Food Chopper and Mini Processor Buying Guide

Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus

Cuisinart is likely the most well-known brand of food processors and this mini prep plus has extra-large 4-cup work bowl. That said, the larger work bowl is still working with a 250W motor so I'm not sure what the "plus" is about. It's solid and old school. The Cuisinart Mini Prep is easy to use.

• Pros: It chops and grinds well enough but it does not do beautiful dicing like some of the other models. The 4-cup capacity makes it stand out from others, which only have 2-cup or 3-cup bowls. It can chop (fast) and grind (faster and furious). I chopped then ground the lemongrass to get the fine texture in the photo.
• Cons: The Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus does not do as beautiful of a chop as some of the other machines. Costs $50 to $65.
• Available at: Cuisinart, Amazon, Target (the model sold at Target is different than what I test drove but is likely similar)

The first time I tried one of these KitchenAid machines, I couldn't figure out how the lid goes on. Turns out it's relatively loose. You don't have to hear it click like other machines require. What I was impressed by was how well the KitchenAid Food Chopper actually chopped onions and the like. The reason is that the blade wiggles just a bit so it's rather like a knife. As for lemongrass, the design, not the 240W motor, was not the best performer.

• Pros: It chops and minces beautifully. If you do lots of chopping for say, Indian food, this is a great food chopper (hence the name!). The bowl of the model I own is nicely sized at 3.5 cups. The 5-cup model comes with an emulsifying attachment for whipping cream. Available in a range of handsome colors.
• Cons: It does not do well with fibrous, tough ingredients like lemongrass. I used the grind function and the lemongrass did not get past what other machines could do on a "chop" mode. Costs more than other brands I tried.
• Available at: KitchenAid, Amazon, Target

Ninja built its cooking appliances on interesting designs like the quad blade, a two-level system with 4 blades, instead of 2. I was skeptical about safety and efficiency but a friend encouraged me to try out the Ninja Express Chop. It chops very well, almost too fast because it has double the blades for the 200W motor. I breezed through mincing lemongrass and did well with prepping a batch of kroeung, a handy Cambodian lemongrass and galangal seasoning mixture. There are some drawbacks to the machine though.

• Pros: Compact design and efficiently handles fibrous tough ingredients. I'm amazed. The Express Chop is practically like a hybrid food processor and blender. The blades effectively move ingredients down the bowl. The lid MUST be in place and the spindle lined up for the motor to operate. If I chopped a lot of lemongrass or similar tough ingredients, the Ninja Express Chop would be my pick. It's reasonably priced too.
• Cons: It's noisy. When the motor needs you to stop, it kind of shrieks. Can over chop ingredients so you need to remember to PULSE if you want to chop. Quad blades need extra precaution to handle and wash. Cleaning the motor base can be a hassle (use paper towel and chopstick on the belly button hole, below on left.
• Available at: Ninja, Amazon, Target

Awkwardly named but interestingly designed the Ninja Master Food Prep and Beverage Blender is just a 450W motor that you can attach to a food chopper or a blender. It's pretty nifty and I tried it out because I wanted to know if Ninja would work better as a chopper with a 450W motor. Compare to the Ninja Express Chop, the Ninja Master Food Prep and Blender practically purred. Well not really -- it was more quiet and ran smoothly.

• Pros: A 2-for-1 deal in that you get a chopper plus a blender. It is more quiet than the Express Chop. The blade's quad design can be taken apart so you use only one set of blades for say, making mayonnaise -- like an immersion blender or small processor would do. Put the other set of blade on the spindle and you can chop away easily.
• Cons: For chopping, it's good but because of the blade design, it does not chop as fast as the Ninja Express Chop. The Master Prep will get you a fine texture but will simply require several longer runs. As for the blender, it's not a Vitamix; it will handle pureeing soft stuff and Ninja claims that it will crush ice! There is only 1 speed so you cannot control much. The lid can be a chore to get to sit correctly before the motor goes on top. Cleaning the lids for the chopper and blender can be tedious. I use a metal cake tester (above, right) to get all the lemongrass bits that didn't come off with a harsh water spray.
• Available at: Amazon (I've not seen it a Ninja or Target)

I like my Vitamix 5200 blender a lot, enough to buy the Vitamix immersion stick blender. The stick blender is powerful, heavy and works smoothly. That's why I had hopes for the Vitamix Immersion Blender Mini Chopper attachment. The tri-blade design was intriguing with the blade tips coming very close to the edge of the bowl, which means it promised to work the material well. But there was an issue.

• Pros: The blades are wicked sharp so be careful. I put a carrot cut as 1-inch cubes into the chopper and the carrot was easily rendered into beautiful small pieces. The blade is somewhat spring loaded so it gives just a bit (like the KitchenAid blade does). That give allows the blade to chop more uniformly. However, with lemongrass, the Vitamix didn't do as well. The bowl is a little wider than the other machines so it may have needed more material than the ½ cup that I was testing with.
• Cons: The major deal breaker for me is the lid. It is so hard to put into place and remove. It seems to threaten to break but did not when I had to very firmly pry it off the chopper bowl. When the immersion blender is locked in, the whole assembled unit is solid as a rock. If you're working on a recipe that requires frequent scraping, you will not like this chopper attachment.
• Available at: Vitamix, Amazon