I’ll be getting a nice Cuisinart food processor from the friendly folks at Amazon in a few days. I must confess it was an impulse purchase with the thought of making some New Years Eve hummus the primary motivator.
I don’t want it to get lonely from non-use. So…hummus, salsa,…and ?
Tell me what you use yours for, and how often. Or tell my why you don’t. Favorite recipes are always appreciated as well.
mmm
I received two identical Cuisinart food processors for Christmas, one from my boyfriend and one from my mom. I guess I talked a lot about wanting one. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you what I wanted it for, but it’s one of those things that when it’s needed, it’s the only thing that will solve the problem. I can’t wait to use it and to hear what other folks are using theirs for.
I’ve also got figure out what to exchange the second one for…
I mostly use mine for dips like hummus and salad dressings. Sometimes I’ll make a quick banana “ice cream”, that is just frozen banana blended with honey.
I use mine quite a bit. I grate cheese and chop veggies and stuff. I make guacamole in mine too.
It’s a big help when making scalloped potato’s.
The cleaning after use is not much fun, I must admit. Especially after soft cheese, but soaking helps.
You’ll probably get a nice little recipe booklet with the machine. Have fun with it. I love new kitchen gadgets!
I can’t say I use mine all the time, but it’s one of those tools that when you need one, nothing else works as well.
Yesterday, I used it to make topping for a green bean casserole: process chunks o’ bread with butter & salt & pepper until it turns into crumbs. Not sure what I would have used for that if I didn’t have a food processor. Probably a knife and cutting board, and the result wouldn’t have been as good.
As others have said, hummus is difficult without a processor.
What else? Hmmm.
Pesto
Tapenade
Pie crust
In a pinch, you can grind meat with one. By “pinch” I mean “you don’t have a meat grinder.”
Various dips - veggy dips, bean dip, etc
Mine isn’t at all a pain to clean. Just throw it in the dishwasher.
The only time I ever use mine is making graham cracker crumbs to make cheesecake crust. This is three or four times a year. And I could do that by hand with a rolling pin.
Forgot about guacamole.
Guacamole. Hummus. Salsa. My holy trinity.
And chopping onions. Dang, how I hate that task. I would haul out and fire up any piece of machinery that makes chopping onions less unpleasant.
And my parts will be dishwashered as well.
mmm
I use mine regularly, mostly when I am doing a lot of cooking at once for entertaining.
In the summer I use it nearly weekly for pesto, and in the winter for fromage fort about once a month. Otherwise I use it for the aforementioned entertaining cooking. If I have to chop 12 onions I am going with the food processor. If I have to chop one onion I use a knife.
I guess I use it at least 20 times a year, maybe more.
I use mine often, so often, in fact, I just found that the latchis cracked. I’m probably going to have to replace it. Time to hint to the honey. It will take until my birthday, in June, for him to get the hint, so, I’ll have to start now.
I wish I had a full blown processor. I have an attachment for my blender, and I have a mini-chopper.
I use mine for pie crust, but I have to do it in two batches. Yesterday I tried to use it to chop chocolate, but it wasn’t powerful enough. I use it for bread crumb toppings. I use the little one to mince onion.
Thanks for the reminder - the husband uses the food processor for baking - short crust pastry, chopping chocolate, and he does something with it when he’s making custard and lemon curd that I don’t understand.
I use mine regularly. It is probably most frequently used for salsa. I’ve discovered that, in the dead of winter, when a decent tomato is but a distant summer memory, grape tomatoes work pretty well for salsa, and, because the skin-to-pulp ratio is higher than with larger tomatoes, I can chop them in the food processor without ending up with tomato coulis. Chop the grape tomatoes, throw them in a bowl. Chop the peppers, throw them in the bowl with the tomatoes. Chop an onion with a big handful of cilantro (the onion chunks help the blade get better contact with the cilantro), throw that in the bowl. You can add garlic, lime juice, or whatever else floats your boat.
I also use if for any recipe that calls for creaming butter and sugar. I used it yesterday to make the kind of hollandaise sauce that real chefs would scoff at, but I thought it was pretty damned awesome.
Recipe? I’ve been meaning to try hollandaise, and got a food processor for christmas.
I have one of the mini grinder/choppers and I use it all the time.
I use mine fairly frequently, but not all the time. About as often as I use the Kitchenaid mixer. It needs cleaning, of course, so I don’t use it unless I think it’s worth it for the effort saved (or for things that would just be a total pain in the ass to do any other way, like hummus.)
ETA - most recently, I made kibbeh from a Weight Watchers recipe that turned out surprisingly good in it.
A few years ago my dad gave me a Cuisinart for Christmas, and it’s flippin’ awesome. I use it for biscuits every few weeks (it makes cutting the butter in a breeze, and if I make drop biscuits instead of rolled, I can have them in the oven in ten minutes). It’s great for pie crust, as others have said. My amazing pimiento cheese takes just a few minutes in the processor. It purees soup really well. I love it.
Here’s my amazing pimiento cheese:
It always gets raves at parties, and it’s extra-delicious if you warm it up a bit and serve it with toasted baguette slices or something similar.
Ooh, I loves me some pimiento cheese! I’m going to have to try that!
Renee, here’s the recipe I used. I assume that tablespoon of cream is anathema to purists, but that must be what keeps the sauce from breaking. The recipe calls for making it in a blender, but the food processor worked just dandy.
I got one as a present years ago and it’s gathering dust somewhere, or would be if the box were left open and the drawer as well.
I don’t bake anything so making batter is not in my repertoire, and I don’t find chopping onions, c arrots, garlic, celery, etc., or grating cheese very difficult with manual tools (a knife or a grater)… Not when compared with hauling out this thing, clearing the precious kitchen counter space to use it, assembling the right blade into it, and then having to clean it afterwards. Especially since the prep time for onions or garlic - removing the outside of the onion, or peeling the garlic - has to be done in either case.
Yes it’s “dishwasher safe” in that it’s possible to disassemble the blade and put the receptacle and blades in the dishwasher, but that also takes time, not to mention space in the dishwasher from, you know, dishes.
I guess if I regularly had to cook huge quantities at a time, like for 12+ people, it would start to make more sense; or maybe, if I had the counter space to just leave it out all the time in some unobtrusive corner.
I just used mine today ! The first time since I moved to this apartment. I made/cooked a curry sauce and then blitzed it to make it smoother. I find the onion juices really pep up curry sauce if they’ve been pulverized.
I use mine at least twice a week. Chopping herbs or nuts, grating veggies or cheese, making puréed cauliflower…