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It was only last week when most of us at the office took a collective vowel to start caring of ourselves better and, implicitly, switch from our daily McDonalds and KFC takeaway lunches to natural products. We bought apples, carrots, grenadines, ginger root, and other similar stuff, and we were just about to head to our office food blender when it hit us! It only had one blade, and three levels of speed, so how could it possibly handle all those hard vegetables? We hopped on the Internet to do a quick search and found out that those were not appropriate things to make in a blender! These are mostly designed to blend soft liquids like juices, smoothies, soups, and soft fruit, or to crush ice.
Food Processor vs. Blender
We got right back to the computer and quickly found out that in our quest for eco-friendly living, we needed a good food processor. It is the ideal household appliance if you want to slice, grate, and chop hard vegetables, which was what we were trying to do. So, what is the actual difference between the food processor and blender, one might ask?
Different Features of Food Processor and Blender
As it turns out, there are quite a couple! Your average food blender will come equipped with one single blade, the supreme being of four. A 3-blade product can reach aped of 90 MPH while a 4-blade one, 120 MPH give or take. Why get a food processor then?
On the one hand, it’s much more powerful! It brings a bunch of additional features to the table. Any food processor attachment fits easily inside its bowl, over the shaft. It is usually one of the many types of blades with which it comes equipped. The standard one is called Sabatier blade, and it’s shaped in the form of an S.
The Difference in Size and Texture
The primary process behind blenders is grinding the ingredients into extremely tiny pieces. When you’re done, the result will look nothing like the stuff you started with. They turn the ingredients into a homogenous mixture in liquid form. As for the food processors, they also blend the ingredients put inside, chopping them into small pieces. However, when you’re done, you will still be able to differentiate between them. While the texture resulted from using a blender is mostly liquid, in the case of a good food processor, we’re talking small solid chunks.
The Difference in How They Hold Liquids
The way their bowls handle and hold liquids is another big difference between the food processor and blender. Usually, processor bowls can hold liquid up to a point, but not completely. At the bottom of the bowl, the food processor blades attach the motor through a hole. Allowing too much liquid to form in the container can leakage, and this can seriously damage the device. On the other hand, blender bowls are ideal for holding liquids, this being the main reason for which they are the perfect tool to make juice, soup, smoothies, and yogurt. So the blender or food processor debate relies heavily on the texture of the ingredients.
Things to Make in a Food Processor
Due to their more substantial number of accessories and blades, processors have a much wider area of use. They can grate, mince, dice, grind, slice, and mix ingredients. As such, they are ideal for chopping large aliments like cheese, chicken, nuts, or even zucchini. A food processor is also perfect for making homemade hummus, or delicious dips such as pesto or vegetable. And even though it’s not recommended, you can even make smoothies, as long as you make sure to use frozen fruit instead of ice.
What You Shouldn’t Do with a Processor
The most important thing – a food chopper – does not fit for liquid. When the bowl is filled in entirety with liquids, it will end up leaking through the bottom hole, making a mess all over the place. Now, there are some other surprising dishes, for which you should not use it. One would expect that such an appliance would be perfect for cooking mashed potatoes. On the contrary, if you try this, the result will look nothing like a puree, but more like glue.
Quick Tip: don’t try to use one to make cakes either; even the best mini food processor will not be able to stand up to this task!
Things to Make in a Blender
A single-serve blender, on the other hand, is a lot simpler. It is perfect for mixing the though necessary for pancakes and waffles. It is also the ideal tool for creating homemade sauces. Juice, soups, protein shakes, milkshakes, and peanut butter are the next major items for which a blender is a perfect choice. You can also use a blender for ice. If you’re wondering how to make ice cream in a blender, things couldn’t be simpler: simply add milk, nonfat milk powder, heavy cream, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, and ice inside, and the machine will take care of the rest. The result will be a delicious homemade chocolate ice cream.
What You Shouldn’t Prepare with a Blender
Regardless of the number of blades they come with, blenders have limited abilities. For starters, they are not powerful enough to handle solid food, and they are unable to cut the ingredients into small pieces. As such, you should avoid using a food blender for hard items like carrots, potatoes, apples, meat, nuts, cucumbers, etc. Using them to make any solid aliment will prove virtually impossible. They are mostly destined to work with liquids and incredibly soft items.
Conclusion
And that pretty much sums everything up. Moreover, as we’ve realized the difference between a food processor and blender here at the mykitchenadvisor.com, we reached the logical conclusion that we need both of these items in our efforts to start eating healthy. Our next trip was to an appliance store, where we bought one of each and, after two weeks of putting them to the test, we were able to bring you this review and comparison. However, let us know your thoughts on the food processor vs. blender debate, and if you happen to know other ingenious uses for both, feel free to share them in the comments section below!
