How often do you use your food processor?

[DawnM]

I have one and use it about 3 times per year.  I keep wondering if I shouldn't just get rid of it, but then I worry I will need it.

 

Do you use yours often?  What do you use it for?

 

Thanks,

 

Dawn

[LuvToRead]

Weekly-ish.  Biscuit dough, pasta dough, and pie dough.  I shred huge blocks of cheddar cheese and heads of cabbage.  When I am making au gratin potatoes for a crowd, I use it to slice the potatoes.  I also use it for purees.  DH prefers smooth sauces, so I will puree tomatoes in it, or even fruit.  I will puree peaches in it before cooking them for jam.  But I mainly use it for doughs and shredding.  You can even use it for sorbet and ice cream.  The ice cream has a different texture, but we like it.

[Lady Florida.]

I didn't use mine and got rid of it. I have a mini sort-of food processor that goes with my immersion blender. This one. It's not a true food processor obviously, but it does the only things I used my full size food processor for. I don't use it often either but use the blender part a lot. And when I do use the processor I'm glad I have it. 

[DawnM]

I use my Vita Mix for smoothies and sorbets.  I buy pre-shredded cheese, and never make au gratin potatoes.

 

Hmmm......I may get rid of it.

[Pawz4me]

I don't have one, so . . . . never. I did have one decades ago but I never used it. I guess it eventually ended up at Goodwill. I don't have a blender either. I do have one of these Black & Decker choppers and use it maybe once or twice a month (for really finely chopped onions, blending up some beans to make soup thicker or banana "ice cream").

[Guest]

About weekly, sometimes more sometimes less. For homemade cereal(made out of nuts) and date balls mostly. I recently started making garbanzo bean sauce with it.

 

In the summer we use it to crush fruit that we make into popcicles​.

 

Grating cheese. Whatever pops up.

[Baseball mom]

Ds wishes I would use it more.  I make salsa in it, when I make salsa :lol:   According to him I don't make it often enough.

 

But I do use it weekly for shredding cheese, shredding potatoes, chopping onions etc.

[barnwife]

Well, when we got married a food processor was one of two things soon to be DH wanted to register for. I sort of grumbled about both, as I didn't think we'd use them. (The other was a rice cooker.)

Though it pains me to admit it, he was right. We use them both. If we make salsa, hummus, need to shred lots of cheese, the uses are endless. So much so that it stays on the counter.

[EKS]

Maybe once every few months.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Not that often, but it does certain things that are so annoying to do by hand so I keep it.

 

 

[sassenach]

I have a mini one that I use multiple times a week. My big one I use about every other month. It's worth keeping.

[happi duck]

I haven't been using it while I wait for my replacement blade which has made me realize that I use it more than I knew!

 

I would keep mine if I only used it for cole slaw, though I use it for other stuff too.

[Carol in Cal.]

I don't use mine all that often, but when I do it's such a lifesaver that I would never want to be without it. I don't leave it out all the time though.

[Janeway]

We use ours regularly, but just for shredding cheese. If you are giving yours away, if it is good at shredding cheese..you could mail to me.. <smiles>

[Lady Florida.]

I never mastered using mine for dough so maybe that's why I didn't mind giving it up. Since I really only used it for chopping or shredding stuff, there were other options that took up much less kitchen space. 

[JustEm]

I barely ever used it so I got rid of it about 2 years ago. Haven't regretted it yet.

[solascriptura]

I don't use mine all that much, but every time I do, I'm glad that I have it.

[Annie G]

Only use mine about 5 times a year. It seems dumb to keep it but I have a bajillion blades and even though intellectually I know it's a sunk cost I can't bring myself to get rid of it.  

[KungFuPanda]

Only weekly, but I use it for a lot of different things . . . cutting, slicing, grating, dough for a single pizza. However, if you're not using it now you probably won't start soon so you might as well give it to someone who will.

[Ellie]

I have one and use it about 3 times per year.  I keep wondering if I shouldn't just get rid of it, but then I worry I will need it.

 

Do you use yours often?  What do you use it for?

 

Thanks,

 

Dawn

 

I don't use it every week, but I use it often enough that it is a necessity in my kitchen. I make my own mayo, and of course things like deviled eggs, guacamole, and pie crust dough.

[popmom]

Great thread! Please enlighten me...you shred a block of cheddar with your food processor? I've never tried that. I hardly ever use mine. I use it mostly to shred carrots for making carrot cake a couple of times a year--and for a certain casserole recipe. 

 

Mine is an ancient Cuisinart that I inherited from my late grandmother. It's probably from the early 80's--no lie. And it works great! It's super heavy--I'm mean, its a MACHINE. I'll never get rid of it! I love vintage kitchen items.

 

Anyway, so soft cheeses work with the grater blade? I would LOVE  to not buy pre-shredded cheese anymore as it's coated in that starchy stuff.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I would use mine more often if it weren't such a pain to clean.  I try to rinse it right away and throw it into the dishwasher, but it still sometimes gets stuff stuck in the cracks and crevices.  Whereas a knife...that's easy to clean.

