Many people buy a food processor to make cutting of ingredients hassle-free, but did you know that newer versions of this super-useful kitchen appliance can do so much more?
If you’re thinking of buying yourself a food processor, then these reasons may just encourage you to do so:
- Whisk eggs with ease. Do you need to make a meringue from scratch? Or cream your butter, sugars, and other ingredients? You can use your trusty food processor instead of bringing out your bulky stand mixer, or manually whisking until your arms get tired.
- Chop all kinds of ingredients. Food processors are awesome at chopping ingredients like nuts, celery, olives, cranberries, peppers, and even meat. This is particularly helpful if you’re cooking for a big batch and would require a ton of prep work.
- Make homemade crumbs, herbs, and flour. If you have old bread, graham crackers, and other similar ingredients, you could turn them into crumbs for your tonkatsu, cheesecake, homemade burgers, and other recipes that call for crumbs.
For those who take care of a herb garden, invest in a dehydrator and a food processor so you’ll be able to preserve your herbs for extended periods and turn them into spices if you want to.
Food processors also let you make your own flour, such as oat flour, almond flour, rice flour, coconut flour, and so on. You’ll just have to grind your ingredients until they become so small, thin, and smooth as traditional flours.
- Dice garlic and onion hands-free. If you love cooking with garlic and onion but isn’t fond of the smell it leaves on your hand, the food processer could dice these herbs and vegetables for you. It just needs a bit of practice to master the level of dicing you want since garlic and onion are pretty fragile and would only need a quick run through your food processor.
- Slice ingredients uniformly. Some people love cutting up fruits and vegetable with their knives. Others do not. If you’re a part of the latter crowd, don’t be embarrassed. The food processor can help you cut and slice your ingredients as uniformly as possible.
- Make your own nut-butters. Are you a fan of peanut butter, almond butter, and other similar spreads, but can’t have them because of the sugar content on store-bought brands? With a food processor, you’ll be able to grind your nut of choice until the oils naturally appear and add only the right amount of sugar to fit your taste and health requirement.
- Shred vegetables like a pro. As a fan of coleslaw, I use my food processor almost every day for a quick salad side dish. What’s great about the shredder attachment is that it could accommodate cabbage, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, coconut, and other raw ingredients with ease.
In the low-carb world, food processors are a must-have mainly because it is used to create homemade cabbage rice or cauliflower rice that would have taken so long to do by hand.
- Grind meat for homemade burgers, nuggets, sausages, and other processed meat. The magic of food processors is that it can handle both hard and soft ingredients. When it comes to grinding pork, chicken, beef and other meat, nothing beats doing it with a food processor. It’s pretty plug-and-play, so making burgers, sausages, nuggets and other similar processed meat is definitely double even if you’re just a beginner cook.
In most cases, you’ll need the meat of your choice, then add bread crumbs, herbs, spices, vegetables, salt, and other ingredients to prep your creations.
- Puree soup, baby food, dips, and sauces. You’ll be amazed by the many store-bought stuff you no longer have to buy once you maximize the use of your food processor. For example:
- Pureed fruits – Use for baking, feeding your babies, or added to desserts
- Making pesto and other pasta sauces – Love pesto? Go get a basil plant and make unlimited homemade pesto. You can also experiment with other pasta sauces (red, white, veggie-based, and so on) using your food processor.
- Dips – You no longer have to buy branded salsas from the grocery. You can make your own salsa with avocado, cheese, tomatoes, and other dips for your nachos and chips from scratch.
- Baby food – Introduce your baby to new food every day with a food processor. From the traditional apple sauce and pureed butternut squash to more adventurous recipes of pureed sweet potato, beet, pear, carrots, and even zucchini, you can totally do this daily and be 100% sure of the ingredients you feed your baby.
- Blend smoothies, cake batters, and cookie dough – If you’re choosing between a food process, mixer and blender, know that a food processor can be used for blending smoothies, mixing cake batters, and even preparing your cookie dough. You just need to have the right attachment. to do the job.
Food processors can really be an integral part of your kitchen prep. You just have to take advantage of its many uses.
