How often do you use your food processor?

[mirth]

To grind and crush things -- like nuts, grains, chocolate, or cheeses? Do you feel you need to process a lot of food to make it worthwhile to clean up?

[Mrs Mungo]

I use mine at least once a week for making big batches of salsa. I do sometimes buy big blocks of cheese, grate it all with my food processor and put in in a ziploc or container. I don't generally use it for small things. If I need a few almonds chopped for salad or whatever, I just use a knife.

[LauraGB]

I rarely use it for what I can use my knife for, so I don't use it to chop or slice very often at all. Mostly, I use it for dough, nut butters and hummus. Sometimes a sauce or two. I used to make regular butter in it, too. When I'm making a ton of apple pies, I will use it to slice them. But I'm not a gadget gal, either. It took me a long time to decide to buy one. I'm glad I did, though, because I really like mixing my pizza dough and some bread doughs in there, and it really is indispensable for the hummus and nut butters.

[2squared]

I don't grind or crush things very often. I use my food processor for mixing, grating, and slicing mostly. Here's my usage analysis:

 

time to clean > time saved = no food processor

time to clean < time saved = definitely food processor

 

I use mine as a blender too. It makes great ice cream shakes.

[Mynyel]

I use mine all the time. I use it to slice carrots and baby carrots to cook for dinner or lunch. I use it to shred potatoes for hash browns, and to grate cheese. I use it to chop onions. Make guacamole. Make homemade butter. And various other things I can't think of but I know I am always washing it!

[lllll]

Several times a week. Grating carrots, chopping onions and mushrooms (for Diner Burger recipe), making a bean-based cheese sauce, and so on.

 

When processing nuts, I now try to soak them a short time in water to soften them a little. We've had a couple of processors' blades chip on us. And one actually broke into pieces.

 

No, I don't feel the need to do megabatches when I use it. It sits on the kitchen counter and, after use, we toss it into the dishwasher with all the rest of the dirty dishes. But we're also cooking for 7 people when we cook.

[amy g.]

I use mine about twice a day, but then, I cook a lot.

[elise1mds]

I use my mini-food processor a lot, but I only pull out the big one once or twice a year. It's almost not worth having for me because of the clean-up.

[Carol in Cal.]

When I do use it, it makes a HUGE difference.

 

It enables me to make things that I would not bother with otherwise, much to the joy of those who eat them. Especially in this category are au gratin potatoes from scratch.

 

I used it a lot more before I got a stick blender, because I would puree soups in the food processor pretty often. It was far more effective than the blender.

 

I still use it when I'm cooking for a crowd--you can't beat it for chopping bulkoo onions, or grating cheese very quickly, or slicing uncooked potatoes or cucumbers, or shredding carrots.

 

I don't use it for grinding things, because I assume that it will dull the blades. I grind nuts with a hand grater (rotary) and that works very well. We don't make our own hummus, and I now use the stick blender for my famous guacamole.

 

Now that I have a 3 bowl model, I will use it more often because before I only had a 12 cup bowl, so I didn't run small batches of things in it; but now one of my bowls is only 4 cups in volume, so I can do those little jobs more easily.

 

I just throw the pieces in the dishwasher. In the top rack I have had no problem.

[Parrothead]

To grind and crush things -- like nuts, grains, chocolate, or cheeses? Do you feel you need to process a lot of food to make it worthwhile to clean up?

It gets a bit of use for nuts when I do big batches of cookies. I hardly ever do cheese. I do not have an overly large processor so clean up is not an issue. I bought it to use so I use it when I need it with not thought to cleaning it.

[RoughCollie]

I have a large food processor. I hardly ever use it unless I need to grate large amounts of cheese, slice potatoes very thin, or make powdered laundry detergent.

 

It often takes less time for me to prepare foods by hand than to haul out, put together, take apart, clean, and put away the food processor.

 

I bought a Black & Decker food chopper for everyday use.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-EHC650-2-Speed-Chopper/dp/B00005MF97/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1265362842&sr=1-1

 

There are 311 reviews for this on Amazon, most of which extol its virtues.

 

I mostly use it for chopping onions and bell peppers. I tried chopping pecan halves with it, and it did not work well -- the halves kept getting caught under the blade. I haven't tried cheese or chocolate.

 

The blade is extremely sharp and you have to be real careful when you clean it -- I cut myself badly on it once, and now I set it out of reach to dry when I clean it so no one picks it up and is cut by accident.

[Pippen]

I used my small one all the time before it broke, the big one only occasionally. I do cook alot but often by hand is quicker or I can buy already chopped or shredded (nuts, cheese) for just as cheap.

[Pamela H in Texas]

almost never. For those sorts of things, I'd simply use the magic bullet or coffee grinder.

[Chris in VA]

Never. Sigh.

It's new and I just can't confront that sharp blade--I have a fear of being cut. I know, it's just me.

You go right ahead, tho.

[Hikin' Mama]

so that means I'm not addicted right? :tongue_smilie:

 

(Referring back to alcoholic thread)

[3littlekeets]

I have a big Cuisinart and it is such a pain to clean I haven't used it in 2 years. I really ought to donate it...

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I use my big cuisinart 2-3 times a week, mostly for slicing or grating things. My blender is easier to clean, so I use that instead when I can.

[My3Boys]

I have a Cuisinart and I use it several times a month. Besides slicing and shredding, it makes awesome cheese balls, pie crust, and chicken, egg and tuna salad. I also grind stale bread in it for bread crumbs. I grow my own herbs and use it to chop them as well.

 

I like doing large quantities of chopped nuts and shredded cheese to put in the freezer. During the holidays it's always running!

 

I never find cleaning it an issue as everything goes right in the dishwasher.

[joannqn]

If I had the counter space to leave my out, I'd use it a lot more than I do. Because I don't have the space, it's kept in a cabinet and I have to haul it out to use it, which makes it more work than it is worth a lot of times.

 

What I use more is the Tupperware version of a manual food processor that they call a Quick Chef.

[BikeBookBread]

If I had the counter space to leave my out, I'd use it a lot more than I do. Because I don't have the space, it's kept in a cabinet and I have to haul it out to use it, which makes it more work than it is worth a lot of times.

 

Ditto above. I have a KA 12 cupper...only about 1 1/2 years old. I'm not using it nearly as often as I thought I would. I still really like having it. I tend to use it when I'm juicing pounds of citrus at a time, making salsa or other "event" types of cooking. I don't use it on an everyday basis at all. I do use my KA Mini-Prep FP a ton, though.