Best budget food processor 2023


The 9 Best Food Processors of 2022

Tested & Approved

The Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor wins best overall by our testers, earning high ratings for ease of use, an extra-large feed tube, and top-level performance. For a budget pick, the Hamilton Beach Stack & Snap Food Processor and Vegetable Chopper is incredibly user-friendly and performs very well for the price.

A food processor can shred, grate, chop, mix, grind, and puree ingredients quickly and efficiently, saving you tons of prep time. You can shred beets for borscht, grind nuts for fresh nut butter, or turn graham crackers into crumbs for a pie crust, just to name a few. Food processors can also be used to mince herbs, puree baby food, create dips like hummus in one step, and emulsify dressings.

Most food processors come with attachments that can be used to knead bread and pizza dough, shred blocks of cheese, and slice vegetables in several thicknesses. Our Lab and in-home testers evaluated the top models on their design, ease of use, features, effectiveness, ease of cleaning, performance, and value. Each food processor was put through its paces with onions, cheese, zucchini, mayonnaise, and bread dough to make sure the ones that landed on this list are truly the best.

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Here are the best food processors, according to our home and Lab tests.

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What We Like

What We Don't Like

Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor Review

Who else recommends it? Tom's Guide and Good Housekeeping both picked the Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor.

What do buyers say? 85% of 10,800+ Amazon reviewers rated this product 5 stars.

A true kitchen workhorse, this doesn’t have a lot of frills, but will get the job done easily. The brushed stainless steel food processor has two large paddle buttons, one for “on” and one for “off/pulse,” which are all you really need. The 14-cup work bowl is large enough for family cooking and has an extra-large feed tube with large and small pushers, so you won’t need to cut ingredients to make them fit. This includes one shredding disc, one slicing disc, and a removable disc stem that fits both, along with a metal blade for chopping, mixing, blending, and emulsifying.

Our at-home tester was impressed with how well the machine kneaded dough, and our Lab testers reported that it was easy to use, aside from assembling the attachments for the first time. They did note that this machine was somewhat tricky to clean, but that it was a great value for an average-priced food processor. One of our editor's parents has had this same food processor for decades, and it still works like new. Cuisinart makes some of the best food processors out there for home kitchens, and this model really exemplifies that.

Price at time of publish: $250

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 14 cups | Settings: On, off/pulse | Power: 720 watts | Size: 11 x 7.9 x 14.8 inches | Weight: 17.3 pounds | Warranty: 3 years for the entire unit, 5 years for the motor

Lab Test Takeaway

"This product would be great for any home cook who wants to use their processor in multiple ways...I would buy this for myself."

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This affordable food processor has a simple, easy-to-use design that snaps into place easily. Like with most food processors, the main blade chops, mixes, purees, and emulsifies, and an attachment disc is included with a slice side and shred/grate side. Four clearly labeled buttons let you choose between the different functions, and the blades store neatly inside the machine.

Cleaning this food processor is easy, with the only issue being the gap between the plunger and lid lip where food can gather. This food processor is not as heavy-duty or durable as some others on this list, so it will likely need replacing after a few years if used often (our Lab tester recommended hand washing to prolong its lifespan). That said, it's easier to put together, take apart, and clean than some of the pricier models, and it still yields very consistent results.

Price at time of publish: $65

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 12 cups | Settings: Shred/slice, puree/mix, pulse, off | Power: 450 watts | Size: 8.76 x 9.55 x 16.25 inches | Weight: 6.57 pounds | Warranty: 1 year

Lab Test Takeaway

"Every attachment just slides over the drive. Nothing snaps in or has any extra parts."

GE

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This food processor combines a powerful motor with sharp blades, so if you want to get your hummus super smooth or sweet potatoes shredded quickly, this is a great option. Our Lab testers were very happy with how easy this machine was to set up, use, and clean—she said it was simple and straightforward. Its biggest selling point is its versatility; rather than just coming with a standard blade, slicing disc, and grating disc, this also comes with a french fry disc, dough blade, emulsifying disc, mini-chopping bowl, and spatula.

