My Favorite and Best Food Processors

Eating healthily usually means that you need to cook most your meals yourself. That way, you’ll have complete control over not just how much you eat, but the ingredients in your meals too.

The trouble is, cooking takes time, and many of us are very busy. That’s why takeouts and processed meals are so popular. Those takeouts aren’t making you any slimmer though, are they?!

Any device that makes healthy cooking quicker and easier is worth considering, and that’s why many of my meals start and end in a food processor. Food processors make all that time-consuming prep much less laborious, and I love anything that saves me time in the kitchen.

Food processors come in all shapes and sizes, with a vast variety of attachments and features. With so many to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. If you aren’t careful, it’s all too easy to buy one that doesn’t do what you need it to do or end up spending more money than is necessary.

To help you chose the right food processor for you, I have researched and reviewed three of the best food processors around so that you don’t have to. After reading these reviews, it should be much clearer which food processor is right for you.

1.Hamilton Beach 10-Cup Food Processor

The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup Food Processor, available at Amazon.com, is the most expensive food processor in this review, but it’s still excellent value for money. Like all food processors, it has a broad range of features designed to make food prep as quick and painless as possible.

This is the model I use and so far it’s my favourite food processor.

The first main feature worth mentioning is that, unlike almost all other food processors, you won’t have to keep stopping what you are doing to scrape the sides of the bowl. It has rotating spatula blades built in that does this tiresome chore for you. This will save you time and ensures all your ingredients end up thoroughly processed.

With its large 450-watt motor, has enough power for most processing jobs – even kneading dense bread, cake, or cookie dough. It has two speed settings plus a high-speed pulse mode so you can always get the results you want; never too much or too little.

It’s ten cup capacity means it’s large enough for family food preparation but is compact enough for preparing smaller quantities of food too. The bowl is marked with a “max level” indicator so you know how much food you can fit into it. This is useful and helps take the guesswork out of deciding how much food to process at one time.

The large capacity but compact mixing bowl is made from BPA-free, dishwasher safe, toughened plastic and is very easy to wash.

Supplied with several different blades for chopping and shredding. The blades are reversible – each side producing a different thickness. Because of this, you will always be able to create the texture you want; thick and chunky, or thin and elegant for example.

The top of the processor is fitted with an extra wide ingredients chute which makes adding food to your processor very straightforward; there is no need to chop up your ingredients before adding them. This means you don’t have to stop your processor each time you want to add another ingredient which will help save you time.

With its big two-speed motor, self-side-scraping mechanism, large capacity, and wide food chute,  scores 4.3 stars out of five on Amazon.com. Most reviewers are very happy with their purchase, and 69% of users give it a full five stars. This food processor might be a little more expensive than some of the others available, but it really does work very well. Available at Amazon.com.

2.Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Stack and Snap

The Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Stack, available at Amazon.com, is a traditional food processor that is very budget friendly. Its large capacity makes it an ideal food processor for families or individuals with large appetites. You’ll have no problem processing large quantities of food in one go so you can then store it for use later in the week.

The main difference between this Food Processor and other similar products is just how easy this model is to use. It is as simple as “stack and snap.” This is in steep contrast to other processors I’ve used which were more like jigsaw puzzles than they were useful kitchen gadgets.

Has a large 450-watt motor which is powerful enough for most food processing jobs. It has a broad and sturdy base, so it’s stable during use. Unlike its counterparts, there are no speed settings as such; instead, you just press the button that corresponds to the processing job you want to do i.e. slice, shred, chop, or puree. The machine then works at the correct speed setting to produce the best results.

Also, unlike other food processors, you can put as much food into the mixing bowl as you want without worrying about the contents spilling out. The bowl is sealed which prevents leaks even if you cram the bowl to capacity. That’s why you won’t see a “max level” mark on the mixing bowl.

The bowl is fitted with a wide food chute, so adding whole fruits and vegetables is no problem at all; there is no need to pre-cut your ingredients before adding them. This makes the food processor even quicker and convenient to use.

Comes supplied with two blades – one for chopping and one for slicing/shredding. Each one is reversible so for different thicknesses.

To make things neat and tidy, the power cord can be stored inside the machine when it is not in use. There is a handy space in the base so you can put the cable out of sight and out of mind when you put your food processor away after use.

The Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Stack and Snap Food Processor scores 4.3 out of 5 stars on amazon.com and 67% of purchasers awarded it the full five stars. This food processor has been well received, and users report that, unlike so many other food processors, this food processor is super-simple to use but that it is still a “proper” food processor.

It’s good value for money and so easy to use that you’ll probably end up making something in it every day. Easy to operate but works like a dream? That’ll be the Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Stack and Snap Food Processor, available at Amazon.com!

3.Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

The Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor, available at Amazon.com, is, as the name suggests a small, compact food processor that is ideal for users who are prepping food just for themselves. It has a three-cup capacity although there is a four-cup model option. It’s available in three different colorways: chrome, stainless steel, and red. Being small and compact, it also has a small, compact price and is the cheapest food processor on review.

Because of its small capacity, only has a 250-watt motor. While this is small, it’s important to remember that this processor is designed to deal with relatively small quantities of food so, in fact, that 250-watt motor is perfectly sized.

The motor has two speed settings – labeled chop and grind. Pressing the buttons once makes the processor pulse whereas pressing and holding the power button will put it into continuous mode. The chop button is ideal for chopping – no surprise there – but the grind button is the function to use for grinding spices or for heavier chopping jobs.

Supplied with just a chopping blade. There is no shredding or grating blade, and no other blades are currently available. While this does reduce the number of things you can do, it’s still a very versatile tool and will make many kitchen chores less time consuming.

The small capacity mixing bowl is made from BPA-free, dishwasher safe, toughened plastic and is very easy to wash. With so few parts is a cinch to keep clean and, being so compact, it’s easy to store too. It has a small recess in the base in which you can store the power cable so that, if you choose to leave it on your kitchen counter, it will look neat and tidy.

The Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus Food Processor scores 4.3 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com, and 62% of users have given it five out of five. That’s a big score for such a small food processor. Despite its compact size, most reviewers rave about how well it functions and that it is more than capable of performing most food processing jobs. It is reported to be quiet in use and very reliable and hardwearing.

If space and cost are an issue or you just want a food processor for personal rather than familial use, the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor is an excellent choice. Available at Amazon.com.

Which one is best for you ? 

While each of these food processors is very different, in their own way, they are all very good too. Each one of them will help to make healthy home cooking easier, and that will make you more likely to prepare meals at home more often. Remember, if you want to eat healthily you MUST do more cooking at home!

I like all three of these food processors, but they all offer different advantages and disadvantages. None of them are super-expensive, and so, really, it’s their different features that will dictate which one is right for you. I think any of these food processors would make a valuable addition to your kitchen. I use my food processor all the time, and I’m sure you will too!

If you live alone or only ever anticipate the need to process small amounts of food, the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor would make a great choice. It’s compact, easy to use, and take up very little space during use or storage. It’s also slightly cheaper than both of other food processors reviewed here.

If you want a super-simple food processor, the Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Stack and Snap Food Processor is probably your best choice. It has a large capacity combined with being very simple to operate which means it’s ideal for almost every food processing job you’ll ever encounter.

If you don’t mind spending a few extra dollars, like me, for a truly unique self-side-scraping food processing experience, the Hamilton Beach 10-Cup Food Processor is a good choice, it’s the model I use and I love it. It might be a little more expensive than the others but it still represents good value for money, and you’ll quickly see where your extra dollars went; this is a very versatile and high-quality food processor.