 

But yes there are a few things where it's just such a pain to do by hand.  For example, shredded cauliflower.  It wasn't always available already done (now I mostly buy it already shredded), but doing that by hand...it just makes this insane mess all over the place.  Another is potato pancakes.  I could use a box grater, but that's a lot more work.  The food processor makes a quick job of that.

 

It's also great for stuff like pie/tart dough.  I just don't make a lot of pies and tarts. 

[Carrie12345]

I have a small one that's technically my son's.  The only thing I use it for is hummus.  I've never had a need for a regular sized one.

[marbel]

I use mine more around holidays than any other time, but it's still readily available in my kitchen.  Hummus is the biggest thing; on the rare occasion I make a cream cheese frosting, my favorite recipes calls for it.  Sometimes I make pie crust in it...there are other things I can't think of right now.   it's worth it to me to keep it around.

[Lecka]

I don't have one.

 

Salad dressing is the thing where I see recipes and I don't have a good way to just use another appliance (a mixer or a blender) or do it by hand.  I shake dressing in a Mason jar and it is fine, but I wonder if it would be better made in a food processor. 

 

I do not like the noise they make.  That is a main reason for me.  I would sooner do things by hand than listen to the noise.

 

There are also things where I use frozen vegetables to cut down on chopping. 

 

I have a microplane-style shredder for cheese now and it works great.    It is really fast (to me). 

 

Edit:  I use frozen pie crust and don't make salsa, so some things I just don't make. 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Lecka

[Zinnia]

Hummus, pimento cheese (we like it very finely chopped, not just shredded), mashed cauliflower (FP makes it really smooth).  I also shred cabbage for slaw, potatoes for latkes, and zuchinni for zuchinni cakes.  

[abba12]

I had a cheap one and it never did things well, it didnt cut nicely at all, using it for prep was impossible. I got rid of it and never looked back. But, then, DH talked me into buying a nice, expensive fancy one and WOW. 

 

If you're cooking small portions it's not worth it, but I generally make food in bulk, at least a double and often a triple recipe, and I add a LOT of veggies in. So a single recipe might call for 6 onions, 12 carrots, 3 bell peppers, a couple of leeks, maybe some beans or shredded spinach.That's a lot of cutting. But this good quality food processor actually slices really, really well. Better than I can. Peel and quarter the onions, cut the bell peppers into rough sections, dump them in the bowl and pulse a few times. Slice carrots in quarters lengthways, slice leeks in half, scrunch up spinach, and feed it all through the slicer disk (or the grater sometimes). SO much time saved. 

 

I also use it to make cauliflower rice, a million times quicker. Grating cheese or carrots... slicing snow peas into fine shears... grating apple for salad or baking... all sorts of things.

 

I don't do any dough or anything. I've done banana ice cream but it seems very rough on the blades so I don't often anymore. Mine is pretty much exclusively for vegetable slicing, dicing and shredding and so worth it. But if you don't eat the same quantity of fresh veggies as our family there would be very little point. 

[Closeacademy]

I use it during canning season and would never get rid of it. It sits mostly in it's box but when it's time to make Zucchini relish or chop up onions for salsa, it comes in really handy.

[Matryoshka]

Only once or twice a year.  It has a home in a cabinet, so doesn't take up counter space.  I almost never need it, but when I do need it (usually some kind of big batch job), I'm glad I have it.  

 

For a few onions, or cutting up one cabbage, or grating a few carrots, I find the old fashioned knife or grater easier.

 

Apparently I'm not doing enough batch cooking...  I do not make my own humus or salsa or a lot of pie crusts or zucchini bread or latkes.  And I buy cauliflower rice frozen in a bag...  :hangs head in shame:

Edited March 20, 2017 by Matryoshka

[gaillardia]

Cranberry relish every fall and winter.

Cole slaw, off and on through the warm months. I know there are a few other things I use it for but I don't think I will get rid of mine.

I do not use it every week.

My food processor is 20+ years old, still runs, has a small piece of plastic missing on the bowl which doesn't affect the operation.

[unsinkable]

Great thread! Please enlighten me...you shred a block of cheddar with your food processor? I've never tried that. I hardly ever use mine. I use it mostly to shred carrots for making carrot cake a couple of times a year--and for a certain casserole recipe.

 

Mine is an ancient Cuisinart that I inherited from my late grandmother. It's probably from the early 80's--no lie. And it works great! It's super heavy--I'm mean, its a MACHINE. I'll never get rid of it! I love vintage kitchen items.

 

Anyway, so soft cheeses work with the grater blade? I would LOVE to not buy pre-shredded cheese anymore as it's coated in that starchy stuff.

I put softer cheeses in the freezer for a while before I shred them.

 

HTH