Cuisinart Mini Food Processor

After the Zyliss food chopper I purchased was a complete bust, I decided I've had enough of the hand held choppers and looked around for an electric mini food chopper instead.

My husband actually found this on sale, marked down from $40 to $25.00. I have had both good and bad luck with the Cuisinart name, but it was attractive and I thought it was worth a try. Since it's just hubby and myself, we don't normally cook very many meals, so this 21 oz. capacity is perfect, and it takes up much less room in my cabinets.

Description

This comes in both white and brushed stainless steel, we purchased the stainless model. If you have stainless steel appliances in your kitchen, this would look really nice. It is quite compact, measuring 4.5" wide, 6" deep, and 7.5" high. The 21 ounce bowl is clear, and the cover is clear as well.

There is one blade, but it reversible for two functions - it has a sharp edge for chopping and a blunt edge for grinding.

I used to own a full sized food processor, and it came with a slicing and shredding disc, however this mini-processor does not have any such attachments. It uses only the chopping blade.

It only has two speeds, hi and low, but these are adequate for most of our needs.

I looked through the manual, but could not find out how powerful the motor was. However, looking at the bottom of the processor I read that it is 120 Volts. (The same as some electric knives, which doesn't seem all that powerful to me).

What It Will Do

* Grind whole coffee beans
* Chop onion
* Puree vegetables for babyfood
* Chop up spices
* Chopped cooked bacon
* Breadcrumbs
* Ginger root & garlic
* Nuts
* Puree fruits

Performance

I didn't buy this thinking that it would replace my former full sized food processor, and if that's what you are looking for this probably won't be satisfactory.

I use this a lot for cutting onions, they always make me cry. In order to cut up onions, I cut them up in chunks first, then add them to the container. There is a small manual that shows how to process the different foods. The blade says "sharp" on the, well, sharp side (imagine that!). Turn it over and you are working with the blunt side. The directions tells if you should use the sharp or blunt blades and if you should process on hi or lo. So there are four different combinations that can be used: hi/sharp, low/sharp, hi/blunt, lo/blunt.

Since the bowl holds a little more than 2 1/2 cups, it is quite adequate for the needs of two. If you try to chop too much at one time, it will chop the pieces unevenly. You can remedy that simply by putting less into the bowl at a time.

I love that there is a built in storage area under the unit to wrap the cord up so that it is hidden from sight, but it really doesn't matter to me since I keep this in my appliance drawer.

Some of my favorite ways to use this processor are:

* Making homemade salsa
* Making my own salad dressings
* Grinding whole coffee beans
* Chopping onions or scallions
* Chopping bacon and Nuts
* Creaming deviled egg fillings
* Making breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs

Thoughts

I love this little food processor. It definitely beats those hand held choppers! It's a breeze to clean, it comes apart easily and is dishwasher safe. There is even a small spatula included that fits the inside depth perfectly! The plastic does have a tendency to hold the strong odors of onions, so I have better luck washing this in my dishwasher rather than by hand.

It's a little noisy, but my full sized one was as well. When I am chopping a lot of onion, I usually have to place my hand on top of it, as it has a tendency to slide around a bit.

It weighs only 2 1/2 pounds, so removing it from my kitchen cabinets is simple, much easier than hauling around the full sized counterparts.

I can hold the hi/low buttons down, or I can start and stop them, basically forcing it into a pulse mode. This works great if you don't want to grind something too fine.

The blades are very sharp and care must be taken when removing them from the clear bowl.

The owners manual has a trouble shooting guide, and even includes quite a few recipes.

It comes with a 18 month warranty.