The Mortar and Pestle is one of the old-age pieces of cooking utensil, with the mortar objects can behold while the pestle crushes it with downward pressure.
So, it is no doubt that they do well at grinding ingredients compare to others.
There are cases where the Best Mortar and Pestle like SMLZV pestle and mortar won’t be readily available. And stopping what one is doing won’t be an option.
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Can you use a food processor instead of a mortar and pestle?
I love the mortar and pestle, if for anything at all, for the residue taste it leaves when used to blend my spices and ingredients.
Well, a lot of people use food processors in some cases instead of a mortar and pestle, but you will not get the flavour using the mortar and pestle gives.
If it is to reduce the time spent using a mortar and pestle or to get a better and smoother texture for your ingredients, then you can leverage the food processor.
However, for an all-round enjoyment and better taste of your food, disregarding time and stress, you should always stick to your mortar and pestle.
Note that: Before you proceed to use a food processor for a task meant to be carried out with mortar and pestle you must know the limitations, Do’s and Don’t, and that is why you should know what a food processor is.
What Is A Food Processor?
A food processor can be referred to as a kitchen appliance that can be used to chop, shred, slice, grind, and puree different types of ingredients/food.
It is a tool introduced in the year 1973 by an engineer Carl Sontheimos, who had spent 12 months adapting a french industrial blender for domestic use.
Even after this groundbreaking innovation, it takes years for consumers to adapt fully and realize how useful a food processor can be.
What Are The Benefits of A Food Processor?
Process Food Faster
With the food processor, you never be late in serving foods to your family. It is a versatile tool that can be used for slicing, chopping, and doing more to your preparation process. With a food processor, you don’t have to wait a long time to make sauces or butter.
Saves Time
With a food processor like the Breville Sous Chef Food Processor, you can save a lot of time. So time meant to be spent on cutting, chopping, or mixing food items will drastically reduce. And so you can complete all activities within minutes and you can cool within less time. It will also give you time to do other house chores outside the kitchen.
Easy To Cook For a Large Number of People
With a food processor that is as big as Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY, you can easily cook for a large number of people. You spend less time dicing, chopping, slicing, dicing pureeing e.t.c. Aside from that, it can be used for cooking for a large number of people.
You Can Easily Try Out New Recipes
A good professional food processor in the kitchen will help your day to day experiment of trying out new recipes. You don’t need to worry about doing the same procedures every day, all you need to do is get all ingredients together. You can trust food processors like Hamilton Beach 12-Cup, Stack & Snap Food Processor for chopping your vegetables and others.
Best for Working Ladies
So are you a working lady with little or no time to prepare yourself breakfasts? You will find affordable food processors handy, with the best one you can easily prepare yourself fast meals.
When Should You Use A Food Processor?
A food processor is only ideal for shearing and shredding of ingredients, breaking and tearing vegetables but do not rupture all the cells to release aromatic compounds.
However, a good mortar and pestle can do a great job crushing individual cells that leads to the production of curry paste with better flavour.
On the other hand, it’s much easier to get smoother results with the food processor worth the money.
Using a food processor is great, but you need to realize that there are limitations to what you can do with them.
One of the best food processor Breville BFP800XL Sous Chef Food Processor can make you smooth and sauces. Also, it is good for doing light chopping.
Even with the extras that different professional food processor or table-sized food processor on Amazon comes with. You can only do the following better with them:
#1. Grinding Meat
Meat has many rubbers texture compare to the likes of vegetables that are better off being crushed with mortar and pestle.
Cutting of meat can be a little tough for someone new to it but with a food processor for grinding meat, it won’t be.
In the right settings, all you need to do is toss the ”protein chunks” into the machine.
Note that you can only make use of food processing above 8 cups, they can handle meat with ease. However, if they seem unaffordable you should check out the best mortar and Pestle on Amazon.
#2. Making Dips, Sauce, and Others
With the right food processor, you can perform difficult tasks (chopping, mincing, and dicing) that making of dips and sauce requires with ease. All you have to do is press buttons.
#3. Making Dough
Making dough has become easy with the affordable food processor, all you need is flour, water, and then a food processor.
You don’t need any other items to make yourself a dough in the morning.
What you need to worry about is applying cooking and maintaining water input. The rest can be left to the machine.
Aside from making dough, grinding meat, and making deep sauces.
There are other foods like Nut butter, salads, crumbs e.t.c. that can be made with a good food processor.
Read more: Can You Put A Mortar And Pestle In The Dishwasher?
Food Processors You Should Check Out
If you want to get a good alternative for mortar and pestle, you should choose the right one.
There are quite a number of best small food processors and there are good ones that can cater to almost everything or serve as helping hand for the traditional cooking Utensil, ”pestle and mortar”.
Waring Commercial WFP14SC Batch Bowl and Continous With LiquidLock Seal System
Are you looking for a food processor that can do almost everything? Order for Warring Commercial Batch Bowl from Amazon.
