10 Surprising Things You Can Make with Your Food Processor

pesto Food Processor

Think your food processor is just for chopping veggies? Think again! This kitchen powerhouse can do so much more, from homemade nut butters to delicate desserts. Discover the unexpected delights you can whip up with this versatile appliance, making your cooking adventures both easier and more exciting.

AUTHOR: Chisom Umeh

1. Coleslaw

Coleslaw
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Creating coleslaw in a food processor simplifies the chopping process, ensuring uniformity in texture. Simply shred cabbage and carrots using the shredding disc, then mix with a homemade dressing of mayo, vinegar, sugar, and seasonings directly in the bowl. This method yields a fresh, crunchy coleslaw with a perfectly balanced creamy dressing in minutes, enhancing any meal with minimal effort.

2. Guacamole and Salsa

Salsa
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Making guacamole in a food processor is a breeze. Start by pulsing onions, cilantro, and jalapeños to get them finely chopped. Add avocado, lime juice, and salt, then pulse until you reach your desired consistency. For salsa, simply throw in tomatoes, onions, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and a pinch of salt, pulsing until everything is mixed but still chunky. This method saves time and gives you control over the texture

3. Fine Powder

Bread Crumbs
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A member says they use their food processor to turn hard cheeses into a fine powder, which is a super useful large amount of perm-reg or pecorino romano. They say you can also start most doughs in the food processor using the metal blade. Also, you can make amazing coarse breadcrumb toppings with fresh bread or fine breadcrumbs from stale bread.

4. Mince Meat

Raw minced meat
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Technically, since food processors use sharp blades, they don't grind; they mince. But the result is usually a finely chopped texture. This user says they like to buy large cuts of beef and pork and break them down to freeze. Then, they portion them out into smaller roasts, steaks, and stir fry strips. There's always a lot of trim left over, and the user just tosses it in the processor and blitz it up to mix in with meatloaf, make hamburgers, spaghetti sauce, and the like. "It's faster and a lot easier than using my grinder, which is a big pain to clean."

6. Bread Dough

Beautiful girl preparing dough in a food processor
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Making bread dough in a food processor is not only efficient but also reduces kneading time significantly. Combine flour, yeast, salt, and water in the processor, then run it until a ball of dough forms. This method develops gluten faster, leading to a smooth, elastic dough ready for rising. It's an ideal shortcut for homemade bread with a professional texture and flavor.

7. Crab Dip

Hummus
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To whip up crab dip in a food processor, begin by blending cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, and seasonings until smooth. Add chunks of crab meat and pulse a few times to incorporate without shredding the crab too much. This ensures the dip maintains its luxurious texture with evenly distributed crab pieces. It's a quick way to achieve a creamy, indulgent appetizer that's perfect for sharing.

8. Dog Food

dog eats pizza
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One member uses their food processor mostly to make dog food. Since they chop all the veggies they use in making it, it saves them a lot of time. Otherwise, they use it to chop onions for onion dip or grate things occasionally.

9. Dough

Pizza dough
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Someone on the platform says they use their food processor for all things dough. Dough for homemade pasta, pizza dough, hummus, pesto. They have a recipe requiring 3 Ibs of finely chopped onions. They use the slicing disc and the S blade to pulse to the right size.

10. Great for Chopping Stuff

Hand working on food processor
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For this user, the food processor helps with large batches of curry paste and chili paste. They like their pasta sauce with 1:1 mushrooms and ground beef, and adding in the meat after chopping the mushrooms makes the mixture very easy and homogeneous. The user says it is great for when you want stuff chopped fine, but as long as you don't care about irregular pieces (duxelles) or mixing into a dough/paste (fish quenelles). Also good for making basic dough for things like scallion pancakes, dumplings, and hand-pulled noodles.

11. Picky Eater

Woman starts food processor
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This user says they're a very picky eater and generally don't like whole vegetables or large vegetable chunks due to the texture and strong individual flavor. But they have no problem eating them once they have been pureed and incorporated into the food itself. So, they very rarely hand chop, dice, or mince anything and just toss everything into the food processor. In there, they puree/mince/dice/ grate onions, celery, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, ginger, spinach, and the like.

12. Replacement for Blender

Preparing pesto sauce in food processor
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The food processor helps this user make bread crumbs, short crust doughs, pesto, and paste-like sauce things like hummus or chutneys. Sometimes, too, the food processor acts as a replacement for the user if things don't need to be super smooth.

Source: Reddit.

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