Introduced in 1973 and invented by Carl Sontheimer, the food processor has reinvented how we meal prep and has greatly reduced the time spent in the kitchen. Our schedules in our fast-paced life often leave us with less time for planning and doing the things we love, such as cooking and enjoying the beautiful luxury of eating freshly made meals. Food processors have restored the much-needed hope in this area and offer us a time-saving way to do our cooking.
If you are looking for ways to simplify your mealtime and save time while you’re at it; a Food processor is one of our top kitchen gadgets to be the time-saver you need. this article will guide you through how to simplify meal time with a food processor, what a food processor is, different available versions, how to use one and how you can prep one to simplify time and achieve the best results.
What is a Food Processor?
A food processor is a versatile kitchen appliance that can quickly; chop, shred, grind and churn vegetables, meats, and other necessary items to prepare your meal. A food processor can also be used for beating cake and other numerous functions. It includes all the parts and accessories that you might need for shredding, kneading, and churning. The machine is actually quite easy to use and does not require any expertise. All you have to do is plug it in, attach a suitable attachment, and start using it.
The advantages of using a food processor include;
1. Better health: The adage health is wealth, is true even in what we eat, as eating healthy meals adds to your wealth. However, when it comes to our health, nothing beats natural, and this is what you get using a food processor. As you will eat fresh foods at the best nutritional value and content. Against the sugar-rich foods, we are often forced to pick at our fast-food restaurants, and the health benefit food processors offer, is essential to our living.
2. Saves money: Pre-made foods can be very expensive at times and often prepared with much sugar content and preservatives. Eating homemade foods, on the other hand, helps you save money and stay fit at all times. You might need to invest in a good quality food processor for one time only. The good news is, a well-made food processor lasts for many years to come, so it’s going to be a great investment toward the future.
How to Simplify Meal Time with a Food Processor
The food processor can be used in the following ways to simplify mealtime:
1. Chopping – Peppers, Tomatoes, Onions, Buts
2. Slicing – Tomatoes, vegetables
3. Shredding – Lettuces and Greens, Cheeses
4. Mixing – cookie doughs, pie crusts, soups, guacamole, or pesto
5. Grating – Cheeses, Carrots, and Meats
6. Whipping – Egg whites
7. Milling – Make your own flours from whole grains
8. Emulsifying – Mayonnaise, hollandaise, and vinaigrette
9. Mincing – Garlic, Ginger
10. Kneading – Bread Doughs
11. Churning – Butter
12. Spiralizing – Cucumbers, Squashes
With the use of a food processor, you can easily chop, slice, mix, and knead your foods quickly and all with one appliance by simply switching accessories. A food processor comes with all the attachments you might need for performing the above-mentioned tasks. Moreover, you don’t need to buy a separate shredder, chopper, or blender to carry out different kitchen tasks if you already have a quality full featured food processor at home.
Different Versions of Food Processors
Food processors come in different varieties and offer different functions; knowing what your food processor can do and cannot do is essential. It will guide you to achieve the best results and maximize the use of your food processor. Food processors come in three variants, namely: full, compact and mini.
1. Mini: this is the smallest version of food processors and is often used for basic chopping duties, it often has 1-3 cups, it can grind, or chop vegetables and perform other functions according to the sizes of the food processor. Ensure you don’t fill beyond the mark on the processor, as it can lick when things are added beyond the capacity it can carry.
2. Compact: this is a medium-sized version of the food processor and can carry much more than the mini processors can do. It has 5-10 cups and offers you much flexibility and speed with which you can get your tasks done; this is often more preferred than the mini-sized food processors, especially when you want to get a lot done.
Usually food processors, also come in two forms; hand-operated and electric, while the hand-operated machines are easy to carry and offer you more with its flexibility. The electric food processor worked at the speed of light when connected to electricity. Getting the two will be a great deal for your home; similarly, in addition to the version, food processors vary in terms of the voltage they can carry and often work between 400-1200 watts. The higher the voltage generally the more power it has to cut stuff really fast.
How Do You Use a Food Processor?
Although pretty simple and easy to use, it can be confusing at times, especially if you are a first time user, trying to find your way around your food processor. We compiled this guide to help out users who are thinking of getting a food processor for the first time. Since there are many versions available on the market, this information may also serve as a guide for you to get the right product for your kitchen needs. Some people do a lot of cutting and shredding, while others use these machines only sparingly.
Here are seven steps you can follow to achieve the utmost results with your food processors.
Step 1. Select the blade of the food processor: start by selecting the blade you will want to use, depending on the result you wish to achieve you will need a specific blade.
Step 2. Latch the bowl and the lid to activate the machine
Step 3. Trim your leaves, chop off parts you won’t need, feed the processor tube feed, and ensure you don’t exceed the marked lines.
Step 4. Use a plastic pusher to move your feeds in the processor.
Step 5. Use one of your processors cutting modes to turn your food into the desired texture for your meal
Step 6. Transfer your processed food into your meal pans, mixing bowls, or meal prep containers
Step 7. Repeat the above steps as necessary for all of your processing needs
We commonly bulk prep food on weekends to have mixed salsas and chopped vegetables to use throughout the week.
How Can You Prep With a Food Processor to Simplify Life?
The food processor can be used in diverse and easy ways to meal prep and save time. You can even learn quite a few new methods to use a food processor to your advantage. You will soon discover that such a machine can be used to prepare many new dishes and delicious meals for children and adults alike.
Below are five ways to use a food processor to simplify your life;
1. Grind meats: Do you have some frozen turkey in your freezer and want to make your own ground turkey burgers? Just use your food processors grinder wheel to turn that solid meat into a tender pile of ground turkey bits.
2. Shredding cheese: with the use of food processors, you can get the best fresh shredded cheese without paying extra at the store for the pre-processed cheeses. Just get a block of your favorite high quality cheese from the deli and process it as you need it.
3. Make homemade nut butters: using your food processor makes it worth the time to make your own as you can easily get your nut butter done within a few minutes and can it yourself.
4. Chopping vegetables: no amount of perfection with your kitchen tools can do a better job at chopping your vegetables than a food processor. Try chopping all of your weeks vegetables ahead of time to save you effort on those more exhausting work days.
5. Salsas, and dips: There is nothing more satisfying than throwing an avocado, handful of cilantro, onions, salt, and lime juice in your food processor and turning it into creamy guacamole in an instant in front of your eyes with a few pushes of the pulse button.
Conclusion
Getting things done within the shortest possible time is the thing we all desire to make time for more important things such as family. A food processor is perfect for our ideal world, that leaves us with little or no time at all to enjoy beautiful luxuries such as cooking. This often leads many busy families to the proliferation of fatty and often unhealthy fast foods outlets. We hope you found this guide helpful as a way to use a food processor to recapture your time in the kitchen to get back to making healthy homemade meals in the evenings.