It slices, it dices, it whips up a batch of summer pesto in no time! Our food processor is one of those multi-tasking kitchen tools that we really don't think we could live without at this point. We recently took a minute to list all the ways we use ours on a regular basis and were quite impressed! How do you use yours?
We have to admit, we very very rarely bother to dig out the other attachments and blades for our food processor. We never got in the habit of using it to cut vegetables or other prep work. The majority of the time, we leave the standard "chopping blade" in the food processor and use it for everything we do.
1. Puréeing Soups and Sauces - This was actually the top reason why we got a food processor in the first place.
2. Preparing Salsas, Pestos, Dips, and Spreads - With all the fine chopping and grinding required for these kinds of recipes, a food processor really makes the job a lot easier.
3. Grinding Meat - Grinding meat ourselves is cheaper and safer (we feel). We just cut whole pieces into chunks, freeze them until the edges are stiff, and then pulse them in the food processor.
4. Grinding Nuts - Our food processor worked great for making the almond meal for our macarons!
5. Making Nut Butter - And if we keep grinding nuts a little more, we'll eventually have homemade nut butter.
6. Grinding Flour - This isn't as perfect as an actual grain mill would be, but it works fine for small batches of specialty flours.
7. Making Pasta and Pizza Dough - We didn't believe this would work until we finally tried it, and now we always make our pasta dough in the food processor.
8. Making Homemade Mayonnaise - This is way easier than whisking by hand!
9. Making Bread Crumbs and Cookie Crumbs - We like how finely the food processor is able to cut our bread and cookie crumbs for things like topping mac and cheese or making a cheese cake crust.
10. Shredding Cheese - This is actually one of the few times we get out one of the other blades! If we have to shred whole blocks of cheese for a casserole, we just do it in the food processor.
What other ways do you regularly use your food processor?
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the shredding attachment is seriously the most amazing part of my food processor. carrot salad, beet salad, carrot and beet salad...even cabbage when i'm lazy! it's the best!
I use mine for all the same! Some tart or pie crusts or cookie recipes are great with a food processor.
For pureeing soups and sauces, I stick with my blender though.
Do you have the recipe for making pizza dough in the food processor?
Not to mention Carrot Cake...I'd never EVER make it if not for the shredding blade on the food processor! I also use it when I'm making Mac & Cheese, becuase for me that's always an epic cheese adventure, which necessitates lots of cheese, hence lots of shredding.
I have a mini 2 to 3 cup food processor that I use for things like nuts, spices, and other small jobs. I also have a full sized one that I will bust out for bigger jobs like pizza dough, bread or my lasagna filling.
As for the pizza dough recipe, I got it from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbook. (My fave for basic recipes like this). Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/BREADS_TWO/pizza/dough_BITTMAN.html
I'm with Beckarose--I make carrot salad all the time using the shredding blade. Takes about 20 seconds to grate 5 carrots.
I have a regular sized food processor that I use for mixing cakes and a far more useful mini processor that gets used on an almost daily basis for chopping onions, garlic, carrot and celery. It attaches to the top part of my stick blender and doesn't have hundreds of parts that always gravitate to the back of the cupboard or take up so much space in the dishwasher.
I'm wondering if people ever keep separate food processors for savory and sweet? I only have pne, mini processor, and I'm wary of making pesto in it because I'm afraid the garlic and basil taste would never come out completely, and I use it to make the topping for fruit crisps... (My aunt has a separate food processor that's dedicated entirely to making potato latkes--the onions!)
Brooklynnina, I make both pesto and sweet things in mine, and I've never had a problem. If you stored the pesto in the thing for a week maybe, but not if you wash it out right away.
I use mine for most of the things listed above (I don't grind meat, make nut butter, and a stick blender is much much easier for pureeing soups) I also make pie crust in mine, and I do a lot of vegetable shredding and slicing.