This food processor is easy to clean by hand, but our Lab tester mentioned that they got cut on both an attachment and the blade, and noted, "You just have to be especially cautious because of how sharp it is. " They also said that it had bit of inconsistency when chopping onions and zucchini, but felt that it was a great value that's worthy of recommending to friends and family.

Price at time of publish: $159

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 12 cups | Settings: Low, high, pulse, off | Power: 550 watts | Size: 10.3 x 12.2 x 16 inches | Weight: 10 pounds | Warranty: 1 year

Lab Test Takeaway

"I expected this food processor to cost more than it does. With just three settings, it's a powerful appliance with super-sharp blades"

KitchenAid

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Another particularly good value, our Lab tester found this food processor to be extremely user-friendly and self-explanatory. In addition to the regular blade, it comes with an adjustable slicing disc, a reversible shredding disc, a dough blade, and a storage caddy that allows you to store all the pieces compactly inside the bowl.

Since the plunger has an oil drip, cleaning can be slightly more involved, but it doesn't have many nooks and crannies for food to get stuck. Our Lab tests noted a tiny bit of inconsistency with dicing and shredding, but overall it performed very well.

Price at time of publish: $200

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 13 cups | Settings: High, low, pulse | Power: 500 watts | Size: 8.7 x 10.25 x 17.43 inches | Weight: 9.7 pounds | Warranty: 1 year

Lab Test Takeaway

"It made a great mayonnaise and sliced the zucchini perfectly."

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The 13-cup Elemental from Cuisinart comes equipped with two work bowl sizes (13 and 4 cups) to handle large and small jobs. The wide-mouth tube features small, medium, and large pushers. Blades and the bowl lock in with a very tight seal. This model is more user-friendly and easy to assemble than some other Cuisinart models, and still performed beautifully in our Lab tests.

This includes an adjustable slicing disc to let you choose the thickness of your slice, a dicing disc with a 10-millimeter grid, a reversible shredding disc for medium and fine shredding, a dough blade for mixing and kneading, and a stainless steel blade for chopping, blending, and emulsifying.  It also includes a cleaning tool to help clean the nooks and crannies of the cutting accessories and a storage case to keep everything contained instead of rolling around a drawer.

Price at time of publish: $200

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 13 cups (large bowl), 4 cups (inner nested work bowl) | Settings: High, low, off, pulse| Power: 550 watts | Size: 8.10 x 10.43 x 16.43 inches | Warranty: 3 years

Lab Test Takeaway

"This was a very effective food processor. It performed consistently in chopping, slicing, grating, and emulsifying."

Williams Sonoma

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Magimix 5200 XL 16-Cup Food Processor Review

This machine comes with three bowls so you can work with small to extra-large amounts of food and use one after the other. When you’re done, the bowls nest inside the machine for convenient storage. There are three buttons for easy operation, and the induction motor adjusts the amount of power used so it can power through dense materials easily. The wide feed tube accommodates large foods, while the three-stage pusher can handle different-sized ingredients without them tipping over or cutting unevenly.

The chopping blades (to fit separate bowls) are made by Sabatier, so they are knife-quality. The proprietary Blendermix insert moves the food around in the bowl, so it blends more smoothly and results in a creamy texture, like a blender. The special dough blade mixes and kneads even dense bread dough. The whisk can whip cream or beat egg whites, just like a stand mixer.

This also includes 2- and 4-millimeter slicing discs and 2- and 4-millimeter grating discs, a spatula for easy cleaning, a free recipe app, a storage case, and a citrus juicer. The juicer was the most exciting addition for our home tester, who was able to juice half a grapefruit down to the rind in just a few seconds. Our Lab testers were very pleased with this machine's performance across the board.

