Want to use your food processor? Get to know it better!

To get the most out of your food processor, you really need to get to know what it can do. So many people leave it in the cupboard when they could be saving themselves time and energy. A food processor handles every-day tasks such as chopping, liquidising, mixing, slicing and grating with ease. The more you use yours, the more you will love it!

There are two types of people who own a food processor; those who love it, and those who haven’t worked out how to use it yet. The oodles of attachments that come with some models make them incredibly useful, but at the same time confusing. If you take the time to get to know your processor, you will never look back. They are incredibly useful and can tackle an incredible range of tasks, saving you time and effort.

What is a food processor?
The first thing to understand is that a food processor is not a blender or mixer, although there are similarities between the three. A food processor has a blade which chops and cuts food, whereas a mixer is for stirring and incorporating air into the ingredients. Mixers are good for making cakes and meringues. A blender is a smaller, simpler version of a processor, which liquidises food, and there are hand blenders as well, which can be really, well, handy.

Choppingr
One of the main uses of a food processor is as a chopper. It can be used to cut vegetables, nuts, meat and fruit, although care must be taken not to cut things too finely. As well as chopping an onion, which is a fairly common task, a processor is good at making things with a crumbly consistency. Biscuits can be whizzed up to make the base for a cheese cake and stale bread can be reduced to breadcrumbs.

Liquidisingr
If you chop something too much, it may turn into a liquid or paste, but of course this may be what you want! Food processors are great for liquidising soups, although for some reason they don’t like potatoes, which go slimy. If there are potatoes in your soup, it is best to mash them separately and add them in afterwards. A food processor will also make short work of mayonnaise, guacamole and pesto.

Mixingr
Okay, I know I said a mixer is for mixing, but some things can be mixed using a food processor as well. A mixer is probably better for cakes, but processors make very good pastry, especially if the butter is too hard to do it by hand. Doughs for pasta and pizza are also easy to do.
Slicing and grating

Other tasks made much quicker using a food processor are slicing and grating. Attachments are fitted inside the bowl, which spin around as you push something in from the top. Carrots can be evenly sliced in this way, and cheese is grated in seconds.
There are so many uses for a food processor. See how many more you can discover!