I keep my out on the counter and use it 3-5 times a week! Shredding anything is super easy, carrots, cabbage, cheese, anything! Pestos, hummus, baba ganouch (sp?), and the list goes on!
The thing I've learned however, is not to buy an expensive one. I use mine so much that I burn out the motor after a few years, cheap or expensive. So, rather than buy the pricy ones that still die, I'll be buying less expensive ones.
Shredding veggies!
I would say that as a vegan a food processor has been a life saver. When you aren't using dairy, you use grains, nuts and vegetables to make anything creamy or eggy- cashews can become a ricotta substitute, an Alfredo sauce, a sweet topping for pie or combined with tofu, the base for a quiche. It all depends on how you treat the ingredients and how you process them. Of course, I can't buy pesto since it has cheese, so I make it at home in my food processor without it. I make creamy salad dressings by processing nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds with the other ingredients, and my own dairy-free curry pastes and sauces as well. My food processor never goes back under the sink, it stays on the shelf since I use it almost daily.
I heart my cuis' one of the most essential items in my kitchen. @brooklynnina- I feel like if you scrubbed it with a lemon and sea salt it would get any residual smell out of there. I have used mine for sweets and the savories- no additional machine needed.
It's a must for carrot cake! Not just for shredding the carrots, but for mixing up the cream cheese icing! I also love using the shredding blade to make cole slaw.
Used mine a few minutes ago for Chickpea-of-the-sea faux tuna salad. Trying to guess what is the most frequent thing that I have used it for, hummm... Probably slaw.
I use it for many of the uses mentioned above (not to mention baby food, the main reason I got mine).
My only peeve is that I can't seem to find a citrus juicer attachment for my 9-cup Kitchenaid. We love OJ at home and would love to be able to make our own! And since it sits out on the counter, I don't have room for a juicer.
I only have a mini (I'm jealous that I can't shred cheese and carrots in it) but it gets lots of use: "grating" parmesan, chopping onions, grinding nuts, and making pesto are definitely the top uses. It has been the salvation of sedano e riso. I used to spend ages chopping a whole head of celery into tiny dice. Now I just pulverize the stuff--works fine for soup. I used to use it all the time to make baby food.
Bad error in the baby food realm--my little one loved finely cut nori on her rice cereal, and I thought the mini prep would be much, much faster than cutting tiny, skinny pieces with kitchen shears. Yes, it was faster. But when I took the top off, a dark green puff of weaponized nori dust took flight, and I was cleaning up fine, deep green powder FOREVER.
I use my food processor to grind almonds for my macaron disasters and for some quick, speedy chickpea patties
It really just seems to simplify lots of things...
Felafel! Most of the other things I do with my mini food processor I could *probably* do by hand, but there's just no way that I would have the patience to properly mash the soaked-but-not-cooked chickpeas without it.
However, since I'm too lazy to pulverize food by hand if I don't have to, my mini processor also handles harissa, various sambals and curry pastes, the occasional pesto or tapenade, hummus, and sometimes nuts or streusel toppings. (I've never had a problem with flavours transferring, happily!)
Oh you lucky, lucky folks. How I yearn for a food processor.
I use it for nuts and bread crumbs, and easy hummus and pesto, but the very best thing is Latkes! It's so incredibly easy to shred the potatoes and onions--what a time (and knuckle) saver.
It's weird... I used to have one and use it constantly. When it broke, I didn't replace it. Now, having made many delicious things without it, including hummus and homemade salsa, I'm not sure I miss it. I hated cleaning it, and it irritates me that I can't get one motor that has both a food processor bowl and a blender bowl. The bowls are always so hard to clean... the motors always burn out eventually... I think I'm waiting for my food processor prince to come.
Pizza crust, Cooks Illustrated recipe.
Crust for lemon bars or any crust that calls for grated, frozen butter like a shortbread.
I love the shredding/slicing attachment. It makes quick work of cabbage and carrots, though I tend not to use for small tasks...only for large dishes like slaw.
