Food Processors

Food Processors allow the use of fresh ingredients to make delicious meals like homemade meatballs rather than opting for store-bought varieties including additives and preservatives. Foods that are processed at home will taste better and are more nourishing as they're made fresh.

These Kitchen Benchtop Appliances consist of a motor housed in the body of the appliance with the controls, a bowl with a lid, a feed tube and a range of included and/or optional Mixer Attachments. Each of the attachments processes food in a variety of specialised ways as ingredients are fed into the bowl. Freshly processed food collects in the bowl which can be detached after use to transfer via pouring, draining and cooking.

The range of Mixer & Food Processor attachments will let it chop veggies, grind or mince meats, process bread into crumbs or cauliflower into cauliflower rice. Puree homemade nut butters and baby foods, blend your own hummus or pesto, shred, grate and slice vegetables, cheeses, and deli meats. Some can even knead doughs!

Although Blenders and Food Processors may look similar and can perform some of the same tasks, they are very different appliances.

Blenders are designed to puree and crush ice making them great for smoothies, milkshakes, drinks or dips. A Food Processor can also somewhat do these tasks although they specialise more towards shredding, slicing, grating and preparing foods that are eaten at the table.

Both Blenders and Food Processors house their motor in the base of the appliance with the controls, and can have a container that sits on top to house ingredients as they're processed or blended. While Food Processors use a variety of blade and disc attachments that can be swapped in and out for specialised tasks, Blenders usually have a single fixed blade in the bottom of the jug. The jug is generally tall and narrow to help create a vortex that circulates ingredients through the blades for even, thorough blending.

This all depends on the task and the volume of food to process. For smaller tasks using minimal ingredients, a manual or electric Food Chopper can most definitely perform as a mini Food Processor. They do however have much less (if any) wattage so the results take longer.

Food Choppers are great for not only chopping ingredients like onion and garlic to cut down on prep time, but for mixing fresh herbs and nuts into dips or a quick homemade basil pesto. Because they're smaller they also require less clean up over Food Processors.

For all other tasks such as grating, shredding or crumbing bread, you'll need a Food Processor because they come with a raft of accessories to do more with food than a Chopper is capable of.

With the right attachments and features, a Food Processor can do just about any kitchen task thrown at it. It’s worth thinking about what it'll be used for and how often before buying one, so here's some key features to consider.

The size of the bowl varies between models, so consider how much space is free in the kitchen and weigh it up against the amount of food likely to be made. For even more space saved, some come with a storage box to keep all the attachments together like some Breville Food Processors. This also keeps them in better condition and stored away from small hands safely.

There are a variety of attachments that a processor may come with, common attachments being a dough blade, slider and shredder, while accessories such as a whisk may be only found in selected models. Some such as selected Kenwood, KitchenAid or Sunbeam Food Processors can come with a Blender jug for whipping up creamy smoothies which may save the cost and space of buying a standalone Blender.