a food processor? Everyone who adds their thoughts to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win their own kCook.

Thanks
MNHQ

[kCookTester]

Q1. How would you describe the kCook to friends or family who had never heard of it before? What was your overall impression of it?

Bit of a cross between a food processor and a slow cooker that stirs.
First impression - 1st use ..chicken tagging- very good, tasty and easy to make. 2nd use - steaming caulk and broc...took ages, not impressed,

Q2. How easy, or not, did you find to use the kCook? What time saving tips did you find when using the kCook?
easy enough to use.
Time saving tips - I've only used it twice so far so none yet.


Q3. What family meals did you create with the kCook? Did they go down well with your family? We’d love it if you could post some pictures of your dishes on this thread.
Chicken tagine - very well received by all will add pictures soon.


Q4. Did you use the Kenwood recipe app? If so, what did you think of it? Did you discover new recipes you hadn’t tried before?
i used the app for the tagine, I've tried other recipes for this and this was comparable to the best.

Q5. If it came up in conversation, do you think you’d recommend the kCook to friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not?
undecided yet

[chairmeoh]

Non tester.
Quick and easy soup I can bung in the freezer in portion sizes and take out for work lunch.

[TheSpottedZebra]

Non tester.
I use my processor loads - just chopping veg for 'dinners', for coleslaw, preparing veggie burgers and patties. I love it.

[TwoLittleBlooms]

Non tester.

I love making scones in my food processor, milk free, light and super quick.

[Butteredparsnips]

Non-tester | am struggling to pick a favourite as I use my processor a lot, but at a push I would say yummy, easy, home made pesto. I add lemon juice and service with pasta and green vegetables. Mmmmmm

[emwithme]

Non-tester.

Mainly use food processor for bulk chopping of eg onions and for blending leftovers with stock to make soup.

[LittleLostRoeDeer]

Non-tester

My favourite thing to make in my food processor at the moment is 'raw vegan brownies'. I trying to lose weight so these are perfect as a treat. There are hundreds of recipes online but essentially they're made from chopped up dates and nuts with some coconut oil or butter to bind the mixture. Surprisingly delicious!

I also like to make soups, crumble topping and cakes. I'll use my food processor for anything I can but sadly, my partner and two year old managed to break mine last week. Would have loved to tried out the kCook!

[ButterflyOfFreedom]

Soup! Any kind of soup really, usually just using up veg I have left. Favourites are tomato & red pepper or (especially during the winter months) root vegetable soup which has carrot, parsnip, swede & potato in it.

[ButterflyOfFreedom]

(Should have said, I'm a non tester)

[NerrSnerr]

1. How would you describe the kcook? What was your overall impression.

It's a bit like a food processor that also cooks. It chops, stirs and cooks one pot dishes. It also steams and makes sauces.

My overall impression was really good. It was easy to set up and use. It is not too big which is great for our kitchen and family. The buttons are simple and not too complicated. The lid is quite stiff but now I have used it a few times there is a knack to it. It washed really well in the dishwasher.

1. How easy or not did you find the kcook?

I found the it really simple to use. The buttons are self explanatory and you put it onto the next stage by touching one button. The most difficult thing is probably getting the lid on and off but I have mastered that now.

1. What meals did you make? Did they go down well?

I made a dairy free macaroni cheese and a chicken curry. They both went down well, the macaroni cheese was great as it's a recipe that would need me in the kitchen to keep stirring but it did it for me. The consistency was great.

I really liked the food processing function when I made the curry. I hate chopping stinky stuff like onion and garlic and it did it for me. There was a lot of sauce compared to the chicken but that just might be our preference as we prefer less sauce.

1. Did you use the app?

Yes, both recipes were from the app? (Macaroni cheese was adapted). I like the app and really hope more recipes get added. I don't feel confident doing recipes without being told timings in the kcook yet but I'm sure that will come with practice.

1. Would you recommend?

I would recommend if I knew someone had £300 to spare. I really like the product and if I could afford it I would buy it. It has made me realise that sometimes it might be worth splashing out to make life easier.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to test this- I think it will get a lot of use.

[aftereight]

Non-tester

I only have a teeny food processor, so I'm limited in what I can make. My favourite is to whizz up garlic, lemon & olive oil with whatever fresh herbs I have, as a marinade for chicken

[keely79]

Tester here:

Q1. How would you describe the kCook to friends or family who had never heard of it before? What was your overall impression of it?

One pot solution which chops, stirs and cooks.

Nice and compact - fits well on counter. Steamer basket a little small for steaming anything which isn't in chunks.

Q2. How easy, or not, did you find to use the kCook? What time saving tips did you find when using the kCook?