I've had problems using it for soups or watery sauces as it spills out the sides. Does anyone have a solution for this?
homemade hummus and shredding cucumbers for homemade relish
I use mine for all of those things, plus tortilla dough. You just have to roll it out and cook on an iron skillet. Best flour tortillas ever!
I just got my first food processor for Mother's Day and I know that I will not be able to live without it! Goodbye to chopping onions and garlic!
quick pate brisee
breadcrumbs
dips, hummus, pestos (or is it pestoes? haha)
all things cookout-related: shredding cabbage and carrots and broccoli for slaws, cheese for mac&cheese
Hummus, guacamole, gazpacho, and salad dressings! And you're right, I wouldn't do pizza dough any other way. I use a small 3 cup capacity processor all of the time - I rarely bring out the big one-
PIE CRUST! And pesto.
Making laundry detergent.
Frosting!!! It comes out beautifully!
I love my food processor. I use it several times a week. My dad got it as a present for Christmas in 1986 and it just keeps on trucking.
Just got ours out of storage as our dog has been put onto a raw food diet, so now we use it twice a day to mash up all the veggies she eats! It's so easy and so much better than using the blender which we started with which got all clogged up after small amounts of food.
I don't use it for anything else at the moment as I don't like the idea of using it for baking ingredients after the garlic, veg and raw fish we mix up for the pooch, but maybe we can get another jug and I can experiment with it for people-food too :-)
I have a hand-held immersion blender with a food processor attachment: it's the best of everything. I use it to make a creamy basil dressing for all kinds of salads and grains. And making more than 7 cups of breadcrumbs for a delicious nut bake at Thanksgiving: a vegetarian entree that all my meat eaters loved.
Pasta with a velvety green sauce can be made by pureeing cooked green beans, onions, and broccoli with parmesan cheese. This is a smooth, tasty sauce over whole wheat spaghetti.
And I can puree soups, such as rocket and goat's cheese soup, while still in the pot since it's an immersion blender; it's so quick and easy. Can you tell that I love my food processor?? :-)
Roughly in order of frequency:
- peanut butter
- pie crust
- spreads (hummus and smoked tofu-cashew)
- breadcrumbs
I use it to mix bread and make noodle dough. Also hummus. For most things I find it takes longer to clean the damn thing than it does to chop/prep/grate something by hand - especially since I am mostly cooking just for myself.
For pureeing soup I much prefer an immersion blender.
I've been told to be careful of grinding with the main blade- over time, it'll dull the blades. Many processors come with a "mini" bowl for this purpose.
However, most processors also have replacement parts, so you can always buy another blade when yours dulls!
I'm always hard pressed to name my favorite kitchen appliance... my food processor, my stand mixer, or my high powered blender...
My baby food processor has 2 buttons, one that spins in the direction to chop with the blades, and one that spins in the other direction to grind with the backs of the blades. Probably saves a lot of wear and tear on the sharp parts.
My favorite appliance is my 20 year old Braun Multipractic food processor. I use it for fresh bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, pesto and hummus, it also does a fabulous job mincing garlic by dropping it through the chute. It's big and heavy and only has on/off and pulse controls but it's a beast and I would be devastated if it broke, because it's no longer made.
I have an ancient Braun Multipractic too and I love it!
Mayo at least once a week.
Bread crumbs.
Chopping eggs for egg salad.
Nut butters! Current favorite is Toasted Coconut Macadamia Butter.
Cheesecakes.
Pie crusts
Pasta dough
I just want to mention that you CAN sharpen your S blade.
After lots of work they can get dull.
I had given up making peanut butter in my FP until I read about sharpening the blade.
After sharpening I was delighted that not only could I make nut butter but how fast it happened.
I got my cuisinart from Amazon and it is super awesome. I'm so excited that I want to share the discount that I received: http://amzn.to/17lWNjF - Very happy.