Price at time of publish: $549

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 16 cups (main bowl), 12 cups (midi bowl), 6 cups (mini bowl) | Settings: Stop, auto, pulse | Power: 1100 watts | Size: 10.3 x 8.3 x 17.6 inches | Weight: 24.5 pounds | Warranty: 3 years for parts, 30 years for the motor

Lab Test Takeaway

"I really liked the multiple bowls and attachments that came with this food processor. It made switching jobs very easy and gave me enough space to do what needed to be done with easy cleanup."

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This Ninja food processor comes with a low price tag and high functionality. It's got a streamlined, attractive design, a very powerful 1,000-watt motor, and four different presets in addition to its high, low, and pulse settings. The machine comes with a 9-cup bowl with a feed chute lid and pusher, quad chopping blade (as opposed to most chopping blades, which have only two knife edges), dough blade, reversible slicing and shredding disc, and 20-recipe guide.

Our Lab testers noted that this product was somewhat confusing to put together, but what it lacked in user-friendliness, it made up in performance. The machine yielded beautiful results in all of our Lab tests, and was also easy to clean. The only other downside our testers found was that since the chopping blades sit slightly higher, they needed to scrape down the sides of the bowl more often.

Price at time of purchase: $200

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 9 cups | Settings: Chop, puree, dough, disc, high, low, pulse | Power: 1,000 watts | Size: 7. 32 x 9.88 x 15.55 inches | Weight: 7.65 pounds | Warranty: 1 year

Lab Test Takeaway

"I would definitely recommend this food processor. The ease of use, performance, volume capacity, myriad of functionalities and storage system made this a slam dunk."

Vitamix

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Vitamix Food Processor Attachment Review

This product is just an attachment that requires you to have a Vitamix base, but if you have one already, it eliminates the need for a whole separate appliance. This food processor has an intuitive, user-friendly design that can easily be adjusted to different speeds; any Vitamix base you have will allow for pulsing or setting a continuous speed of your choice. Our at-home tester said it was a little noisy, but that will depend on which base you have.

Our Lab testers raved about this attachment's performance throughout all of their tests, and said that it offered a ton of consistency and longevity. They also said it was pretty easy to clean—there are a lot of different parts, but everything is dishwasher safe. At $200 not including the Vitamix base, this comes with a high price tag, but if you already have a Vitamix, this is by far the best choice.

Price at time of publish: $200

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 12 cups | Size: 11.75 x 8.5 x 12.75 inches | Weight: 6.17 pounds | Warranty: 3 years

Lab Test Takeaway

"There is nothing this product really couldn't do, with multiple blade attachments and that signature Vitamix base that gives you control of the speed very well."

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No electricity is needed for this model, as it works with the simple pull of a handle. The two blades spin in opposite directions, so they’ll spend their time chopping rather than moving food in a circle, while stationary arms at the top and bottom send food into the blades. Even hard foods, like carrots or nuts, require little effort. A few pulls will give you chunky nuts or salsa, while more pulls can give you a smooth puree.

Our Lab testers found this particularly helpful for chopping onions and aromatics. Since this doesn’t require power, you can use it outside when you’re barbecuing or take it camping.

Price at time of publish: $50

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Capacity: 3 cups | Power: Manual, pull handle | Size: 5.2 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches | Weight: 0.84 pounds | Warranty: 5 years

Lab Test Takeaway

"This chopper had extremely easy and fast cleanup since it's small, has very few moving parts, and has nowhere for food to get trapped. "

Final Verdict

The Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY 14-Cup Food Processor is our top pick because of its incredible longevity, stellar performance, and solid versatility. If you have a smaller budget, we recommend the Hamilton Beach Stack & Snap Food Processor and Vegetable Chopper.

