Several alternatives to the food processor are available to help you create the perfectly sliced and diced ingredients you need to prepare your meals.
The food processor is kind of a kitchen workhorse. It does so many things that some people don't even realize how much they use it. But if you don't have one or if yours is broken, don't worry! There are plenty of alternatives that will do the same thing with minimal effort and cost.
These food processor alternatives range from the small, handheld personal blender attachments made to cut frozen fruit into smoothies to the more heavy-duty food processors that can handle everything from blending sauces to shredding cheese.
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What Is A Food Processor?
A food processor is a small but mighty kitchen appliance, making it a great addition to any kitchen countertop.
Food processors have multiple blades that spin at high speed while pushing down ingredients into the bowl below them. The result is chopped or pureed foods in just seconds! Here are some kitchen tools to help with many tasks you'd use a food processor for.
Immersion Blender
If you want to mix the dough or make bread crumbs, consider using an immersion blender. The immersion blender works well for chopping soft foods like onions, potatoes, and garlic. It also produces smooth purees and soups with ease.
They're also handy for making vinaigrette and chopping small amounts of herbs, fruit and vegetables.
Coffee Grinder
A coffee grinder is another good option if you want to grind nuts or seeds into flour or other types of flour into larger pieces that resemble breadcrumbs. Coffee grinders also work well for making homemade herb blends like curry powder and chili powder because they have no blades that could damage delicate herbs like basil or oregano when grinding them up together in batches at once
Food Chopper
A food chopper is a smaller food processor version, allowing you to quickly chop small batches of ingredients. The main difference lies in their blades – while the food processor has multiple blades that rotate at high speed, the food chopper uses only one edge and works by chopping instead of slicing through foods.
Baby Food Blender/Mill
If you want to make baby purees but don't want to spend money on an expensive baby food maker, consider buying a blender or mill instead. They work just as well as costly machines, and they cost much less too! All you have to do is put your desired
Box grater
Use a box grater if you need to quickly grate lots of cheese or vegetables like carrots or potatoes. This will give you similar results without too much space in your kitchen cabinet.
Potato masher
A potato masher can mash potatoes or root veggies like carrots and parsnips. Use it instead of a blender for soups that call for mashing potatoes, such as creamed chicken soup or vegetable soup with dumplings.
Blender
A blender is the most versatile tool in your kitchen. It can blend, chop and puree almost anything. A blender with a small capacity (less than 1 liter) is not as good at chopping things like onions as a food processor would be. But larger blenders will do just fine with onions and other vegetables (just add water).
Mixer
A mixer is another multi-purpose tool. It can mix doughs and batters and beat eggs and cream butter into spreads and frostings. A mixer is also better at mixing stiff doughs than a handheld electric mixer or immersion blender because it has more power.
Grinder
If you want to grind the meat into burgers or sausage patties, you need a grinder attachment for your stand mixer or food processor (or an appliance dedicated to grinding meat). If all you need is ground beef for casseroles or tacos, though, there's no need for
Rolling pin and plastic bag
This is a good option if you're making guacamole or hummus. You mash up the ingredients in a plastic bag with the rolling pin and then add them to your dish. This is effective, but it can be messy if you're not careful.
Mortar and Pestle
If you want to make fresh pesto at home, get a mortar and pestle to grind up your ingredients into a fine paste. It's also helpful in crushing spices such as cinnamon sticks before adding them to recipes like mulled wine or mulled cider.
Knives
Knives are the most common food processor alternative. They're also the most versatile. You can use them to chop and slice vegetables, fruits, and herbs.
Food Chopper
A chopper is a manual tool with one or more blades attached to a handle. The top of the handle has a hole through which you insert vegetables and fruit, then twist off the blade(s).
A chopper works well for cutting up small amounts of food for sauces or soups, but it takes a lot of elbow grease. And because you have to turn it by hand, there's no way to make uniform-sized pieces of food or shred cheese or vegetable strings (like grating zucchini into "noodles").
Food Mill
A food mill is an old-fashioned kitchen gadget that separates solid foods from liquids while pureeing them simultaneously. It's a metal sieve that fits over a bowl or pot (or even over another pot without handles). You place whatever needs processing into the sieve part of the mill, then push down on top with one hand while turning with
Kitchen Scissors
This is probably the most obvious alternative to a food processor. It's also my favorite because it's both easy and cheap. In addition, you can use kitchen scissors to chop up small amounts of food quickly and easily — just be sure to use them carefully so you don't accidentally cut up your finger!
Wooden Spoon
A wooden spoon is another great way to chop up small amounts of food quickly and easily. Just hold it like you would a knife and move it back and forth over whatever you need to chop up until it's in pieces small enough for your liking. You can also use this method for blending ingredients together, but be careful not to overmix them, or else they might turn out lumpy instead of smooth!
Meat Grinder
If you do any amount of cooking at home, then you probably already have a meat grinder lying around somewhere in your
You've got a major kitchen appliance on your shopping list, but a food processor might be overkill. So here are some other ways to chop and slice your way to the perfect meal — without spending big bucks.
FAQs
An immersion blender is a great alternative. While it won't puree as well, it will get most things chopped up in no time flat. If you don't have an immersion blender, try using a regular blender instead. A hand mixer can work in a pinch if you're making smoothies or milkshakes and just need something pureed quickly.
Not necessarily! A good chef's knife is all you need to chop vegetables and herbs, which is often the primary function of any appliance that cuts up veggies. On the other hand, if you want to shred cheese or make bread crumbs, then definitely get yourself an appliance that does those things because they're hard to do by hand!
Yes! You can certainly slice and dice with just about any kind of knife;
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