It has a high performance 3/4 horsepower motor that can crush/grind items ingredients within a short period. You can shred, grate. whip, chop and do more. It has over 20 processors applications.
Reasons To Buy
- It is a well-built product
- Worth the price
- It has a long time warranty
Reasons Not To Buy
- It is expensive
Breville BFP800XL Sous Chef Food Processor
The Breville BFP800XL Sous Chef Food Processor is a food processor that comes with 5 multi-function discs and 3 blades.
The blades are versatile enough that they eliminate the need to pre-cut most fruits and vegetables.
Furthermore, the presence of the LCD will also help in setting the machine properly. Best of all, this food processor is very portable and will save you a lot of space on your kitchen table.
So, you can avoid the clumsiness of having kitchen utensils clamouring for space that is not enough in the first place.
Reasons To Buy
- Easy storage
- Multiple chute option
- It has a timer
- Worth the price
- It is easy to use
Reasons Not To Buy
- No negative review
KitchenAid KFP0718CU Food Processor, 7 Cup, Contour Silver
The KitchenAid KFP0718CU Food Processor is easy to use, it has a twist-free bowl assembly and a latched lid for easy setup. It is easy to clean and contains all the needed accessories.
Its compactness makes it easy to store like the cord can easily be wrapped.
Furthermore, It has 3-speed options ( High, Low, and Pulse ) that gives you total control over how every output should be.
Also, it has easy-press paddles with illuminated LED controls.
Reasons To Buy
- Easy to use
- It is easy to clean
- It is easy to store
- Presence of 3-speed options with simple controls
- 5-cup capacity
- You can chop, shred, slice and puree
Reasons Not To Buy
- Weak motor
KitchenAid KSM1FPA Food Processor, standard, White
The KSM1FPA is another excellent product from the KitchenAid. With an exact slice system with an externally adjustable slicing lever that can move from thick to thin.
However, the raised blade side of the discs should be position face up on the common adapter.
Reasons To Buy
- It has a storage case
- Presence of accessories such as shredding disc, dicing kit, Julienne disc e.t.c
- Wide feed tube
- Worth the price
- It is easy to set up
Reasons Not To Buy
- It is hard to use
Black & Decker FX810 800-Watt Stainless Steel Food Processor
This food processor model is designed to be used for numerous functions. The Black & Decker FX810 800-Watt Stainless Steel Food Processor has a compact 4 in 1 setup.
Also, it has numerous accessories to perform 41 functions.
Reasons To Buy
- It is easy to use
- Compact
- Easy to set up
Reasons Not To Use
- No negative review
Braun FP3020 12 Cup Food Processor Ultra Quiet Powerful Motor
Here we have Braun FP3020 12 another powerful food processor. It has blades that make it easy to chop, knead, whisk and slice or even a vitamin boost the juicer with the juicer attachment.
It features a dual-control system with variable speed. Aside from being sleek in design, every part except the base is easy to clean.
Reasons To Buy
- 1-year warranty from the manufacturer.
- The design is compact enough for easy storage
- Quick to put together
- Easy to clean
- Worth the price
Reason Not To Buy
- No negative review
7. NESCO FP-800, Food Processor, Black, 8 cups, 500 watts
The NESCO FP-800 is another portable food processor, it has 8 cup capacity. It features a feeding chute and easy-grip handle on the bowl.
Also, it has a rotary switch that provides options to choose between 2 different speeds.
Reasons To Buy
- 8 cup capacity
- It is easy to clean
- Compact enough to save space
- It includes accessories such as stainless-steel slicing/shredding disc, a chopping/mixing blade, and a detachable disc shaft, plus a recipe/instruction book.
Reasons Not To Buy
- No negative review
Read more: Mortar And Pestle Or Electric Grinder?
Are Food Processors Effective?
Yes, good food processors work perfectly for what they are produced for. Even though there are negative reviews from certain buyers, the effectiveness and reviews from the majority can not be overlooked.
Guide on How To Take Care of A Food Processor
Just like mortar and pestle, your food processor needs to be properly taken care of or else problems will occur.
A food processor is perfect for shearing and shredding food/ingredients into small pieces, but if you don’t care for it properly you could potentially damage it.
Below are tips on maintaining food processor and keep it at the best of its ability:
- Make sure to avoid foods that the food processor cannot be used for if the machine is not strong enough you can get a good mortar and pestle or buy a more powerful food processor.
- Cut the food in a small chunk to ensure consistency.
- To ensure the blade/motor does not get damaged, add the food in small quantity.
- Clean after every use
- Avoid filling up with more than the amounts recommended by the manufacturer.
- To get rid of odours from the processed ingredients, make a solution of water and baking soda and let it soak for roughly 15 minutes. Then dry it thoroughly.
Verdict
With the review above, you can make your choice from any of the food processors reviewed and enjoy the shredding and shearing experience.
Also, you have been provided with an answer to ”Can You Use A Food Processor Instead of A Mortar and Pestle” and reasons why you need a food processor.