How We Tested

We tested 19 food processors side-by-side in our Lab. Our Lab testers evaluated each product on how easy it was to put together and change out its attachments (first without looking at the manual, and then with help from the manual), how well it chopped onions, how well it grated multiple types of cheese to multiple grate sizes, how well it sliced zucchini, how well it made mayonnaise, how well it kneaded bread dough when applicable, and how easy it was to disassemble and clean. From there, they also determined value based on performance in relation to price and offered additional insights on each product's strengths and weaknesses.

We also sent several food processors to our editors for at-home testing.

How We Test Products

Other Options We Tested

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

What to Look for in a Food Processor

Size

When it comes to food processors, size really does matter. A large food processor won’t do a good job at chopping small quantities because the pieces of food will collect on the bottom or sides of the bowl where they can't reach the blade (this is not as much of an issue when using a slicing, grating, or shredding disc.) As for using a small food processor for large quantities, you'll have to work in batches and empty the bowl repeatedly, which can get annoying. Some food processors solve the problem by including bowls of several sizes, and some home cooks keep both a full-size food processor for bigger jobs as well as a mini food processor for just mincing garlic and other small-quantity aromatics.

Disc Options

It’s great to have options for different shredding and slicing sizes, but if a food processor comes with a large number of discs, you'll need to find a place to store them. Some food processors have reversible blades with different sizes or functions, while others have discs with adjustable cutting sizes. Some food processors are designed to store their discs and other attachments right in the bowl, which saves space and keeps everything organized.

Special Features

How will you use your food processor? Do you want special options, or will a basic model fit your needs? While pretty much every food processor has a chopping blade and can slice or grate using a disc, some models may have extra features, like a dough blade, an accompanying recipe app, or various color options.

Price


For home cooks who don't plan to use their food processors often, there are some really excellent choices at low prices. The average price of the food processors we tested was $244, but you can find a few reliable, versatile, and high-performing options around $60. The issue with the lower-priced options is that they won't last as long, whereas a good food processor can last you decades and still perform better.

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

FAQs

What is a food processor?

A food processor purees, slices, crumbles, minces, grates, shreds, emulsifies, dices, mixes, kneads, and more.

Can a blender be used as a food processor?

Blenders and food processors have similar functions, but they're not usually interchangeable. As a rule of thumb, a blender should be used when the final product is something you can drink, drizzle, or dip—things with mostly soft or liquid ingredients. This includes soup, smoothies, nut milk, apple sauce, and blended cocktails. With blenders, it's best to use at least one liquid ingredient, as dry ingredients alone can get stuck around the blades and end up not blended.

A food processor should be used for dishes you'd eat with a fork or spoon, so solid or semi-solid ingredients work best. You don't necessarily need a liquid element here, which makes it the right choice for breadcrumbs, dough, shredded cheese, and chopped, sliced, or diced vegetables. You can use it to make riced cauliflower, chutney, and even minced meat. Food processor blades rotate much more slowly than blender blades and are shaped differently, giving you greater control and more precise cuts. There's also a feeder tube, which allows you to add as little (or as many) ingredients as you want, which can then be tamped toward the blade with a tool.

Foods including hummus, smooth salsas, thicker salad dressings, pesto, and whipped cream can be made in either a blender or a food processor.

Can you make smoothies in a food processor?

Most food processors are capable of making smoothies, but the process is a little different than if you were to use a blender. If you plan to take this route, don't add all the ingredients at once because they probably won't blend evenly and may even spill out everywhere. First, add your greens (if using), followed by frozen fruit. This will keep your drink cold without the addition of ice. Next, add your liquid ingredients, put the lid on the appliance, and blend. You may need to scrape the bottom to mix further, and make sure everything is getting blended as well as possible. When you're done, remove the blade from the processor and pour. Just be careful of messes here, as your processor likely won't have an actual pour spout.

Long story short: You can make a smoothie in a food processor, but it's going to be quicker and easier in a blender.

Can you grind coffee beans in a food processor?

