Best food processor review, by someone who has actually cooked a ton of food processor for years

The best food processors, tested and compared.

Please note due to pandemic shopping item availability of kitchen appliances and tools, especially related to making dough, changes and therefore prices fluctuate. I advise bookmarking the links if they are out of stock or not available through Amazon Prime/ or at a reasonable price as things can sometimes re-appear. At the time of posting these links they were in stock and well priced but this changes day to day.

What is a food processor and what is it good for? A food processor is a kitchen appliance that does pretty much everything for you in less than a minute! My mom had a food processor that lasted for decades on the kitchen counter and it was regularly used to make dry bread into bread crumbs for schnitzel and to do many other kitchen tasks as listed below.

Here are the best food processors reviewed and compared and food processor features explained, coming from years of use and cooking experience with them.

I know in quarantine times many are just starting to cook from scratch regularly and may not have the time to do everything by hand or to research every different product, and since I put a lot of effort into my cooking over the years I have come to learn a few things about what works well and what doesn’t, especially with food processors since I got one that was a dud so I ended up doing the research and getting one I love and that I use weekly to make hummus, nutbutters and tahini, pesto, flatbread pizza dough, sliced yams, sliced potatoes for scalloped potatoes, shredded potatoes for potato latkes (it grates several large potatoes in a few seconds!), a quick large amount of grated carrots for salad bowls or carrot cake, falafel and veggie burgers, cauliflower rice, vegan cheesecake, and to grind up fresh corn to make masa for homemade corn tortillas or grind up butternut squash and other veggies for quicker cooking soups etc.

Food processor- what it does and what features it has: this machine does it all in a snap! A processor unlike a blender is meant for dry ingredients such as hummus or pesto, because the motor of most blenders would burn out if used repeatedly on dry goods, as blenders are for liquids. A food processor also shreds cheese, slices veggies such as tomatoes, mixes, and finely chops/grinds. Many large processors (8 cup or larger) can also make nutbutter or sunflower seed butter, and diy protein balls such as date and nut energy balls, and many have a dough blade attachment for making dough and baking needs. There are many other things like raw crust, date paste, etc. that can be made in a food processor. Whichever kind you choose, look for the keywords of features you may use such as “nutbutter”, “dough blade”, etc.

I am giving some brief reviews and comparisons of these kitchen appliances from my own experience and the experience of those close to me, as well as consumer reviews. You can click on any picture to find out more details about the product. If you cant see the pictures then likely you have an ad-blocker on, so try another browser or turn it off if you like pictures! The link will take you to an Amazon page to review the description, so you don’t have to buy the product upon clicking the link.

Just look in the search bar for the keyword processor to see examples of recipes I’ve done with a processor (and many more to come!)

These are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you I make a very small commission from these products in order to be able to keep my website running with free recipes and regular posts. Thank you!

Processor versus blender for nutbutters: Comparatively, though blenders such as Blendtec say they do nutbutters, unless you buy a nutbutter attachment such as this twister jar by Blendtec (mini jar) or a bundle with both the blender and the twister jar, then you will not be able to make nutbutter unless you are using a few kilos of nuts! (Tip for any machine: use roasted nuts-you can roast them yourself or buy roasted nuts). So go based on your needs. I found that investing in a processor made more sense than in an expensive top of the line high-speed blender (though they do have their place of course and are loved by many!). Of course some people can afford to have both though and that is ideal. Blenders are for liquids, processors are for solids, since dry ingredients and long processing such as with nutbutter would burn out the motor on most blenders, except those like Blendtec and Vitamix. Also high-speed blenders are louder than food processors so for longer jobs I prefer a food processor in general.

Food proccessor comparisons

Budget pick: Here is an example of an affordable basic 8-cup food processor by Cuisinart, and I am showing both models by Cuisinart, one American Amazon link model and one Canadian Amazon link. Cuisinart is a nice mid-range, budget-friendly option for food processors. The Cuisinart 11 cup food processor is a family-sized option.

Or if you want to invest in the best food processor or have a weak or injured wrist, carpal tunnel, or arthritis and want a machine to help slice yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, etc. into potato chips or carrot coins then the Breville Sous Chef food processor that has the option of making wider slices than most processors (it has an adjustable slicing disc to adapt to the size you like-a unique feature, plus it has a wider chute for whole potatoes, and it can accomodate large tubers due to its powerful motor). Because it is a 12-cup food processor with a powerful motor the motor on this processor is heavy, so it requires to be on the counter unless you like the idea of constantly lifting and moving a 20 lb motor. Most standard 8-cup food processors are under 10 lbs. Although heavy due to power it doesn’t have a much a significantly bigger footprint than a standard food processor (ie. it doesn’t take much more counter space).

