What is a food processor you may ask? The food processor may be one of the most versatile kitchen tools out there. Your food processor will quickly become your favorite kitchen appliance because it can chop cook time in half! Read our guide to learn how to use a food processor.
What Is a Food Processor?
How to Use a Food Processor
Put Together Your Food Processor
Toss In Your Ingredients
Turn On the Food Processor
Clean Up
Types of Food Processors
Types of Food Processor Blades
Other Features
A food processor is a helpful kitchen appliance that can automate small tasks like chopping, slicing, dicing, blending, and mixing. It can be used to slice, dice, chop, blend, and more. A food processor can speed up the time you spend in the kitchen by reducing minutes spent on repetitive tasks to seconds.
Put Together Your Food Processor
Before you begin to use your food processor, you must assemble it. First, make sure your food processor is unplugged for safety purposes. Next, take the plastic bowl and attach it to the processor’s base. In most models, the bowl will click into place when you’ve found the right spot. Then you can attach the blade to its place in the bottom of the plastic bowl. Gently twist and shake the plastic bowl and blade to make sure that everything is secure.
Toss In Your Ingredients
Place your desired ingredients in the plastic bowl – if you’re using a liquid, make sure you don’t pass the fill line, or you’ll risk overflowing your food processor. Larger ingredients should be roughly chopped before you throw them in.
Turn On the Food Processor
Place the lid on top of the plastic bowl and secure it in place, then turn on your food processor. If your lid is not secure, most models will not start. There will likely be two buttons, one that says “run” and another that says “pulse.” These two modes will help you chop your food at different rates.
The “run” button will continuously run your blade, which is perfect for pureeing and finely chopping. The “pulse” button will only run the blade while you’re pressing the button. You can quickly press and release the button in a pulsing motion for more control over the texture of your ingredients.
If your recipe calls for additional ingredients to be added in later, you can insert them for a continuous feed through the tube in your processor’s lid. If your processor does not have a tube, turn the machine off and remove the lid to add more ingredients.
Clean Up
When you’re done using your food processor, take it apart to be washed. With most models, you can put every part in the dishwasher except for the electric base, which should be cleaned with a damp cloth or paper towel.
Because of electrical safety concerns, make sure all the parts of the food processor are completely dry before you reassemble it. The electric base should never be washed in the sink or submerged in water.
Electric Food Processor: Standard-size plug-in food processors are usually referred to as electric food processors. They perform all the standard chopping, dicing, and blending functions and often come with extra blade attachments to expand their performance abilities.
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Mini Chopper: A mini chopper is a scaled-down food processor. These appliances are useful because they are less expensive and take up less room than a standard electric food processor. They also tend to be the best tool for smaller chopping jobs, such as a few cloves of garlic.
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Manual Food Processor: A manual food processor is a nonelectric food processor. It is usually run by turning a crank or pulling a cord, and it is smaller in size. Manual food processors make tasks like dicing or chopping easier and are more affordable and portable than electric food processors.
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The S-Shaped Blade:The S-shaped blade, or Sabatier blade, is the standard attachment used in a food processor. It sits in the bottom of the bowl and is used for average mixing, choping, dicing, blending, and pureeing. This blade is the most versatile and can be used for almost any job.
The Shredding Disc: The shredding disc is the second most common type of food processor blade. This attachment is secured at the top of the bowl, and food is inserted through the tube in the lid. As the blade turns, ingredients are shredded and fall into the bowl. This attachment is best used for shredding vegetables or grating cheese.
The Slicing Disc: The slicing disc is similar to the shredding disc – it sits at the top of the food processor bowl as you feed ingredients through the tube in the lid. The slicing disc is used to thinly sliced ingredients like vegetables or potatoes. You can use this attachment to slice vegetables for a salad.
Dough Blade: A dough blade sits in the bottom of the food processor bowl and is made of plastic for gentle kneading. You can use your dough blade to knead dough without cutting through it like an S-shaped blade would.
Blending Feature: Food processors with blending features allow you to use your food processor as a blender while minimizing mess and splatter.
Double Feed Tube: A double feed tube is an extra-wide tube for larger ingredients. This feature allows you to add larger ingredients without removing the lid.
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