I have an older Cuisinart that I use for mincing large amounts of onions and the like, pureeing fruit for jams, making hummus and baba ghanoush, cookie dough mixing, creaming soups and sauces (great for the carrot-ginger soup I love). I'm sure there are other things. I tend to reach for it immediately for the uses above. Many things I still make or knife by hand. Like tomatoes and pie crust.

Enjoy your new toy, er tool!

Eileen

Most recently I've used my FP for:
chopping nuts, onion, celery, herbs, breadcrumbs, and more

mixing pie crust, struesel, chip dips, salsa, whitefish pate....much more

Duane, what I find is that when I cook I use the FP or my KA for many things that older cookbooks will have you doing by hand. I just automatically think about how much easier the FP will make the task. I'm sure you will too when you get used to having it.

Nancy

I use the 1 mm slicing blade to make slaw, I slice and chop veggies for soup and for big salads, I make pesto, pie cruse, bread dough, pizza dough. I grate cheese, I rough chop fruits for jams, I mince chicken for salad and ham for ham salad, I grate bread crumbs for.,..well bread crumbs.
I use the 4 mm slicing blade for lemons if I need a lot, for apples for pie and potatoes to fry.
I use the coarse shredding disc for potatoes for hash browns and latkes and the fine shredding blade for carrots for salad and carrot cake and zucchini for zuch bread. and I use the very fine shredding disc for hard cheeses and chocolate.
And I occasionally use it to puree soups and sauces ( but I prefer the hand held) and I use it to rough chop tomatoes for sauce, to make gaspacho....and the list goes on!
Linda C

I didn't buy a food processor until 2 years ago when I bought a KA heavy duty one. I can hardly believe how I survived without it!
I use it for all the above things mentioned, but also for fruit ice smoothies because it crushes ice beautifully with no chunks and for french baguette dough.

Guacamole! Just toss in avocado, salsa, sour cream, lime juice. Pulse a couple of times and scrape into serving bowl.

Same with tartar sauce.

Grate large amounts of cheese....fast.

Prep onions and peppers for salsa (I have this bad habit of rubbing my eyes/face...no prob with the FP!)

Make bread crumbs, graham cracker crumbs, oat flour, etc.

Oh, yeah! And I only have a cheapie!!

Deanna

Duane,
I am curious. How much liquid (say salsa) can you process in th KA without it leaking out? You will notice on the bowl about 2 inches from the bottom a line that indicates not to put liquid above that line. This has to do with the relatively low spindle that the blade sits on. This is one reason I have held off buying one since we make salse and hummus alot.
Thanks,
javaman

javaman, buy a Cuisinart....it can hold more liquid without leaking out.
Linda C

Javaman, I think you right. It doesn't handle alot of liquid, but I like it nonetheless. I think out of 77 people 76 gave it 5 stars on Amazon. I personally have never been impressed with Cuisinart, which is why I went with KitchenAid. To each their own. Pros and cons with both I suppose. I think Hummus would be thick enough not to worry about that. Salsa...I'll let you know later. I'm making a batch today!

Duane

Javaman - I have no line on the bowl of my 11 cup Cuisinart, but the spindle tube 1 5/8" high. Without a blade in place it holds 30.5 oz of liquid before overflowing. HTH.

I confess, my Cuisinart was a gift long ago and it intimidated me for YEARS. It sat new in a box for 18 years. My daughter finally dragged it out and showed me how it use it about a year ago. I have never used but the one blade. I'll have to explore those other blades now.

Great thread for use ideas.

As for salsa, I only use the FP for the onion chopping. I like the other ingredients, except for garlic. to be a bit chunkier and uniform so I chop by hand. The garlic gets the microplane treatment.

As for the overflow issues, I like the control of doing smaller amounts at a time.

Like Eileen, I find the food processor chops too finely for salsa, I like it thick and chunky, not pureed. I have caved in occasionally and chopped the onions in the FP, but it's not ideal for my purposes.

I do use it to make breadcrumbs, I put my basil and olive oil in it for pesto, it's great for Jessica's lime cilantro marinade.

I don't make pie crust in it because it always gets too warm and then I have to refrigerate it for a couple of hours to cool it so it can be rolled and I'm too impatient for that but I did make some noodles with it a couple of weeks ago and I grated the Asiago cheese for the Italian Sausage Elery and I made a couple of days ago.

I don't use mine a lot, partially because things leak out if it gets too full and partially because it's just easier to wash a knife than to clean the whole machine.

Annie

The cleaning thing is a big deal...I only use mine when I have room in the top rack of the dishwasher. Otherwise, it's a knife or my Oscar.

The cleaning thing is why I sold my juicer on E-bay. 8 million parts give or take. But this FP is easy to clean. 3 parts: the bowl, the lid and the blade. Rinse under water...done deal.

Duane

I use a kitchen aid but I wish I had one of the newer ones which will fit a whole potato through the feed tube.

I use my KA food processor for everything...chopping onion and other veggies. Bread crumbs, pie crust and pizza dough...the list goes on and on...LOL

My DH try to put the bowl on wrong and cracked it...called the company to order a new one...I have had it for at least 10 years...they sent me a new one at NO CHARGE!!!!!!!!!
You got to love them for that.

Linda

Congrats Duane... how exciting. New kitchen toys and (any) appliances are such fun!

I have an antique Moulinex food processor... just one speed.... on and off, but it works fine. I use it for bread crumbs and graham cracker crusts. Also for shredding carrots or potatoes. I've also used it once for slicing potatoes for scalloped potatoes and another time for salsa. I've made hummus in it once, though for that, I lean towards the immersion blender because of how much easier it is to clean that the FP.

Hope you continue to have fun with it for a long time to come.