What is the difference between a food processor and a blender?The most obvious comparison (and telling of it's supposed use) is the size of the two pieces of equipment.
Blenders: Think, anything liquid. From shakes to soups, it's the best for blitzing cooked vegetables for soup, pureeing frozen fruit for a shake etc.
Food Processors: Anything non-liquid. From Pestos, to pie dough, to hummus.
You can invest in a large one if you're cooking for a family or into making pie crust (without having to do it by hand) or, if you're single, a handy small one for quick pestos, grinding nuts, etc. works just fine.
While you can also use a blender for some of the same purposes you'd use a processor for, i.e hummus, pestos, you couldn't use the processor for soups or shakes, the bowl isn't deep enough, and the liquid will spill from the container.
When shopping for a blender: keep it simple, unless you're really into shakes, for every meal, you don't need 1500 different attachments. A high quality, two speed blender is really all you need.
In the market for a new processor? Again, simple is the way to go. Though many high end processors you buy on the market come with different disk attachments for your "chopping ease", is it really necessary? Uh, no. That single propeller like blade is the heavy lifter and does pretty much everything you need to make a fine dish. But, go ahead try the attached disks, they're fun! One thing I will add is that, when using the disk to "julienne" for example, you'll find that the veggies become far more mushy than if you were to do it either by hand or with a mandolin, (if you're finicky about the texture of your dish, that matters).Â
Ah, the mandoline! That's fodder for a whole other article.
Do you have more questions? Send me an email at Elizabeth@cafeleza.com. I'd love to help.
Cheers!
Comments