I'm debating whether or not to get myself a food processor this year.
I have very little counter space and not much in the way of cupboard storage either. I do have a mini-processor attachment that goes onto my blender and I use it for making baby food and pesto. I see a lot of recipes that have instructions for using a food processor and I wonder if the use justifies the cost/storage.
What do you use your processor for and do you think they are worth the money? What brand/size would you recommend? Do they have any special use for organic gardeners?
I'm intrigued by using a processor to make pastry dough (oatmeal scone recipe!) and pie dough. I'm a complete hack when it comes to mixing pie dough, although I can roll it out okay.
Perhaps what I need is more practice instead of a new gadget.
Any ideas or feedback?
Thanks,
Keli

I need a new blender blade for the frozen strawberry smoothies I make for my kids. :-) The hand blender doesn't get them as smooth as the counter-top model.

I have a food processor that sits in the cupboard and takes up space because I don't use it. It has a grating and slicing disk for all that tedious stuff, but it got bent when I forced a potato into it for thicker slices, and it doesn't work anymore. There is an older "grinding/grating" machine we have that makes more noise than the blender, and DH brings it out once in a blue moon to shred cheese for pizza, but since I'm usually the one making the pizza, I shred the cheese by hand -- he'll run through the whole block of cheese, and we'll have dried-up cheese bits sitting in the fridge for weeks. I don't even use the mixer much, except every other blue moon when I make lemon meringue pie for my DH, and I can't whisk egg whites into a stiff foam, not with two small kids running around. I don't even use a whisk for scrambling eggs, or mixing bearnaises.

I use a fork and my fingers for mixing food, and a knife to chop. The one tool I've found that works great for mincing absolutely anything is the hand-operated plunger knife -- that thing you pound with your fist to chop up garlic and ginger. It's a great stress reliever.

I recommend you forget the food processor for making dough -- you have a blender that seems to work fine for everything else you make. Refine your technique for making pie dough -- the secret to a tender crust is to not handle the dough too much, especially if baking with butter. Handling the dough will break down the tiny bits of butter seeded through the dough, and give you something rubbery.

Of course, Oster makes a great appliance, and if you want the food processor, spend the money on a really GOOD one, not a cheapie. Mine was a cheapie. It's bent and disused. The end. ;-)

I've made a lot of stuff in my Cuisinart but my sister uses hers more than I do and I use it less than the Vitamix. I have a big Cuisinart that I got used, I have made bread (and pizza dough), cookies, pie crust, scones, pesto (best method for pesto). Some cookie recipes I prefer to make in the big mixer as I have a tendancy to double and quadruple recipes but I always do the Bisotti in the Cuisinart and of course slicing, shredding, and making Marzipan & peanut butter. Other stuff too but I can't think of it all right now.

What size you get depends on what you want to do with it and how much stuff you want to make. For a normal sized cookie recipe you want a full sized machine. To grind coffee you would probably want a small one.

My sister and I have both had machines that weren't Cuisinarts. Don't make that mistake unless Consumer Reports has a really persuasive reason not to. Good tools last and are a joy to use. Bad tools break and are frustrating to use. Elfie is right about that (Hi Elfie!). It makes me angry to have to spend money on that replacement tool unless the original had a nice long happy useful life.

The other thing is to sit down and read the manual and the recipe instructions that come with the machine and take the time go get comfortable. Remember, a recipe is only a templete. You can use the instructions and plug in your own ingredients.Just don't forget the machine capacity when loading it.

Good luck. If I can help let me know.

I've had several different food processors. Some sliced and diced, some just mixed things up, some weren't worth having in the house.

I've come to the conclusion that for me they are absolutely unnessecary. there isn't anything I ever used one for that I can't do just as well by hand. The only thing I really liked a food processor for was shredding zucchini. But I've got 4 kids and if one of them is too lazy to shred then I'm not going to make them zucchini bread.

I thought about getting a brand new one awhile back when they were on sale,but couldn't figure out where I'd put it and couldn't really justify the expense.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I think I will go price out Cuisinart at some stores (after holiday sales, perhaps?) and check out all of the specs on it.

I have a good Kitchenaid stand mixer that I use for most mixing, it also has a dough hook for breads and such. I really think that all I would use the food processor for is cutting in butter for pastry dough.
But I'm open to other uses.
I have a mandolin that I love to use for making Potatoes Anna (with onions!) and it can be used for grating chees also. Maybe because I grew up without any of these electric kitchen appliances, that is where my comfort zone is.
But that scone recipe..... I've got to give it a try, food processor or not!!!! (Thanks Fantasytools!)

Keli

I have a Regal brand I got it for $25.00 when the local outlet was going out of business.Not to impressed by it and if I had a choice to do it all over again I wouldnt.I would save my money and buy a cuisenart or if Kitchen Aid makes them I would buy from them, they make a awesome blender small capacity but awesome power!Willow

You really could blenderize the oats and make the rest in your Kitchenaid. Its probably not worth it for just 1 item, but if you make a lot of pie crusts or do lots of chopping or shredding... I used to put my apples through on the largest grater and use them for pies and they were great and easy. My sister used to use hers for canning a lot too. After holiday sales are good too. Try the Cuisinart website; they might have some reconditioned machines under warranty. Good luck.