We’ve thoroughly tested a wide range of food processors from leading brands, such as Ninja, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, NutriBullet, and Magic Bullet. Our tests put the best food processors through their paces, judging their functionality and efficiency through performance, cleaning, and ease of use. If you want to double up your food processor with one of the best blenders, we’ve also included models that come with blending cups to make smoothies as well as dips or sauces.
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Best food processor 2023, according to our experts
Why you should buy it: Effective; easy to use and store; lightweight; versatility: base can be used for other accessories. The Cuisinart Core Custom 10-Cup is our top buy and we think you will be hard-pressed to find a better food processor. Our tester Camryn found that it was lightweight, but felt secure, with a bowl that fully seals to prevent any messes while mixing liquid ingredients. ‘I think this appliance is worth the splurge if you’re going to use it regularly,’ Camryn reports. ‘Details like the sealed work bowl make this appliance easy and enjoyable to use, plus you can buy additional attachments to use on the same base.’ One of our favorite things about this food processor is that everything can be stored inside the main mixing bowl. That includes the blade (which comes with its own protective cover) and the reversible shredding and slicing discs. You can also expand its capabilities by investing in a blender jar, juice extractor or dicing accessory. The controls are on the simple side, you can either mix on low or high, or pulse. However, we didn’t find that this food processor lacked power when we made everything from energy bites to guacamole. The removable parts are all dishwasher-safe, and you can even choose from a range of colors when you buy. Our Cuisinart Core Custom 10-Cup Food Processor review has more details Why you should buy it: Versatile; in-bowl storage; lightweight. If it’s a versatile food processor you’re looking to use on a daily basis, the NutriBullet NBP50100 7-Cup Food Processor is it, thanks to its do-it-all attachments, which include a dough hook, a chopping blade, two reversible slicing and shredding discs (one thick, one thin), and a spiralizing insert, which our tester Camryn was particularly impressed with: it was very easy to get set up and produced long spirals of carrot and potato. There are three speeds: low, high, and pulse, and Camryn used all to make everything from shakes to the dough. ‘After weeks of testing, I think it’s an ideal everyday food processor for any household,’ she reports. Despite this huge selection, the attachments can be easily stored in the bowl – other than one disc, which doesn’t fit inside. This is important to note since food processors that don’t allow for in-bowl storage take up more valuable storage space. At just six pounds, the Nutribullet 7-Cup Food Processor is also very lightweight – a need to know if you are not storing it on the countertop. Camryn also found it easy to clean: most of the removable parts are dishwasher-safe and the plastic is BPA-free. As with a lot of Nutribullet products, it comes with a comprehensive recipe book that is great to get you started using the machine. Our Nutribullet 7-Cup Food Processor review has more details Why you should buy it: huge capacity; excellent, consistently good results. The Breville BFP660SIL Sous Chef has the standard 12-cup capacity we see in many of the best food processors. Our tester Camryn found the controls very intuitive, and was able to get started as soon as she took it out of the box. The very powerful motor breezes through chopping larger and more dense items, and Camryn found it delivers some of the most consistent results of all the machines she tested. Worth noting: the chute is very wide, so you can turn food on its side and slice in different sizes, ideal for julienning; the shredding disc is also reversible, and the slicing disc is fully adjustable with 0.3mm to 8.0mm in size – overkill for some, perhaps, but if you take great pride presentation, it’s a brilliant feature. ‘It screams quality,’ Camryn says. ‘While it costs a cool $300, it outperformed many other models that I’ve tested, delivering consistent results with minimal effort. I especially love the adjustable slicing disc and multiple chute sizes, which make it extremely versatile.’ The biggest downside? It’s big, which may make storage tricky if your space is small. Our Breville Sous Chef 12 Food Processor review has more details Why you should buy it: Great entry level; easy to use; affordable. The Ninja Professional 9-Cup Food Processor has a range of intelligent programs and handy attachments, all for under $100. It can chop, puree, dough, and dice, and has a reversible disc for slicing, too. Our tester Camryn found it particularly good at shredding vegetables and used the double-layered dough blades to make cookie dough, which, she reports, came together a lot quicker than many of the best stand mixers (though she did have to scrape down the sides of the cooking bowl). Other features Camryn loved include its lightweight, locking lid for safety and the quad chopping blade, which doesn’t simply slice what’s at the bottom of the bowl. She found it less effective on hard ingredients, however. Overall, Camryn was impressed with the versatility and high quality of the Ninja, especially considering the price. ‘If you frequently process large batches of food, you may be better off with a high-end model like the Cuisinart Custom 14 (below), which has a huge 14-cup capacity, or if you want something more compact, the Nutribullet 7-Cup Food Processor (above) has a fairly small footprint,’ she says. Our Ninja Professional Plus Food Processor review has more details Why you should buy it: Cordless = portable; lightweight; handy for small jobs. When our tester Camryn put the KitchenAid Cordless 5 Cup Food Chopper through its paces, it truly converted her to cordless food processing. ‘Suddenly I could make sauces and dips while standing outside with the grill, and move around the kitchen with complete freedom,’ she says. Camryn used this five-cup food processor for blitzing up onions, carrots, tomato sauce, guacamole, and even to make a delicious aioli using the mayonnaise attachment. It impressed her at every turn. ‘It delivers strong processing power that can handle most tasks, and includes an awesome whisk attachment, as well as an oil drizzle basin that will come in handy for recipes like pesto or hummus,’ she says, ’though it doesn’t do as good a job creating uniform pieces as larger food processors.’ Camryn loved its ease of use and cleaning: you turn it on by simply twisting the lid into place and pressing the perfectly thumb-sized groove at the top (though you need to unscrew and reattach the lid to add new ingredients), and the cup is dishwasher-safe. Of course, she points out that you will need to remember to recharge it, but the battery lasted a long time during testing and she anticipates needing to recharge every month, at most. Our KitchenAid Cordless 5 Cup Food Chopper review has more details Why you should buy it: Well-made; easy to use; perfect for big family meals. What sets the Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor apart is its large capacity: it’s got five cups more than the industry standard. ‘I can see this appliance being useful for someone who frequently does big-batch cooking. If you regularly double or triple the size of recipes to accommodate a large family or frequent hosting, the extra-large size of this appliance may be worth the splurge,’ says our tester Camryn. It tackled just about everything Camryn threw its way with ease: ‘The pesto I made was evenly chopped and there was no need to go in and scrape any un-mixed ingredients into the sauce; my energy balls came out very well mixed and I found that it was easy to add and remove the blade because the bowl was so large,’ she says. For those who want a sturdy workhorse in the kitchen, look no further: it’s outfitted with a slicing disc, shredding disc, and chopping/dough blade, and you can buy other shredding and slicing discs as well as a whisk attachment separately. Its uncomplicated design means it doesn’t take up more space in the kitchen than it needs to, but it is heavy, so think twice about buying it if you’ll need to transfer it from cabinet to countertop regularly. Our Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor review has more details Why you should buy it: Versatility! It operates as a portable blender, large batch blender, as well as a food processor, all on one smart base. The Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-IQ is a great investment if you want a blender and food processor in one, its 1400-watt motor tackles everything from blending morning smoothies to chopping dough to shredding veg with ease. Worth noting: there are manual modes for low speeds, too. Its size is a plus if you have the storage space for its bulky base and three attachments: the food processor bowl is 64oz and the large blender is 72oz, perfect for soups and large drinks. You can even prep your soup ingredients in the food processor bowl and finish them off in the pitcher. Included is a dough blade and two levels for larger portions. There’s also a chopping blade that simply slots into the top of the bowl. I was impressed by the food processor attachment in particular, which was speedy and chopped evenly using the double-layered blades. The various Auto-IQ settings are excellently timed with differing strengths and intermediate pulsing. This was particularly useful when blending a large smoothie or soup because it meant I could leave the setting to work unassisted while I went about making breakfast. Our Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-IQ review has more details Why you should buy it: Great for dicing. If you take your cooking seriously, you’ll know that sometimes dicing is just better than chopping for making tasty soups and the bases for stews. That’s why I love the Cuisinart Elemental 13 Cup Food Processor and its dicing attachment. A powerful 550-watt motor keeps it on top of sizeable tasks, which is a good thing given the large size of the bowl. There is also a mini 4.5-cup work bowl that makes cleaning easier when preparing smaller dishes. The dicing attachment pushes vegetables and cheese through a grid insert and then slices the ingredients into evenly-sized square shapes. I did find that this attachment took a bit of muscle to get through every last piece of potato or cucumber, but the results were impressively consistent. Although there are a lot of extra attachments to contend with, Cuisinart does provide a large storage case to keep these organized. It even has a lock to keep it away from kids. There is also a storage case that contains the multiple slicing, spiralizing and chopping inserts, so only opt for this one if you have plenty of storage space to offer. The dicing grid comes with a special tool to clean out the remaining ingredients without putting your fingers at risk. All removable parts are dishwasher-safe. This food processor is still being put through its paces – these are our first thoughts.
Where to buy the best food processors
These are the best places to buy food processors for a breadth of choice and great deals.
How we test the best food processors
Our food processors have been tested by me (Millie Fender), Homes & Gardens’ Reviews Editor in our test kitchen, and by professional appliance tester Camryn Rabideau, in her own kitchen – more on both of us below. You can read longer reviews of each in separate guides, but know that our testing process is continuous, so you can be sure only the top choices feature in this guide. Alongside our hands-on testing, we also research online user reviews and ask experts to ensure we can present you with a balanced view of each food processor. Meanwhile, if you’re after something absolutely premium, the Breville BFP660SIL Sous Chef is absolutely worth the splurge with its quality build and consistent results. However, it did take up more space to store. For those after something compact, we thought the NutriBullet NBP50100 Food Processor was lightweight and easy to store, and it comes with loads of attachments for extra versatility when it comes to slicing and dicing. It’s also a well-priced item that hovers around the $100 mark in price, making it a great value too. If we have included a food processor in this guide, it will have a rating out of five stars and we will clearly state this in the summary of each product. You will see that some with four stars are higher up the list than those with five stars; this is because, from position two downwards, we list the product by popularity amongst you, our readers. However, we are confident that all food processors listed are really good buys. When testing the best food processors we made sure to use every attachment on offer, meaning we will often slice, chop, grate, spiralize, and even make pizza dough. We also like to work with a mixture of personal and brand-supplied recipes. A lot of brands include recipes with their products, which can be a great way of getting to know a food processor, but it’s also important that the machine will work with our own recipes. We also test each food processor for weeks, not once, to ensure we offer you more than just a first impression. For more insight into our hands-on review process, refer to our Homes & Gardens review guidelines. Not all food processors take a lot of space though. Both of the KitchenAid options in our guide have a small footprint, even though there’s a 9-cup model that will cater to even large families. Often it’s the motor found in the base of a food processor that makes it so space-consuming, so opting for a mighty Ninja food processor could be costly in terms of space, but worth it for the high-powered functions. If you’re trying to choose between a blender versus a food processor, there’s always the option of buying the best food processor blender combo in our guide, the Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-IQ.
