Advice on food processors, please

[Kolesar]

I received a "Little Cuisinart" food processor as a gift several years ago. It had a bowl about five inches across. My experience with it was that pieces of vegetables that I put into it hardly got diced. The blades just sort of hacked and beat them up around the edges. I would end up with about half of the veggies being a nicely-diced size and the other half being these large pieces that I had to take out of the bowl and chop up on the cutting board.

I read the directions and the directions said that one must pre-chop the vegetables on a cutting board before placing them in the food processor to get a consistent size. I tried that and got better results. However, for what I was cooking (huge batches of veggie burritos), I decided that I could get just the right chop size with a knife and a cutting board. I switched back to using a cutting board and sold the Little Cuisinart at a garage sale when I moved.

I found a recipe for jalapeno sauce and it calls for a food processor. I am sure the Little Cuisinart could have pureed the sauce satisfactorily, but it's gone. I need to puree soon, now that my jalapenos are ripening.

My questions would be:
(1) Can I use the margarita blender for the jalapeno sauce instead of a food processor?
(2) If I had had a bigger Cuisinart, would I have not had the problem of inconsistent chop-size that I had with the Little Cusinart?

[wildeyed]

1. I have a Kitchen Aid food processor, not a Cuisinart.

It has a large bowl and attachments for large jobs, and then a small bowl that fits inside for smaller jobs like chopping herbs. I have never had a problem with inconsistent sized veggies. Or any other problem for that matter. I love my food processor and would replace with the same if something happened to it.

[NMDemDist2]

2. in mine I "pulse" the chopper a few times at the start

that seems to help. If you just turn it on and walk away it doesn't work as well.

so i stand there and hit the pulse button about 10 times first.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Your questions ........

(1) Can I use the margarita blender for the jalapeno sauce instead of a food processor?

Yes, but you run the risk of liquifying them. Also, the small blade set at the bottom of what is effectively a narrow hole won't allow the large pieces to get the balde, while the small stuff turns to jalapeno juice.

Try insetad some kind of chopper or grater and **then** try the blender. May work better.

Blenders also add a lot of air, so the result looks 'foamy'.

(2) If I had had a bigger Cuisinart, would I have not had the problem of inconsistent chop-size that I had with the Little Cusinart?

That's probably true. I suspect you were overloading the small processor. I have both a full size unit and a mini unit. They both serve different needs. Given the choice of only one, I'd go for the big one. it is more useful and versatile.

[franmarz]

4. I would give up my washer before I gave up my Cusinart--

I thought that blenders were wonderful until I got my Cusinart-Classic. With the different blades it has, I can do any kind of cutting-chopping-grinding-shredding-and slicing. Everyone has a favorite and mine is my Cusinert.

[demnan]

5. I don't know and yes

The mini prep type of Cuisinarts are great for small amounts of things, like grinding garlic and ginger to season Chinese food, or making a small amount of pesto or salsa. They aren't really up to being a full sized food processor.

I have both and I use them for completely different things. The standard sized Cuisinart is a marvelous tool for cutting up veggies and comes with a number of slicing and grating blades. Sounds like this is what you need for your jalapeno sauce. (Slicing 20 jalapenos by hand is a really dicey situation - wear gloves if you must). Blenders, on the other hand, are primarily used for wet ingredients or chopping ice. I think your results would either be inconsistent or ground completely to a pulp. Better than hand chopping, however.

You might consider buying a full size Cuisinart food processor. Here's an example of one. I love mine. Two of the best things it does are slicing onions (I hate slicing the copious amounts of onions needed for Asian cooking) and making homemade cole slaw. The Cuisinart has two separate blades for these tasks. I also use it for dicing carrots and celery (pulsing using the main blade). And I use the grating blade for hard cheese such as Parmesan. You should use the pulse (quick on and off) whenever using the main blade that sits in the plastic bowl, otherwise whatever you chop will be pulverized.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004YNX8/ref=pd_ts_c_th_1/103-1490427-4207032?v=glance&s=kitchen&n=561300

Hope this helps.

[Kolesar]

6. Thank you very much and thanks to Husb2Sparkly

That was very enlightening.