Jun 24th 2016 - Monica Cunanan
Food Processor vs Blender: Which Is Best?
Different types of appliances are all useful for preparing different types of cuisine. Food processors, food blasters, and food choppers are types of appliances suited for certain tasks, and all of them have a role to play in a commercial kitchen. It can be confusing to decide which one to use. In this article, we'll go through the features of each piece of equipment so you can decide which one suits your needs best.
Food Processor vs Blender
Blenders usually have just one blade, tall jars, and are often useful for making wetter dishes. Blenders will liquefy your ingredients so they're easier to mix together. They're used to make breakfast smoothies, sauces, and dip. Blenders range in price from about $35 up to $550.
Food processors usually have multiple blades and large work bowl sizes and can usually chop, mince, grate, and slice in addition to puréeing. A food processor chops up, slices, and dices solid ingredients into a specific size. They're often used for preparing vegetables so they don't need to be chopped by hand. Prices can vary anywhere from $40 to $400.
Here are other key differences:
Fixed Blades of Blenders
Most traditional blender jars include one blade at the bottom that cannot be removed. This blender features multiple blades that allow for the thorough blending of ingredients. This one-blade blender is perfect for making smoothies, crushed ice, and even liquidizing soups.
Model Featured: Vitamix the Quiet One 36019-ABAB
Multiple Discs or Blades of Food Processors
Most food processors include multiple blades and/or disks. The blades are used for pureeing, chopping, mixing, and sometimes kneading in the work bowls. Food processor attachments include a whisk attachment that lets you whisk, beat and mix ingredients. Blades and accessories for bowls usually fit over drive adaptors and drive pins at the bottom of the bowls. The discs of food processor discs are usually situated at the top of the work bowl, below the feed tube. This placement allows for slicing, shredding, and dicing as ingredients are pushed into the disc through the feed tube.
Model Featured: Robot Coupe R101BCLR Commercial Food Processor
Tall Jars of Blenders
The Blenders' tall sides help keep liquids contained during blending. The size and shape of the container also help ensure ingredients circulate evenly through the blender. A pitcher-like container usually has a handle and a pour spout or beveled edge, which makes it easy to transfer liquids from one vessel to another.
Wide Work Bowls of Food Processors
The food processors usually have wide flat blades and discs for cutting foods into specific shapes like slices or shreddings. It also allows you to work faster because it can handle large or whole ingredients like sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, or cucumber. You can choose to get food processor bowls that offer more space for larger batches.
Similarities Between a Food Processor and Blender
Most blender/food processor models include a built-in electric mixer. The container that holds the ingredients for your blender sits on the bottom of this base and has blades or disks that process or mix your ingredients. You can substitute one appliance for another when making some recipes, but each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.
See More: How To Choose The Best Commercial Blenders For Your Restaurant
When To Use a Blender, Food Processor, or Chopper?
- Food or Ingredients: For Liquids such as Smoothies, Soups, Sauces, Dressing, Marinades,
- For Crushing and Grinding: Grind spices or crush coffee beans using your blender.
- Puree: Grab your blender when you want to puree ingredients into a smooth liquid, such as a soup or smoothie.
- For drinks: For crushing or making things slushy, like cocktails, then use your blender.
Pro-tip: Be careful when blending hot liquids. Steam from boiling water can create enough heat to pop open the top of the pot, causing a big mess and possibly splashing you with scalding water. If you want to avoid this problem, remove the center of the lid from the microwave, wrap it in a clean kitchen cloth, and place it on a low setting before increasing.
What is a Food Processor?
A blender features a powerful motor at its base. Ingredients are added to a blender, and then the blades spin to mix them together. Food blenders usually come with different speed settings or pulsing options so that the user has more control over the blending procedure. After blending the mixture, pour it into a container that is easily removed from the blender. Blenders are best suited for liquids, whereas food processors are best for thicker, denser items.
Use a food processor instead of a blender if you want to liquefy food. The shape and dimensions of the blender jar make it suitable for holding and pouring liquids.
Model Featured: Robot Coupe R2N Commercial Food Processor
Using a Food Processor
- Food or Ingredients: Dips, Sauces, Spreads
- Grinding and Mixing: Use an S-blade to grind up whole grains for bread and pasta; chop and mix spices, garlic, onions, and tomatoes into sauces; mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams into purees.
- Puree: pureed vegetables, then a food processor is an excellent tool for the job.
Pro-Tip: Try Immersion Blender!
Immersion blenders allow you to blend ingredients without using a jar or bowl. Handheld, electric-powered, appliances can be used for cooking and immersing into stocks or mixings bowls. Blenders with powerful blades at the end let you blend soups or sauce right into the initial pot, eliminating any need for transferring ingredients.
If you're making a large batch of something and don't want to use a blender, reach for an immersion blender instead.
Model Featured: Waring WSB40
Food Processor vs Chopper
A chopper uses manual force to cut up ingredients into smaller pieces, whereas a blender uses electricity to turn a blade inside of a container. Food choppers usually include just one blade that performs one task, but food processor attachments can be added to them to allow them to chop, slice, dice, mince, grind, etc.
Using a Chopper
The design of a Food chopper allows an operator to place a single vegetable on the chopping blade, press down or lift up on the handle and force it through the cutting blades. A container placed under the vegetable slicer catches the sliced vegetables. Chopping fruits and vegetables by hand is time-consuming and produce inconsistent results. A fruit and vegetable chopper makes chopping easier and ensures that all pieces are the same thickness. A blender can't chop up ingredients into smaller pieces; however, they can be mixed together until smooth.
Model Featured: Nemco 57500
Using Specialty Choppers
If you're making something specific (like a certain kind of chopped vegetable), reach for a food chopper instead of a food processor. You'll get better results and be able to control the size and quantities. Chopper blades come in different shapes and sizes for chopping different types of foods.
- Wedges, Dicers, and Slicers: These choppers come equipped with blades that create wedges, dice, or slice. You can use blades of different sizes to cut different-sized pieces from your logs.
- Fry Cutters: These potato slicers are ideal for cutting up large quantities of French Fries at once. They come in different sizes and shapes so they're perfect for slicing any type of potato.
- Specialty Choppers: There are many chopper designs made specifically for certain types of products, like pineapple cores, lettuce, and onions.
Where Can I Get My Own Commercial Blender?
A chef needs the best tools for the job. Here at Culinary Depot, we provide a variety of commercial blenders for your needs.
If you're looking for:
We have it! Can't decide? Contact us now and find the right blender for your needs.