Food Processor Recipes and Tips for Using This Versatile Appliance (2024)

FAQs

What can I use my food processor for recipes? ›

Food processors are useful for far more than basic food prep and are the perfect tool to help you discover new flavors and textures. From delicious hoisin sauce to Greek cucumber sauce, to gazpacho, and a creamy dairy-free “ice cream” from bananas, you'll be delighted by the possibilities.

You pull it off the shelf to chop or slice vegetables, smooth out a sauce or pesto, make a tasty dip or hummus, or put together a quick frosting. But, there are countless recipes that can use the food processor to streamline preparation or easily produce mouthwatering flavors and textures.

A food processor can take care of tedious tasks for you, such as kneading dough, whisking egg whites, finely and evenly slicing fruit and vegetables, grating cheese, to even blending soups and smoothies! It was designed to be a helping hand in the kitchen.

Blenders usually have one blade, tall jars and are typically used for wetter recipes. Food processors, on the other hand, usually have multiple blades and wide work bowls and can usually shred and slice in addition to pureeing. Read on for more details on the differences between a food processor and a blender.

Place the onion in the food processor bowl and secure the lid. Process until you achieve the desired size. Use the pulse function in short bursts for chopped onions. For a finer, more minced consistency, process in longer bursts.

A great food processor is the versatile workhorse of a kitchen, making it easy to dice onions for a recipe, mince parsley for seasoning, grind nuts into smooth butter, knead dough for pizzas and pastas, puree tomatoes for sauce, slice fresh veggies, shred cheese and even more.

The biggest difference between these two appliances is the tasks they are designed to do: Food processors are designed to perform a wide variety of food preparation tasks and blenders are designed to pulverize and combine (in other words, blend) wet and dry ingredients.

As well as being able to make light work of food preparation in a matter of seconds, food processors can handle a wide range of baking tasks quickly and efficiently, from chopping, grinding and mixing to whisking, whipping and kneading.

Is a blender or food processor better for pasta sauce? ›

Compared to a food processor, a blender is known to achieve a smoother, silkier consistency in its final product (think smoothies and milkshakes). But a blender is certainly not limited to creamy beverages. They can also help home cooks make hummus, nut butter, sauces, and salad dressings.

Almost all food is processed in some way before it is eaten. Commercially, the main reasons to process food are to eliminate micro-organisms (which may cause disease) and to extend shelf life. Simply cooking or combining a food with other foodstuffs to create a recipe is also considered a form of food processing.

Multi-Purpose or “S” Blade

The s-blade, also known as the Sabatier blade, is a metal multipurpose blade that chops, mixes and purees your ingredients.

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The bottom line. Think of a food processor as a kitchen assistant — chopping, pureeing, making pastry dough, slicing, shredding and even dicing or spiralizing — while a blender is meant primarily for smoothies and drinks.

Hot foods can kill the motor

And if you are pouring hot liquid into your processor to create a puree, know that there is the possibility that the liquid could expand, causing the lid to pop off and sending its contents, well, pretty much everywhere.