A food processor opens up a wide range of possibilities, from quick food preparation to creating entire dishes. A food processor can be used for a plethora of different things. The process doesn’t end with chopping vegetables or pureeing dips. Utilize these suggestions to the fullest extent to make the most of your food processor and your creativity.
Prior to returning here to learn all the applications for a food processor, make sure you are familiar with how to operate one.
What You Can Do With a Food Processor
You can make a lot of store-bought staples at home using fresh, whole ingredients free of additives and preservatives, or you can develop new recipes. Freshly prepared foods have a better flavor and retain more of their nutritional value. With your food processor, you can whip them up in just a few minutes and then easily clean-up in the dishwasher.
Here are some quick and easy food processor projects. Discover how your food processor makes every task simpler and quicker by experimenting with these methods.
Use Your Food Processor to Chop
An S blade, which is made up of two angled blades facing opposite directions to form an S shape, is frequently included with food processors. This blade is multifunctional and capable of carrying out numerous tasks, including chopping. To begin chopping, just place the S-blade into the bowl, add the ingredients, replace the lid, and turn your food processor to the Low or Pulse setting.
1. Veggies for Soups, Salads Or Sauces:
The base for most soups is a celery, carrot, onion combo called mirepoix. Combine the ingredients and quickly chop them to create a base for countless soups and stews or another way to make the traditional minestrone soup. For chopped Chinese chicken salad and other specialized creations, quickly chop and mince the salad, toppings, and cabbage. A food processor can also be used to chop ingredients to make sides like hummus, baba ganoush or homemade tabouli.
2. Onions and Garlic:
Chop onions for fresh mango salsa or mince onions and garlic for roux, sauces, and more without the tears and in a fraction of the time.
3. Nuts:
Chop your own nuts for cookies, brownies, chocolate truffles, and salad toppings with a few quick pulses of the blade. Compared to previously chopped and packaged nuts, freshly chopped nuts have more moisture and flavor.
Grind Or Mince in Your Food Processor
Since they use a sharp blade, food processors technically don’t grind; instead, they mince, but the finished product has a texture that is very similar to grinding without the use of a grinder.
4. Burgers, Meatballs and Other Meats:
Limit the types of meat you use to prevent cross-contamination from a butcher shop. Consider mixing veal, pork, and beef for meatballs or meatloaf, or grind salmon for salmon burgers. You can prepare perfectly minced meat for cooking with a few pulses of the multipurpose blade on your food processor. Use your food processor to create a smaller quantity of these green goddess meatballs.
5. Cauliflower Rice:
Make cauliflower rice quickly in your food processor to reduce your intake of gluten and carbohydrates. To get the texture you like, separate the cauliflower head into florets. Utilize the entire head to minimize waste and increase value.
6. Breadcrumbs:
When you can easily make fresh breadcrumbs in your food processor, you won’t ever need to buy them again. Depending on how many pulses you use, you can achieve your preferred texture, ranging from coarse to superfine. For a unique blend, try adding herbs and spices. Have a baguette you couldn’t finish in time? Yummy bread crumbs are created out of hard, old bread. To serve as a garnish on this warm, cheesy crab dip, make your own breadcrumbs.
7. Homemade Flours:
For baking without gluten, make your own fine flour by grinding your own nuts or oats. A food processor can be used to grind almonds into flour.
8. Healthy Energy Balls:
Delicious flour-free energy snacks can be quickly made in food processors. When the mixture resembles dough, stir in dates and your preferred nuts while drizzling honey through the food tube. If you like, roll the mixture into balls and then in coconut flakes; make vanilla coconut energy bites. One of these energy-dense balls will quench your thirst and enrich your diet with fiber and healthy fats.
Puree With Your Food Processor
The multipurpose S-blade that comes with your food processor is a useful tool that can quickly puree food. To puree food, all you need to do is put the S-blade inside the work bowl of your food processor, add the ingredients, secure the lid, and run the food processor on high for 30 to 1 minute, depending on the consistency you want.
