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.

Think of a food processor as an extra pair of hands in the kitchen. A good model can chop, slice, grate, grind, whisk, blend, purée and knead-making light work of some of the more time and labour intensive kitchen prep work.

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.

The processor's blades and discs, which are attached to the stem and rotate and cut the food in the bowl, determine the functions it can perform. An S-shaped steel blade is typically used for chopping, mincing and pureeing, while metal discs handle slicing and grating jobs.

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.

Food processors are great for recipes that require chopping, making purees and even a flaky pie dough; they also come with accessories so you can slice and shred and sometimes dice and spiralize. Blenders are good for liquids, like smoothies, frozen drinks and soups.

CAKE / BATTER MIXTURE

The reverse creaming method works particularly well in a food processor as you get an excellent coating of the flour with butter. When you add the liquid ingredients the flour absorbs less of this liquid, which in turn limits gluten development and results in a softer, tender cake.

Food can also be chopped, mixed or puréed with blades in the bowl of the food processor. Food processors can handle larger recipes and offer more versatility due to the multiple blades for specific tasks such as chopping, shredding, slicing and julienning.

What are 3 things you can do with a food processor? ›

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.

First, assemble the food processor and attach the blade. There are a variety of different blade attachments that can be used to chop, slice, or grate food. Next, add your recipe ingredients and screw the lid onto the processor. Blend or pulse the food until it's as smooth or chunky as you like it.

Both food processors and stand mixers are equipped to make great cookie dough. But stand mixers are many makers' go-to for this task.

Magimix Food Processors are famous for their 'all in one' baking method, and are able to blitz up a cake batter in as little as 7 seconds. Instead of following multiple separate steps of adding in each ingredient at a time, you simply add both of the wet and dry ingredients together and mix them in the Food Processor.

While many cookie recipes are made by hand or in the bowl of a stand mixer, Beranbaum instructs bakers to whizz up the dough for this recipe—among several others in the book—in the food processor. Throughout The Cookie Bible, the food processor stars in recipes for tahini crisps, shortbread cookies, and biscotti.