Please note since pandemic shopping is causing daily new shortages on any basic kitchen appliances used for pastry and dough as well as cooking, and prices are going up I have included a few different links of the same product, as my original link in the picture below is currently unavailable just two days after posting. But the text links I added are still available. And for now essentially the Breville Sous Chef as well as the Sous Chef Plus model (with mini bowl included) are the same price so go with the Plus model if you can for the biggest bang for your buck!

The Breville food processors are the best food processor of 2020 and made by the most reliable food processor and kitchen brand:

This Breville Processor comes in two 12-cup models: one is a large family-sized processor and the other is also large but also comes with bonus features such as a mini processing bowl or an LCD screen (the former was a US link and Im not sure it has the mini bowl, but has an LCD screen. Canadian link that includes mini work bowl is here) that fits inside for smaller jobs like basil pesto or thai curry paste. It makes sense to get a large food processor with a small work bowl. Otherwise if you want to make everything in it you would need a large food processor and a small food chopper. You also get all the power and quality that Breville Sous Chef has to offer.

The Breville Sous chef food processor is highly rated and extremely powerful and high quality, with an extremely long 10 year warranty and great customer service for replacing parts for free if needed. It does cost more and of course the Sous Chef Plus model with the small bowl is more pricey but it’s a lifetime investment. It’s wise with big purchases on Amazon to look at refurbished options such as a scratched up model or to bookmark the link and check it once in a while for sales. If you know you like to cook form scratch and will get a lot of use from it, it may be worth it for you.

If you have a large family the Breville is great since it has a 12-cup capacity rather than a standard 8-cup food processor. It’s the highest quality processor that can go through years and even decades of wear and tear.

For me a good food processor has the best of all worlds, some features of a high power blender as well as some features of a stand mixer because of its dough blade (though of of course it doesn’t totally replace a blender for liquids nor a stand mixer for extra dough/baking features), as well as processor features like grating discs and slicing discs. So this is the one appliance that I made my epicentre and gave some counter space to and that I invested more in and the rest I kept more budget-friendly and space friendly.

Size: I would not go any smaller than an 8 cup food processor. I initially tried the 7 cup KitchenAid processor due to its lightweight compact design and firstly the lid kept unlocking and flying off (too much power for a lightweight 5 lb or less design though even its 11 cup model has the same glitch written in reviews) and that’s unsafe so you’d have to hold the lid in place and not mind being by the noise for a few minutes. Hopefully they fixed this issue as its been about 1.5 years since I tried it and exchanged it so look at recent reviews. Secondly this 7 cup KitchenAid said it did nutbutters but it would take over ten minutes (I don’t like noise for that long) to get anything resembling a nutbutter, whereas a Breville will give you a smooth nutbutter in about 2-4 minutes.

Dicing-a bonus feature. If you do go with a Kitchenaid and want a family sized 14 cup model with a dicing kit give this Kitchenaid food processor and they also a look-but it is not cheap because of its size and dicing feature. When it comes to food processor quality, based on my experience with Ktichenaid’s 7 cup model, Breville trumps Kitchenaid, despite KitchenAid normally being high quality. The Breville also has a dice and peel 16 cup food processor for large families who want to quickly have potatoes peeled and diced for them, but it is the most expensive option-I think for diced potato aficionados and big families this can really help cut down on time. Generally dicing and peeling are not standard features and come with a hefty price tag, but refurbished models by a good company like Breville are worth it as sometimes it may have simply had a scratch on it and just an esthetic issue.

Many other cheaper small food processors just don’t last long as they don’t have enough power so hard foods like yams can get stuck to the blades and jam such as with the Black+ Decker Slice N’ Dice, which sounded promising because of it’s unique dicing blade feature for a cheap price, but after a month when it ran into issues, I ended up having to exchange it and thankfully it was still returnable. Now in quarantine days I don’t think anyone wants to have to go do returns and Amazon has a return policy of 30 days. If you do use this model you need to pre-chop your yams and potatoes into pieces first.

Vitamix has just come out with a new food processor, and the best part about it is you can use the same base for the blender as the food processor, thus taking up less counter space. Of course as you can expect with Vitamix it is a quality machine. The processor attachment works with Vitamix Ascent models that have self-detect technology.

Of course 8 cup processors and bigger require more counter space than mini processors. a mini is good if you live with roommates in a tiny apartment, though it will not give you all the same features.

3 cup or 3.5 cup mini food processors of course have less powers, features and space but if you don’t have room or want to first try it out then this is a compact and the cheapest option. (honestly a mini food processor was my gateway drug to a large food processor!). With a mini you can only make one veggie burger at a time and it doesn’t have the power for nutbutters, nor does it have a dough blade etc. Its great for small jobs like pesto. Click the picture below for more details!