Designed in Italy, the Mini-Prep Plus is easy to clean as it is to look at, with a wipe-clean touch pad and dishwasher-safe removable parts. This mini food processor has a 4-cup capacity, which is a little less than half the size of your typical food processor. You’ll still get exactly what you need, like the cup, the S-shaped blade, a lid, and the motor base. While most hand choppers require you to push down to chop, this one uses a pulling action that spins the blades, like the pull-start on a lawnmower, but on a much smaller and easier scale. A nonskid ring on the bottom of the bowl keeps it from slipping, so you just rest a hand on top and pull the handle with the other hand. In testing, we also found it easy to hold the chopper at an angle when we needed to encourage small amounts of food to fall into the blades.
If the blades become dull over time, replacements are available from the manufacturer. The 14-cup bowl—yep, that’s where the name comes from—is large enough to handle most home kitchen jobs, whether you’re whipping up a salsa, mixing a pizza dough, or shredding a big block of cheese. The bowl also has enough room to store the blade attachments when you’re not prepping ingredients (because you don’t want any of the super-sharp blades sitting loose in a drawer). cuisinart choppers Even better, there’s a cover for the cup, so foods can be prepped ahead and stored in the same container. A little spoon hangs on the side of the chopper, so you can use it to scoop out a little of the chopped item or to scrape all of it out and into your pot or bowl. Chopping onions is one of the most grueling kitchen tasks, particularly for people who tend to get watery eyes while chopping—not to mention the annoying scent that clings to fingers.
The bowl, blade, and lid are dishwasher safe for easy cleaning. The blades are formed in a wave pattern and rotate for even chopping, while the nonskid base keeps the chopper from wandering around the counter when it’s being used. We tested it with a variety of vegetables, including onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and carrots, and it did a good job with them.
A whipping blade is included, which stores easily in the mixer bowl so it won’t get lost in the gadget drawer. All of the parts that contact food are dishwasher safe for easy cleaning. This unit holds about two cups, so it’s plenty for making a bowl of salsa or prepping onions for a recipe. The lid lifts off easily, so emptying it and reloading with more vegetables is a breeze. The lid is not dishwasher safe, and should not be immersed in water when washing by hand.
Besides chopping, we used it to make a tomato puree and peanut butter, and it performed well with those tasks. To help you find the best food choppers for all your kitchen prep, we sent top-rated choppers to our experienced product tester. Each one was carefully assessed during hours of home kitchen testing and used to chop nuts, garlic, and various vegetables. Then, the food choppers were all rated on design, ease of use, size, ease of cleaning, convenience, overall effectiveness, and overall value. Manual choppers are simple to use and relatively inexpensive.
They should last you a long time, but not forever, so if you notice a blade dulling, it is probably time to replace it. Certain brands offer part replacements, so look first to see whether you can just replace the blade before buying a new appliance. Between your food chopper and your bench scraper, you will save a lot of time with ingredient prep, and you won’t have to worry about chopped food scattered all over your kitchen. Food choppers can hold anywhere from 1 to 6 cups of food (in comparison, full-size food processors can hold anywhere from 11 to 16 cups), but the most common size is a 3-cup processor. Determining how many people you’re typically cooking for and how much vegetable prep you are generally doing are great ways to figure out what will work best for you.
We have a wide range of sizes available, including 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14-cup work bowls. The ease of use of a food chopper essentially boils down to whether it is manual or electric. While both models are fine for cooks of all levels, an electric food chopper definitely takes some of the labor out of the process. It will run you a bit more money, but operating it is as simple as the push of a button. The blades are stainless steel, and all parts are dishwasher safe. A lid is included so food can be stored in the 6-cup container for later use.