9. Baby Food:
Make fresh and wholesome roasted vegetable baby food for your infant and toddler – or anyone who needs nutrition without chewing. Cooked fruit or vegetable cubes can be added to your work bowl for a quick puree after cooking. To acclimate your baby’s palate, try out various combinations and textures. Discover how to prepare baby food at home by reading our guide.
10. Nut Butters:
You can make delicious nut butters if you have a strong food processor that can operate for a few minutes at high speed. The creamy spread will appear in your work bowl as soon as you add a little oil or water and your choice of nuts or seeds. Use homemade nut butters, such as peanut butter or other nut butters, in cooking, salad dressings, or as a dip for sliced raw fruit and vegetables.
11. Smooth Salsa:
For a smooth, freshly spiced salsa in less than a minute, combine tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, salt, and pepper with anything else you can think of. Any dish gets an instant flavor boost from smooth salsa verde.
12. Mayonnaise:
This pantry essential is elevated to a whole new level by homemade mayonnaise. You can gradually incorporate oil into your mixture in the food processor to create a gorgeously fluffy and creamy condiment that you’ll want to eat with a spoon. You can also make your own hollandaise and aioli using your preferred ingredients, such as lemon tarragon aioli to serve with lobster corn dogs, among other things.
Use a Food Processor to Mix Or Blend
In addition to performing the demanding tasks of shredding, kneading, dicing, and grinding, a food processor can also blend a variety of ingredients into homogeneous mixtures in a manner similar to a blender. A multipurpose blade with a high speed setting is frequently used in food processors to complete the task. Although blenders are more suitable for tasks like crushing ice or other hard ingredients, food processors are still useful for other tasks.
13. Hummus:
This high-protein spread and dip is a party staple and a great vegan treat. Whip up your own hummus in minutes from canned or soaked chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and spices. To make beet, avocado, or edamame hummus, try experimenting with beans, root vegetables, and other ingredients. You can also make traditional hummus.
14. Pesto:
You can quickly make a flavorful and fresh pesto sauce for dipping, spreading, or topping pasta by combining the pine nuts, pistachios, or walnuts with fresh basil, olive oil, black pepper, and parmesan. Explore different ingredients to make a custom sauce with unique flavors and textures such as this sage pesto recipe.
15. Salad Dressings:
Create delicious and healthy Caesar dressing, avocado-lime-cilantro vinaigrette, and many more. The food processor blends the ingredients while allowing you to gradually drizzle or feed oil through the food tube to achieve the ideal creamy emulsification.
Shred Or Grate With a Food Processor
A shredder or grating disc attachment, which sits on top of the bowl, is typically included with food processors. Funneling foods like cheese or veggies through the food processor’s feed tube allows it to come in contact with the shredder disc on its way to the bottom of the bowl, making quick work of shredding a wide array of ingredients.
16. Soft Cheeses:
Shred cheeses for pizza or lasagna, or fresh cheddar and Monterey jack for taco night. Till you’re ready to shred it, keep the cheese chilled.
17. Hard Cheeses:
For your Italian food tour night or to add to soups, garlic bread, or dips, freshly grate parmesan, asiago, or romano cheese.
18. Cabbage:
Easily shred cabbage for coleslaw, homemade sauerkraut, and other uses with your shredding disc. For a taste of summer, try sizzling watermelon slaw on top of fish tacos. To perfect your recipes, pick a thick or thin shred. To quickly and easily shred brussel sprouts, you can also use a food processor.
19. Potatoes:
Beautiful potato strands can be shredded to create hash browns, pierogi filling, or crispy and creamy potato latkes. You can also make delicious mashed potatoes with the aid of a food processor.
20. Carrots:
For your carrot-raisin salad or your chai-spiced carrot cake batter, finely shredded carrots are only a few minutes away.
21. Broccoli Stalks:
Keep the broccoli stalks instead of throwing them away! Instead, process them into shredded pieces in your food processor to add crunch to salads or make a nutritious broccoli slaw.
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