A few years ago I bought a moderately priced mandolin which turned out to have nice sharp blades and a crappy holder. Every time I used it I felt really dumb and lucky. I was finally ready to pony up for a french mandolin with a better designed holder when I realized a FP cost the same. So now I have a FP a crappy mandolin and still want a nice mandolin and a vitamix. lol.

If you have the room I would take it and see if it was useful. I use mine enough to be glad I have it. I freeze alot of pestos hot sauces curries chimichurries herbs for the long Maine winter. I think that is where I find it most helpful.

Probably not. You can knead and mix in the DLX, puree in the VitaMix, so a food processor would add slicing, grating, chopping. All of which are fine to do by hand. And the FP might not have the attachments for the first two anyway.

That said , if it is for some odd reason a RobotCoupe, I'd buy it off you.

I still have my mini prep pro from a wedding gift 25 yrs ago. I did not use it for 5-10 yrs and now have it handy for a few things. If i am multi-tasking and making 2-3 salsas and some quick things at the same time, i love it. When we moved 8yrs ago we used nothing but hand tools, (we both have great knife skills)...a hand dough wisk for bread, a mandoline, not even a toaster or microwave. Not necessary. Some things creep back into the seasonal cycle.
I have the pantry storage and just keep some things around.
I did not use my crapy blender much at all until i got the monster blentec that is built into my counter and now use it almost every day. I do think a daily cook that is not stuck in too many re-peat dishes and tries new things all the time like we do and many here do, does find a random cycle of appliances useful, be it electric or hand held use. And use some things during the winter months, then shift desires throughout the summer and back to others in the fall.

My mother has never had one or a kitchen aid or a bread machine or a stick blender or a food saver, but my MIL has had everything and everyone of it x 4 and on her third version of all of it. Both healthy cooks, no processed foods ever. MIL is much more versatile and a better cook overall. Mom is more of a same thing repeated.
I would give it a try for chunkier sauces and salsas. It does some things better than a blender giving a quick pulse and less power. It has its place in a cooks kitchen if you have room for it out of the way even if just once every other month like mine is used.

I don't know what a VitaMix and a DLX are (and obviously don't have them), but I do use my FP for making hummus and bean dip and absolutely need it for that. I would not make these in a blender, and I would not use a hand blender either, and I make these often. But other than that, I think I could do without it. When I want to make huge quantities of sliced vegetables, the FP is great, but that is very seldom. I don't use the grater blade because I prefer the Kitchenaid grater attachment, which lives on the KA until I put the meat grinder attachment on.

I think a small FP is handy to have, but my KA stick blender has that attachment, and it is great for making quick relishes, tartar sauce, etc. I also use it when making deviled turkey (or ham).

If you have the space, you might as well take it and then pass it on if you never use it.

Lars

Great for chopped chicken liver. Just pulse a bit. Maybe your other toys wd suffice here.

Kind of depends upon what blades and attachments it has and on what kind of and size food processor it is. For instance, my knife skills are good, but when I cook for the rampaging hordes, the slicing blades on the f.p. come in very handy. There is a video out there somewhere of Jacques Pepin vs. Food Processor, and he beats it. I'm actually not in his league, though, so it helps me. Do I have need of it every day? Nope. The mandolin, when it's adjusted perfectly, does a superior job, but the repetitive motion can get to be a pain. Some people complain about cleaning food processors; for me it is a non-issue. The VM pretty much purees everything that goes into it. That is not true of a food processor. Remember to use the pulse function, especially at first. Actually, forever. Many attachments to the DLX and the f.p. will duplicate, so it depends upon what functions you already have covered. I use the f.p. to grate large amounts of hard cheese, but I understand there are graters that can be attached to the Assistent, too, for instance. So, I wouldn't turn it down out of hand. Experiment with it and see what you think.

This post was edited by kitchendetective on Thu, Mar 6, 14 at 19:40

OK I picked it up this morning and brought it home. It's a 12 cup KA - probably about 10-12 years old.

I used it to chop green peppers, onions and celery to make gumbo.

Well it's certainly fast! However that said, my hand chopping produces a more uniform evenly sized end product. I had some pieces too large and some almost pureed. The Gumbo also seems to have less texture than normal and almost looks like soup.

I did use the pulse feature and scraped down the bowl between pulses.

There is a slight break where the handle attached to the bowl so you can't use the handle to carry anything heavy but it doesn't effect how it all works.

I need to try slicing. I have an Oxo mandoline which can slice a whole apple. I don't see how a whole apple would fit in the food chute so am assuming most bigger produce needs to be cut down?

I'll play with it and see if it stays. Any suggestions for other things to try?

Pie crust. It takes 10 seconds in the food processor and comes out perfectly.

