Haven’t we all been bombarded with ads on social media or TV of stress-free people cooking with a smile on their faces? But for many of us, this is not the case. All we want to do is be in and out of the kitchen as fast as possible after adulting all day long. The market is overflowing with a million kitchen appliances, all claiming to reduce your time in the kitchen and make clean-up a breeze. While some are useful, there are quite a few duds. Food processors are one of these pieces of equipment that brands claim to be a must-have in a kitchen. But, is this really the case?

How it all began
Pierre Verdan, a French catering company salesman, decided to do something about the number of time people spent in the kitchen simply chopping, shredding, or mincing. This is how the genius of the food processor started. The product he came up with was simple enough with a bowl and a revolving blade in the base. This eventually evolved to a Robot coupe industrial food processor which was first manufactured for the catering industry in 1960.  The food processor did not make its way to the domestic market until the early 1970s when Carl Sontheimer developed the food processor in the USA adapting the design from the Robot Coupe industrial blender.

What does a food processor do?
Just about anything from chopping, shredding, grinding, blending, kneading, whipping. You can easily beat egg whites and make meringues. Making muffins and cake batter has never been easier. Fancy some bread? The machine has you covered. How about the ever-so-popular hummus? You bet! Is the list of ingredients on the commercially available nut butters suspicious?  Well, you can have fresh homemade nut butter of your choice in a few minutes.  Want to lead a healthier lifestyle and start meal prepping? The food processors will help you.

What are the advantages?
The best part is that some food processors come with a blender and grinder attachment, so it is great value for your money.

• Easy cleanup - Just hold it under the tap and gently wash it. For tougher residue like cake batter simply use a sponge with some liquid detergent. You really do not have to use a lot of elbow grease to clean the attachments.
• This appliance is great if your knife skills aren’t top-notch as it comes with many attachments to give you different vegetable cuts.
• It is a life saver for meal preps and cooking for a large family. You can easily mince 4 kg of onions for a seeni sambol in under 15 minutes (this is said with first-hand experience) 

Are there any disadvantages?
It can take up pantry space as there are quite a few attachments that come with it, but this can easily replace your blender and grinder as some brands provide the attachments so there is balance.
It is not exactly cheap, the food processors from well-known brands such as Philips or Kenwood can cost you a pretty penny, but it is an investment as these machines can last you a few years, some even have used it for close to a decade with no issue. Plus, because of how multi-functional it is, you save a lot of time and energy. The blades are insanely sharp, so be alert when washing up. (I’ve had a few cuts, but I blame this purely on my carelessness).

Verdict
Many foodies and Chefs swear by this gadget so if you do have a large family, a small home based food business, do a lot of meal prepping, cook different types of dishes then you can definitely invest in one and it will be worth every penny.