Need to know
- Today's food processors can come with many attachments – some more useful than others
- Knowing which attachments are genuinely useful can help you choose between the vast range of options available
- Making the most of your food processor can help you make more foods from scratch
These days, food processors can come with a bewildering array of attachments. And unless you're an experienced and adventurous cook, many are likely to remain unused, gathering dust and taking up space in your cupboards.
"Food processors are a great appliance to own if you want to make things from scratch," says CHOICE home economist Fiona Mair. "They can chop, dice, slice, shred, grate and mix doughs – they can be used in so many ways."
But before you fork out for a food processor – and it can be a significant investment, with the most expensive model in our latest test costing nearly $900 – you should understand what the different attachments do.
If you're not going to use the attachments, you might be happier with a cheaper food processor with fewer add-ons.
Your basic model will come with a processing blade, a grater (coarse or fine), a slicer, and often a dough blade. But that's only the start.
Some will have a blender attachment (large or small), a mini bowl, a chipper blade for producing chips and vegetable sticks, and even a citrus juicer.
Of course, your cooking style and preferences will determine how useful any particular attachment will be. But Fiona offers these insights on the attachments she thinks are the must-haves, and those that are unlikely to see the light of day.
The must-have attachments
The processing blade is the most useful attachment and will come with every food processor.
Processing blade
According to Fiona, there are only a couple of attachments that will be essential for most home cooks.
"The processing blade is probably the most useful attachment you can have," says Fiona.
This comes with every food processor, and it's what you'll use to dice, chop and blend ingredients.
You can also use it to make mayonnaise and dressings, blitz up breadcrumbs from leftover bread, and puree soft fruit and vegetables.
A shredding blade is useful for preparing vegetables for salads and coleslaw.
Shredding and slicing blades
Fiona also rates the shredding and slicing blades, which are useful for preparing vegetables for things like coleslaws.
Available in coarse or fine, you can also use them for shredding or slicing cheese, onions, fruit such as apples and pears, and frozen meat for soups.
Alternatively, some food processors come with adjustable blades that allow you to change the way it slices, which means you can make short work of slicing vegies to whatever thickness you want. You may find this feature useful to save them having to buy separate attachments.
Attachments that can be useful
If you make a lot of chips, a chipping blade can be very handy.
Chipping blade
Another potentially useful attachment is a chipping blade, which you can use with potatoes, sweet potatoes and other hard root vegies.
"Not all processors come with it, but if you're making a lot of chips it can definitely be useful," says Fiona.
As mentioned, some food processors have adjustable blades, and these could also be used for chipping.
More food processors are coming with blender attachments, which can be useful but may not be high-powered enough for some tasks.
Blender attachment
Blender attachments are becoming more common with food processors.
"We are seeing more and more food processors with blender attachments in the form of a jug or a single-serve cup," says Fiona.
"These attachments are handy as they allow you to blend liquids like smoothies or soups (which food processors can't)."
But can a blender attachment replace a stand-alone blender? Fiona says not really.
"While they can be useful, they may not be high-powered enough to make things like nut butters and sorbets," she warns.
Citrus juicer attachments rarely work as well as an actual juicer .
Juicer attachment
Citrus juicers are another attachment that might be handy if you make a lot of fresh orange juice, but often they don't work as well as an actual juicer.
"If you don't juice a lot, you don't need it," says Fiona. "If you do juice a lot, a dedicated juicing machine might be a better option."
The least useful attachment
Dough blades, usually small, plastic blades, often don't seem to work very well.
Dough blade
Fiona nominates the dough blade – a small, usually plastic blade, similar in shape to the essential processing blade – as the attachment most of us could do without.
"Most of them don't seem to work very well. Just use the processing blade instead," she says.
Storage for attachments
The versatility of a food processor with all the attachments can be costly – not just in dollars, but also in terms of the amount of kitchen real estate they'll consume.
"Some of the models we tested will take up a lot of space, particularly once you include the attachments," warns Fiona.
Models that come with a box or caddy for all the attachments can be really useful.
With all the extra attachments, you'll want to think about storage. Some models come with boxes or caddies in which to store the accessories.
"Breville's The Paradice 9 Food Processor has a caddy that fits into the bowl, which makes storage easy and doesn't take up too much cupboard space," says Fiona.
On the other hand, some of the food processors we tested from Russell Hobbs, Duraprès and Kenwood didn't come with any storage for their many accessories.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