Using a dedicated coffee grinder with a conical burr is the best way to grind coffee beans, but you can get the job done with a food processor, which is essentially a larger version of a blade grinder. Just pour a few scoops in and pulse, tilting the processor occasionally to make sure all the beans move into the blade. Repeat until you have your desired amount of grounds.

What can't you make in a food processor?

Food processors aren't typically made to handle hot foods, although there are some exceptions. If a machine is made with glass or heat-resistant plastic, it may be able to process ingredients up to a certain degree. Since this isn't always the case, you should check with the manufacturer to find out. Generally, if you're making soup, you should let the ingredients cool before blending.

Here are some other things you should avoid putting in a food processor: copious amounts of liquid, tough meat, bone, gelatin, fruit peels, and ice.

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Donna Currie is a cookbook author who writes roundups and reviews products for The Spruce Eats. She has tested more than 90 kitchen products for the brand.

This roundup was updated by Katya Weiss-Andersson, a writer and editor who has nearly a decade of experience as a professional chef. Katya has a full-sized food processor that she uses for everything from shredding potatoes for latkes to making cheesecake filling, as well as a mini food processor that lives on the counter for mincing garlic, ginger, and chilies. When it comes to food processors, Katya is a Cuisinart fan through and through.

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9 Best Food Processors 2022

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This story was updated in September 2022 to ensure all picks previously tested and vetted by the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab were available and in stock.


Using a food processor is like having your own personal sous chef — it will save you from having to do tons of tedious and tiring prep work. A great food processor is able to dice, mince, grind, knead, puree, slice and shred. Whether you want to knead a pizza dough, grate potatoes and slice onions for latkes or puree a pesto, a trusty food processor will make the task faster. There are even blenders with food processor attachments or food processor–blender combos, which will help accomplish more in the kitchen with less equipment or having to decide whether to purchase a blender or food processor.

In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab we test food processors for consistency and efficiency — we also grade each on ease of use, including readability of owner's manual, assembly, controls and more. Out of over 75 food processors we’ve tested over the years, our top pick of 2022 is the Breville Sous Chef. It's top-of-the-line when it comes to performance, featuring a super powerful motor, a micro-serrated S-blade, an adjustable slicer with 24 settings (ranging from paper-thin to thick-cut), a reversible shredder, a dough blade and more. It aced every test, dicing onions, mincing parsley and uniformly slicing tomatoes in seconds. These are the best food processors you can buy:

Our top picks

You can read more about how we evaluate food processors in our Lab and consumer tests — plus everything you need to know to shop for your new sous-chef — at the end of this guide. Looking for more ways to make food prep a breeze? Check out out guides to small kitchen appliances and the coolest kitchen gadgets any foodie would love.


Breville BFP660SIL Sous Chef 12 Cup Food Processor

Breville BFP660SIL Sous Chef 12 Cup Food Processor

$300 at Amazon

Credit: Breville

Thanks to a super powerful motor, Breville’s Sous Chef is the MVP when it comes to performance. It’s stacked with bells and whistles to give you the ultimate versatility, including a micro-serrated S-blade, an adjustable slicer with 24 settings (ranging from paper-thin to thick-cut), a reversible shredder, a dough blade and more.

This model earned perfect scores in nearly all of our tests, turning out evenly diced onions, minced (read: not bruised) parsley, perfectly ground Parmesan and uniformly sliced tomatoes in seconds. The sleek silver Sous Chef has multiple feeding tubes, one of which is large enough to hold an entire tomato or one-pound block of mozzarella.


Oster 2-Speed 10-Cup Food Processor

Oster 2-Speed 10-Cup Food Processor

$85 at Amazon

Credit: Oster
Pros
Cons

Of the food processors we evaluated, the Oster Total Prep was one of the easiest to use. This no-frills black model comes with an S-shaped blade for chopping, a dough blade and a reversible shredding and slicing disc. The lid and feed tube are super simple to assemble. And for quick cleanup, all parts and accessories are dishwasher-safe. In our tests, it evenly processed diced onions and shredded carrots — though it did leave parsley slightly bruised when mincing, this shortcoming is offset by the great price.


Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor

Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor

$250 at Amazon

Credit: Cuisinart
Pros
Cons

This food processor has a solid base so it didn't move around when kneading dough, and the bowl’s straight edges made it easy to scrape and clean in our tests. It has a simple design and performs well: In our tests, it excelled at chopping onions, mincing parsley and grinding Parmesan cheese, as well as slicing pepperoni and tomatoes. We particularly liked the paddle design of the buttons because they’re wide and operate by pushing down — no fussing with a touchpad. The lid has a large feed tube (for foods like potatoes and cheese) and a smaller one (for skinny items like carrots and celery). The accessories are top rack dishwasher safe.


Magimix Food Processor 14-Cup Chrome

Magimix Food Processor 14-Cup Chrome

$450 at Williams Sonoma

Credit: Magimix
Pros
Cons

Magimix’s food processor with technology from Robot-Coupe (a brand primarily used in restaurants) brings a professional tool to your home kitchen. Featuring 6-cup, 12-cup and 14-cup mixing bowls, it has you covered whether you need to puree a small serving of baby food or knead brioche dough. It comes with two metal blades, a dough blade, two grating disks, two slicing discs, a Blendermix attachment, an egg whisk, a spatula and a storage box. If you want to upgrade this food processor there are additional attachments for purchase that will transform this food processor into a juicer, citrus press, spiralizer and so much more.


Cuisinart 13-Cup Elemental Food Processor

Cuisinart 13-Cup Elemental Food Processor

Now 11% Off

$200 at Amazon

Credit: Cuisinart
Pros
Cons

This Cuisinart food processor includes interchangeable 13-cup and 4.5-cup work bowls — so you can use it to prep salsa or coleslaw for a large party or just for two. It comes with an adjustable slicing disc, a reversible shredding disc (for medium or fine consistency), a dough blade, a dicing disc, a versatile chopping blade, a cleaning tool and a storage case to hold your accessories. In our tests, this machine earned high scores at nearly every task, including kneading bread dough and shredding mozzarella cheese.


Vitamix 12-Cup Food Processor Attachment with SELF-DETECT™

Vitamix 12-Cup Food Processor Attachment with SELF-DETECT™

$187 at Amazon

Pros
Cons

Already own a Vitamix blender and don’t want to purchase another piece of kitchen equipment? The Vitamix 12-Cup Food Processor Attachment is a great solution. This attachment comes with a base that lets the blender know you’re using the food processor attachment, a 12-cup work bowl with lid, two food pushers (one large, one small), one S-shaped multi-purpose blade, two reversible slicing/shredding discs and a slim disc storage case. It made smooth hummus and chopped parsley well in our tests. Even more attachments can be purchased for it, including a julienne disc and reversible fine shred and slice disc.


Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

$40 at Amazon

Credit: Cuisinart
Pros
Cons

Looking for a food processor but don’t have the storage space for a full-sized model? This compact option is a smart pick for little kitchens, dorm rooms or those who tend to make small portions. Ranking at the top of our tests, this 3-cup Cuisinart is a great do-it-all size: The chop and grind functions provide versatility to mince ingredients like herbs, onions, and meat or grind spices or beans with the blunt side of the blades.


Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-iQ

Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-iQ

Now 42% Off

$127 at Amazon

Pros
Cons

The Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-IQ is a great option when looking for a food processor–blender combo. You can switch from blending a frozen margarita to chopping salsa just by switching the work bowl. This food processor and blender combo comes with a pitcher, two single-serve cups with spout lids, pro extractor blades, a 64-oz processor bowl, a chopping blade and a dough blade. One thing that we were missing from a traditional food processor was a shredding/grating disc. Reviewers love the suction cups on the bottom of the base for steady blending and that this machine can replace at least 3 pieces of kitchen equipment: full-sized blender, personal blender and food processor.