Found it quite easy to use if following app exactly. Got a bit complicated when trying to use the one pot function without that - for example, if you just use the first section of the one pot setting, then it doesn't automatically switch to keep warm afterwards, but immediately switches to the second cooking section - quite complex to set it so that doesn't happen - had to refer to instruction manual to work out what was happening. Also need to switch off then on again to get out of program once started. Steam function very easy.

Q3. What family meals did you create with the kCook? Did they go down well with your family? We’d love it if you could post some pictures of your dishes on this thread.

So far have done:

1. Steaming for rejuvenating stale bagels - worked well. Took a bit longer than saucepan might have but didn't need to worry about boiling dry or when to add.
   
   
2. Gambian groundnut stew (from app) - delicious - meat very tender and stew nice and thick. I'll probably up chili next time, but that's because we like it spicy!
   
   
3. Hot chocolate - yummy Spanish style (very thick) though I think I overdid it on the cornflour (didn't weigh out exactly and was halving recipe) as it was a bit too thick.
   
   Q4. Did you use the Kenwood recipe app? If so, what did you think of it? Did you discover new recipes you hadn’t tried before?
   
   Yes I did - the gambian groundnut stew was a new one.
   
   App instructions are clear but I think would be helpful to:
   
   (1) explain what each stage is achieving re the one pot function which would make it easier to adapt recipes or use timings for other recipes
   (2) search function by main ingredient would be very helpful. Not always easy to find everything, e.g., that would use stewed beef as they're by alphabetical order by title and some (like the stew) don't mention beef in the title.
   (3) Review function - would be great to see what others think of the recipes to create a community that could suggest tweaks/adaptations which people might like to try.
   (4) Community forum - would be good to have place where people can suggest other recipes that they have come up with - list might otherwise become a bit limited.
   
   Q5. If it came up in conversation, do you think you’d recommend the kCook to friends and family? If so, why? If not, why not
   
   I think would be useful if you are a nervous cook and just wanted to follow app. For me, I'm quite an instinctual cook and at the moment not finding it that easy to use it as a cooking implement and adapt my own recipes to it. Hoping to get more accustomed to it in due course.
   
   Big sticking point for me probably the price - it's a lot to pay for something which you might find of limited use. Individual steamer and food processor plus saucepan not as nifty, but hell of a lot cheaper.

[Buttercup27]

Non-tester. Pasta sauces and grating cheese !

[jammiecat]

I've only got a mini processor and use it to make hummus which is amazing. If I had a proper food processor I'd use it to make pastry and crumble as I hate doing it by hand. I'd also make more home made soup as so much easier than all that chopping by hand (I'm such a lazy cook!!).

[MummyBtothree]

Non Tester - Pasta sauces that I can disguise vegetables in so the kids dont know what they are eating

[Roseformeplease]

Non Tester (but jealous). We use our ageing food processor for home made pesto. I am allergic to nuts and so many commercial ones contain cashew nuts instead of pine nuts (actually seeds, I think). So, we make our own and use lots of fresh herbs and garlic. I also make pastry occasionally, or scones.

[Sparklingbrook]

I have just made the coleslaw. It didn't go well. It's chopped very very fine and there are bits of cabbage/carrot everywhere.

How do you clean the bowl? Can you just immerse the whole thing in water?

[Burnshersmurfs]

I make a green smoothie to take to work every day- Apple, orange, lemon, mint, cucumber, ginger and spinach.
And home-made hazelnut chocolate spread, for those less healthy days

[macaroonmayhem]

Ooh, we've gone all highlighted!

I've just made some butternut squash and sweet potato soup. Life that it all gets done in one bowl - the chopping, cooking and blending.

[macaroonmayhem]

ha ha, my soup is the same colour as my post!

[macaroonmayhem]

Sparkling I just put the whole thing in the sink. Treat it just like a saucepan really.

[Sparklingbrook]

I have recovered from my coleslaw nightmare and now doing tomato soup. I like the auto stirring too.

So far

Cheesecake-disarster. Was like mousse.
Coleslaw-cabbage and carrot nightmare, and chopped way too fine.
Soup-TBA

[Sparklingbrook]

Really macaroon? What about the spikey metal bits underneath?

[macaroonmayhem]

Well I'm going on the basis that if it can go in a dishwasher, it can go in my sink. And I've not electrocuted myself yet!

[todayiamfat]

I've put it straight in sink too. Actually very easy to clean as the constant stiring means none gets stuck onto the bowl like more normal saucepans.

I re-made my risotto after yesterday's disaster.

Bloody lovely. I used a lot less stock (thanks for the tips on last thread). Dd1-yuck (fussy 5 yr old). Dd2 is loving it.