Blenders and Food Processors

A food processor is used for food preparation through a process of blending, slicing, shredding, chopping, or dicing the ingredients. It is a versatile countertop appliance that is easy to use and offers multiple speed levels and blade attachments to handle all kinds of different tasks. Using its wide mixing bowl you can slice and chop vegetables, fruits and nuts, shred cheese, beat cake batter, grind meat or make homemade dough. Important features to consider when choosing the right food processor are bowl capacity, types of blades, mixing speeds available, and how much power it uses. They come in three basic sizes: mini, compact, and full.

Food processors have four basic parts:

• Base
• Bowl with a feed tube
• Set of removable blades
• Lid

The motor is located at the base and its heavyweight keeps the processor stable and in place. Bowl is locked into the base. The lid covers the bowl from the top and activates the locking mechanism. When the food processor is switched on, the motor starts running.
Motor spins the blades at high speed and chopping starts. Blades are specially designed for fine cutting that is slow at first but then gradually gets faster until the ingredients are completely sliced. There is also a trip switch inside motor that stops it from working if bowl or lid are not in place.

1. Place the food processor bowl on the base.
2. Put the blade into place.
3. Chop or slice large ingredients into smaller chunks.
4. Add the ingredients inside the processor.
5. Close the lid.
6. Plug in the food processor.
7. Press PULSE for brief or ON button for continuous blending.
8. Remove the lid for adding additional ingredients or, if there is a tube, put the ingredients in and press with the tamper.
9. Open the lid.
10. Remove the blade.
11. Pour the mix into a cup or a bowl.

When making a decision about the best size of a food processor, you should consider what type of food you plan on processing, for how many people and what your price range is. Four basic sizes of food processor to choose from are:

• Mini (capacity: 3-4 cups) – suitable for limited kitchen space and processing food for 1-2 people.
• Mid-size (capacity: 6-10 cups) – good choice for a family of 4 for everyday cooking.
• Full-size (capacity: 12-14 cups) – ideal for processing a great amount of ingredients at once. It is recommended for families with up to 7 members.
• Commercial (capacity: 20+ cups) – a high performing professional processor.

Food processors and blenders are small kitchen appliances used for food preparation in a fast and efficient way.
The difference between these two devices is that the food processor is very versatile and it can replace many other kitchen appliances. On the other hand, a blender is a great choice for making soups, smoothies, or purees. It cannot function when it is completely full, while with a food processor you won’t have a problem with that.
A food processor works best with dry ingredients and doesn’t perform on the same level with liquids as a blender does. A blender can process liquid much better than dry products, so it is useful for making healthy fruit shakes or cocktails.

A blender is a small kitchen appliance for mixing and blending food into smoothies, soups, and purees. It works at a very high speed with sharp blades spinning and finely chopping the food. Using a blender you can prepare healthy shakes, sauces, spreads, frozen desserts, yogurt, cocktails or just crush the ice. When using a blender to extract juice from fruits and vegetables, you will get top-quality juice, considering that the blender can process the entire product with all its healthy vitamins, nutrients, and minerals. There is no waste, so it is easy to clean it as well.

A blender is made of a base, a jug or a cup, blades, a lid, and a tamper. When the lid closes the jug containing the ingredients, it creates an airtight seal on top preventing food to get out. Once the blender is turned on, the electric motor inside the base starts spinning sharp blades at a high speed of 20.000-30.000 rotations per minute. A vacuum is created in the center which pulls the food towards the middle and spins it around. This circular moving continues adding air into the mix to speed up the process. Depending on the model, there can be an opening on top of the lid which allows adding more ingredients and pushing them down with a tamper during the blending cycle.

1. Chop ingredients into smaller chunks.
2. Plug the blender in.
3. Add the ingredients inside the blender.
4. Add a little water if needed to help with the blending process.
5. Close the lid and hold it tightly with your hand.
6. Set the blending speed and start blending.
7. If it doesn’t start, make sure the jug is placed securely in the base and start again.
8. Once the mix is compact, open the lid.
9. Pour the mix into a cup or a bowl.

Immersion blenders are hand-held blenders useful for blending soups and sauces. These blenders fit perfectly in your hand, containing only a mixing head and a small blade. They are practical for small tasks and easy to use without taking up space in your kitchen while saving your time. You can simply use them for blending meals right inside the pots or pans. Immersion blenders usually come with a range of attachments for whisking, chopping, and grinding so you can use the blender for a wide range of recipes. The biggest benefit is that it can be used for blending larger amounts of food which otherwise wouldn’t fit into a countertop blender.