I use mine all the time as well. I use it for pesto, grating large amounts of cheese, making bread crumbs, mirepoix, salsa, pie crusts, and twice-baked potatoes, off the top of my head. As long as you rinse it quickly and put it into the dishwasher, it isn’t that hard to clean.
I just used it for scalloped potatoes last night and turned it into a 10 minute dish. Fit the slicing disk, slice the potatoes, fit the grating disk, grate the cheese, layer, pour cream and bake.
I actually prefer meat ground with the food processor since you can adjust the texture. If I’m making a stir fry, I actually want something closer to chopped meat than ground meat and I can do that.
Word of caution: some reviews of different machines have noted that the plastic bowl becomes brittle after repeated dishwasher cleanings. And of course, one should never put the blades in there.
I use my Kitchenaid to chop veggies on occasion, or puree soup. Also for shredding or slicing potatoes. It gets the most use at Thanksgiving for making bread crumbs, mincing sausage and chopping veggies for stuffing.
Used once for salsa.
Went to use it a couple years later…it didn’t work.
I cook for one, easier to just use a knife.
Although it does make for a nice spider terrarium in the cabinet under the sink…along with the blender. :rolleyes:
Hmm. I’ve had my food processor for at least 15 years, have always put both blade and bowl in the dishwasher. So far, no problems.
I have a mini and I use it frequently. Mostly for pesto, chopping nuts and bread crumbs, garlic and onions. If I’m making a sauce with chunks of vegetables, I fish them out and puree them because some people around here freak out if there’s a chunk of vegetable on their plates. It only takes two minutes to wash and dry by hand, it’s small.
I’ve thrown mine (a Cuisinart) in the dishwasher for 30 years now with no problem. I usually use the top rack, just in case.
I mostly only use mine for bread crumbs, hummus, smoked salmon dip, and tapenade. Sometimes chopping vegetables finely enough to hide in stews and soups so that picky eaters don’t notice. Chopping up plums for jam. Not much else anymore.
I don’t have high end stuff, but I make up in quantity. I find that each tool has specific attributes and no one tool does everything well. I love to process, hate to clean. So credit goes to easy to clean devices.
I do own an Olympic juicer and that is expensive unless you get one at a garage sale for $10 as I did.
Yeah, I put both in the top rack, no problems.
I have the mini-processor. I can’t describe my love enough! I do have to do quite a few things in batches, but since I am generally cooking for me and my freezer, a full sized processor would be overkill.
As for what I make with it:
Pesto
Pureed butternut squash/rutabaga etc
bean dips
Soups (generally I use my immersion blender, but sometimes this get pulled into service instead)
I don’t normally use it for onions etc, but I may just start doing that!
I use mine every week. Usually for hummus but sometimes for things like raw cranberry/orange/apple salad, cream of broccoli soup, cole slaw, bread crumbs, garlic/ginger paste,etc. I’d be lost without it.
Mom has a cuisinart…it’s 20 years old and going strong.
Wife and I got a cuisinart for our wedding, the bowl cracked after 5 or 6 years…and it was hobbled by all kinds of legal claptrap.
Bought an Oster 5 years ago as it was only slightly more expensive than the Cuisinart bowl. An oddball part broke in 6 months…rather than shipping us the part, they shipped us a WHOLE NEW Oster…not a resounding claim for quality, if you ask me.
It died a few weeks ago. I bought the wife the most expensive Cuisinart Bed Bath and Beyond sells. It has the same achilles heel the original one had (the tabs where the Bowl attach to the base). Lord only knows how long it’s going to last. We’d use em about three times a year.
I have a mini. I use it a couple times a year to grind ham and pickles for ham salad. I’ll occasionally use it for other stuff. For some reason, it never occurred to me to use it for onions.
FYI, I just checked the online manual of my Cuisinart; it states that all parts, except of course the base, are top-rack dishwasher safe.
mmm
When onions, peppers, celery or mushrooms go on sale, I stock up, run them through the food processor, and freeze them. Then I have those ingredients ready to toss into whatever I’m cooking.
I had a dog that had inflammatory bowel disease. I flogged my food processor during that time making food for him - huge quantities of meat chunks and barley. Worked great.
For us, I chop/mince vegetables for a number of purposes - pesto, soups, sauces. I love it for chopping large quantities of onions - saves all the eye irritation of doing it by hand. I make my own stock to save for later whenever I roast a bird, and I’ll use the processor to chop the mirepoix/trinity for that. I’ve made the ersatz hollandaise with it too - it’s good, quick and easy.
I also love it for shredding/slicing cheese, but with mine I have to be careful when cleaning the blade for that - it doesn’t get clean in the dishwasher and last time I damn near cut part of my thumb off.
Pulsing this thread on over to Cafe Society, from IMHO.
I’m not much of a foodie, but I use mine fairly frequently: grating cheese, chopping or grating carrots or other vegetables, making my world-famous butternut squash. It’s a real labour saver when the time comes.
Sadly the disc for it is broken, so I am trying to inveigle Hamilton Beach into sending me another one.
If you have the disk blade, it’s great for slicing meats too. Perfect for stir fry.
Note the qualifier word “some” in my post. I also wash put my processor bowl in the DW. Knives and other blades can be dulled in a dishwasher from being banged around. Caution should be exercised.