Thermomix Thermomix® TM6™

Thermomix Thermomix® TM6™

$1,499 at thermomix.com

Credit: Thermomix
Pros
Cons

The Thermomix TM6 offers food processor functions like chopping, grating, crushing, mincing, grinding and milling — all controlled by its touchscreen and large knob. It also offers steaming and sauté functions, as well as unique features like sous-vide and fermentation. There are numerous components that come with the Thermomix like a mixing knife for chopping onions and mincing herbs, a spatula, a butterfly whisk for whipping cream and eggs, a splash guard, a Varoma basket (for steaming), a simmering basket and a mixing bowl. It features an integrated scale for weighing ingredients, a heating system and a touchscreen control panel.

We found that the Thermomix has a larger learning curve than most food processors, but with that came a lot of useful culinary techniques. The biggest downside to the Thermomix is the large price tag, but it can replace about 10 appliances in your kitchen, and the brand offers a complimentary 1-hour introductory tutorial so you can learn how to get the most out of your Thermomix right out of the box. It’s also equipped with thousands of recipes designed specifically for Thermomix via the Cookidoo app. Its smart, connected technology allows for over-the-air software updates that introduce new programs, like bread proofing, and one of its latest innovations is being able to order groceries right through the machine.


How we test food processors

The Good Housekeeping Institute’s Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab regularly tests food processors for how evenly they're able to dice onions, mince parsley, grind parmesan cheese, shred carrots and mozzarella, slice tomatoes and knead dough. We also take note of how quickly each model performed these tasks and how much food was left unprocessed.

We grade ease of use, evaluating how helpful the owner’s manual is; how easy the blades, chute, and lid are to assemble; the intuitiveness of the controls; the variety of settings offered and the cleanability.


What makes a great food processor?

✔️ Versatility: A top-performing food processor should be able to blitz whole or large pieces of fresh produce — like onions, carrots, herbs or potatoes — into uniform dices or minces in very little time. It should be able to take on tasks like grinding hard cheeses, pureeing soups or sauces, making emulsions like mayo and even kneading dough for bread. When shopping, look for a model that can slice and/or shred foods like tomatoes and cheese.

✔️ Accessories: All food processors come with a work bowl for chopping and pureeing — the best ones will include a slicing and shredding disc as well. Other accessories to look for are a smaller work bowl and blade for finer tasks, a dough blade, a dicing accessory and even a blender attachment for smoothies. Most are top-rack dishwasher safe.

✔️ Settings and speeds: Many food processors have just one speed, but some can have high, medium and low speeds. One must-have: A pulse setting. Pulsing lets you incrementally chop food and control the blade to limit your risk of overprocessing. It’s also great for getting an even chop: The stop-and-go motion allows unprocessed items from the top to fall onto the blade to be processed. Otherwise, items close to the blade just continue to be processed making the bottom more fine than the top.

✔️ Weight: A heavier base helps in terms of performance, but heft doesn't necessarily relate to more power. Lighter materials make food processors more affordable and easier to move around and store. Details like suction cups may seem cheap, but they help keep the base from moving around on the countertop.

✔️ Warranty: Food processors are known as an investment piece, but some people boast that they have had theirs for over 30 years. Before you splurge, take a look at the brand's warranty: The length often varies for motor and accessories.


What size food processor should I get?

Consider the types of tasks you'll be using your food processor for and choose your capacity from there:

✔️ 2- or 4-cup models are for very basic small tasks like chopping herbs, making hummus, pureeing baby food and whipping up dressing or mayo.

✔️ 8-cup models are best for beginners: They're not too big, and not too small. Keep in mind that while they can be used for pastry dough, it would be tough to make bread in this size.

✔️ 12- or 14-cup models are our recommendation for most households. They're versatile and large enough to handle bread dough, and they often come with a second small work bowl for smaller tasks and an assortment of accessories too.