Food Processor Guide: How to Choose, Use, and Clean One

A good one is indispensable — small, easy to clean, and powerful — it can make a variety of soups, dips, sauces, and more with just a few flicks of a button. Let’s dive into my favorite food processor and how to use, clean, choose, and maintain one.

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The Cuisinart Elemental 8-Cup is the food processor I reach for most in my kitchen. It’s the right size for everyday cooking: big enough for a batch of homemade salsa or a pureed vegetable soup, but compact enough to leave on the counter. I use it for my bread crumbs, basil pesto, hummus, and almond butter. I like the rubberized touchpad controls, which wipe clean easily, and the reversible shredding and slicing discs.

Find it, along with all of my favorite kitchen tools, on my Shop page.

Many people think a blender and a food processor are the same. They are, in fact, different appliances with different uses, though some people prefer to own just one or the other. A good rule of thumb is that kitchen blenders are better for wet ingredients like soups, smoothies, and salad dressing, while food processors are for dry or tough items like vegetables, protein, cheese, and other dry goods.

When processing liquids like soup recipes or beverages, the hole in the center of the food processor bowl can be a little messier and harder to pour. However, the food processor’s larger base size and surface area may yield more consistent pieces of food.

Many food processors have a feed tube at the top that allows you to add ingredients while chopping safely. When working with a food processor, you’ll want to keep these tips in mind:

• Grind in stages to ensure each ingredient grinds or chops properly when considering different textures.
• Start with the ingredients that need to be the most finely chopped, and then add them once the desired texture is achieved.
• Liquids help, so if the recipe calls for oil or anything else, add them as you go along.
• The “pulse” button is best for kneading dough or quick chopping, and it will allow you to control the speed for short bursts. Pulsing helps clumped food to resettle and drip down to ensure everything gets processed.
• The “low” and “high” settings help to maintain a more consistent grind of the ingredients and usually can be set on continuous mode. This is helpful for making smooth nut butter or adding oils to sauces.
• Scraping down the sides when needed helps to reincorporate large chunks of food stuck to the sides or below the blade.

So, what can you use a food processor for? The versatility of the processor allows for endless prepping and recipe options. Here are some ideas:

• Grinding Meat: Make ground chicken, pork, or beef for meatballs and meatloaf, stir-fries, or even salmon burgers.
• Produce: Chopping, shredding, and slicing fruits and vegetables.
• Cheese: Shredding cheese if you have the attachment.
• Dairy: Ice cream and whipped cream can be made in the food processor.
• Frozen: Large pieces of frozen fruit and ice to make desserts work well.
• Sauces, Dips, and Dressings: Mayonnaise, pesto sauce, hummus, curry paste, salsas, spreads, vinaigrettes.
• Doughs and Crusts: Pasta, bread dough, pizza dough, and pie crusts can be made in a large unit that has high power for working through gluten development. It makes breaking the pieces of butter into tiny pieces in the flour so fast and easy!
• Purees: Baby food and smooth soups.
• Nuts: Grinding nuts into smaller pieces or making homemade almond butter or peanut butter.
• Grains and Cereals: Make your own oat flour or other grains. Breadcrumbs are made in an instant!
• Sugar: Powdered sugar can be made in the food processor.

Benefits of Using a Food Processor

1. Speed: Unless you find it therapeutic to chop like me, it’s nice to have a little help. When you are in a hurry or working with multiple ingredients for a recipe, a food processor can help with prep, cutting down on prep time.
2. Versatility: From savory sauces and pie doughs to desserts, this tool can help create various recipes using a quick and powerful blade.

1. To clean, first dismantle the food processor by taking apart each piece, including the blade, cup from the base, and lid from the cup.
2. Wash all the removable pieces by hand with warm water and dish soap, taking care not to use any abrasive pads or scrubbers.
3. Blades should be wiped down immediately and never soaked.
4. Removable parts can also be washed in the dishwasher on the top rack.
5. Take a damp cloth and wipe down the base.
6. After drying each part completely, put the food processor back together and store it until the next use.

How to Choose a Food Processor

It can be a difficult decision to select the best food processor to buy for your needs. Here are some key things to consider:

• Parts: A food processor should generally come with a work bowl (3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 20  cup size), work bowl cover, chopping blade, and a pusher that helps feed in large, voluminous, or tougher pieces of food through the feed tube.
• Size and Power: If you’re using a food processor as an all-purpose appliance, I suggest getting a full-size processor (8 cups or larger) with at least 300 watts of power. Anything less than that, and you risk it not chopping correctly or running down the motor. A family of four will do well with 11 cups and up. Cooking for one or two or taking on smaller jobs, a mini chopper may be your pick. Look for around a 3-cup processor size for prep work, like chopping herbs and nuts or making small quantities of sauce like pesto.
• Speed: Most food processors have speed option buttons for low, high, and pulse. It also helps if there is continuous processing so that you do not have to manually hold down the button for a longer period of time, especially when you’re trying to simultaneously add ingredients to the feed tube.
• Cleaning: It can also be convenient to get one with many dishwasher-safe features, though it’s generally a good idea to hand wash the blades–it keeps them from dulling too quickly.
• Extra Features: Keep an eye out for bells and whistles, too–some fancier food processors come with different-sized bowls and blades, discs for grating cheese and other foods, citrus juicers, and other things. While exciting, consider whether they’ll be used before forking over the extra cash.