I haven't used a KA processor, but, in general, you do have to cut the food to a size that the feed tube can accommodate. Some have tubes within tubes, so that removing the inner one allows for use of larger pieces of food. I have not seen one that would allow for an entire apple, though. I'm going to assume that the KA is like a Cuisinart or Magimix, in a general sort of way, and that the slicer discs fit onto a stem? Slightly frozen meat works better than completely soft meat for slicing, if you want to try that. There may be a Youtube or online manual that shows a similar model and appropriate recommendations. I would want to try all the attachments it has. Steady pressure on the inner feed tube helps with slice uniformity. Julienne discs can be used first and then the results hand cut for dicing. I know what you mean about the uneven chop, although my oldest Cuisinart still does a decent job of that, not uniform but not utterly random, either. When I make the pickle recipe that, come to think of it, I got from you (!thanks again!), I slice the cucs in the processor. I used to use a mandolin, but we make so much at once that the processor is a real arm saver.

Here is a link that might be useful: Manuals online

This post was edited by kitchendetective on Thu, Mar 6, 14 at 21:20

About 10 years ago, when I was picking out a freebie gift for myself for some points I earned somewhere (before cash rewards were the thing), I decided that would be a good time to try a FP. I made a good spot for it so it would be handy. It is a nice Kitchen Aid one and seems to have all the features and power I would need. I've used it about 4 times in 10 years. :-( Last year I moved to a new and bigger kitchen and found an even better spot and still have not used it yet. :-(

I think the reason is because I also have a mini 2-cup thing that is just so much handier. Yea, sometimes it is too small and I have to do a couple of batches, but I don't mind. Mostly it's perfect. It is a Black&Decker Handy Chopper (long discontinued) and comes with a feeder and slice/shred blade, which most of the mini ones don't. I also have an older 1-cup chopper but I never use that anymore since I got the 2-cup one.

And now I have an immersion blender in the mix so that makes the FP even less necessary.

So my vote is you probably do not need it. But I would instead highly recommend a smaller 2-cup chopper. I think Cuisinart now makes one with a blade.

Here is my recipe for Tex-Mex bean dip:

1-1/3 cup dried pinto (or red) beans (about 2 cups cooked)
1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp cumin
1 bunch of cilantro, large stems removed, about 2/3 cup chopped
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes (10 oz.) or similar tomatoes, diced with green chilies, drained, liquid reserved
2-3 Serrano chilies, coarsely chopped
6 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 2 tbsp dried oregano)
1 tbsp soup base - vegetable or beef (or 1-1/2 tsp salt, or to taste)

Cook the beans by your preferred method (I use a pressure cooker now) until done, and discard the cooking water.

Place all of the ingredients except the beans in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the beans, and process until pureed. I remove some of the seeds from the chilies and save them, in case it comes out too bland. You can remove more seeds, if you like it mild.

Serve warm or cold with tortilla chips.

This is a staple at my house, and is similar to beans that are a staple in Mexico and are used as a condiment every day. I use them for making burritos, tortas, migas, chalupas, tostados, quesadillas, taco salad, etc. Sometimes I serve them, heated, as a side dish for enchiladas or tamales.

If you do not have my hummus recipe, I can post that as well. When I started making hummus, I learned that I liked it much better Greek style without cumin and so I leave that out when I make hummus but use it in bean dip. I think the Greeks use hummus the way Mexican use bean dip.

You definitely need a FP for these dishes.

Lars

Mine is a KA, and it makes hummus better than anything else I own.

I've been abysmally ineffective at using it for pastry to bread, and have given up trying, I get the pie dough too hot, then have to chill it for an hour and give up any time savings I might have accomplished.

I also have trouble using it for chopping vegetables if I want a consistent result, I get puree in no time, even when I pulse. First it's too big then, in about one more pulse, it's liquid. I do use it to chop large quantities of onions and peppers for salsa when I'm canning and I don't care how consistent the pieces are, I like to leave them kind of big.

I was very pleasantly surprised when putting handfuls of garlic cloves into the feed tube, though, it sliced them up nicely for the dehydrator.

I've also used it to slice cabbage for sauerkraut and to grind meat for sausage when I want just a pound or less and don't want to drag out the grinding attachment for the KA mixer.

So do you need one? Well, of course you do, silly. (grin)

Annie

Plus one for pie dough in the FP. I finally found the secret for me is to cube the butter in small cubes (I cut the sticks lengthwise, rotate, cut them lengthwise again, and then cut crosswise to make small cubes of approximately 1 cm square). Then, put that butter AND your flour in the freezer for 30 minutes or more. After the butter is nicely frozen, pulse the frozen flour and butter in the food processor until it's large crumbs. I work the rest in by hand, and I now get the best pie crusts I've ever made.

Frozen, little cubes of butter and frozen flour = pulsing in the FP without it getting too warm!

I wouldn't want to give up my FP because of how easy it makes pie crusts!