Best food processor 2024: Take the hassle out of meal prep

Two of the most useful bits of kitchen equipment are the food processor and the blender. With the Ninja 3-in-1 Food Processor with Auto-IQ BN800UK you don’t have to choose which one to have, as this model comes with a 1.9-litre food processor bowl, 2.1-litre blending jug and a 700ml single-serve cup for taking drinks on the go.

There’s a powerful 1200W motor unit that powers all of the accessories, but it’s Ninja’s AutoIQ programmes that make this stand out from the crowd. What’s available changes based on what’s attached, but with the blenders you get Blend and Max Blend, and with the food processor, you get Chop, Puree and Mix. Just tap the most appropriate programme, and the food processor takes care of everything else. For fine control, there are three speeds plus a pulse control.

Exceptionally powerful, the Ninja 3-in-1 Food Processor with Auto-IQ BN800UK managed to expertly chop onions, blend a salsa, mix dough, grate cheese and crush ice. It’s also rather nifty at blended drinks, handling tough ingredients, such as pineapple and ice, with ease. Only smaller, dry ingredients are hard for it to deal with, so you might want a separate spice grinder for some situations.

With its great price and huge range of features, this is the best all-round food processor, but we have to warn you that it is very loud.

Reviewer: David Ludlow

Full review: Ninja 3-in-1 Food Processor with Auto-IQ BN800UK review

The Magimix Le Mini Plus is well priced and does most of the basics. The things you’ll miss out on from larger food processors –  the capacity for juicing, French-fry cutting and so on – are the sort of gimmicks you’re unlikely to use more than once.

This is a very neat, well-built machine, so good for those who don’t have much worktop space. The larger bowl is 1.7 litres, while the smaller one is 0.5 litres. It made light work of chopping, grating and smoothly blending ingredients together.

As with the larger Magimix 5200XL, we didn’t much like the egg whisk and there are a lot of parts to be stored. But, overall, the Mini Plus is a very good machine for the price and outperforms several models that cost quite a lot more.

Reviewer: Olly Richards

Full review: Magimix Le Mini Plus review

Most people will baulk at a price tag of around £400. The Magimix CS 5200 XL really is a more serious piece of kit than the casual cook needs, but if you are looking for a top-end machine, this is a great choice.

There are three bowls of different sizes – 3.6 litres, 2.6 litres and 1.2 litres – which makes it much easier to prepare various quantities (if you’re trying to chop tiny amounts in a large bowl it’s common for everything to just be blown to the sides).

The blades took care of everything from onions to ice in seconds, and the slicing and grating discs produced very even results. We didn’t like the egg whisk, which didn’t aerate egg whites very well, but all the other features were effective.

It would be unfair to criticise a machine for having too many features, but the 5200XL Premium has a lot of extras, such as a juicer kit, a citrus press and a French-fry cutter. These don’t come with their own storage, so be prepared to find lots of cupboard room for all the accessories.

One thing this excellent food processor lacks is the ability to manually adjust speed: it only has an ‘auto’ button. For the price, we’d have liked the option to control the speed for fine-tuning tasks. No other complaints, though.

Reviewer: Olly Richards

Full review: Magimix CS 5200XL review

Getting the food processor out to cut up a small amount of ingredients or for mixing a bit of marinade seems like an unnecessary faff. For those smaller jobs, the Cuisinart Cordless Mini Pre Pro is for you.

This cordless blender charges via USB, and then can run for 15 minutes from a single charge – that’s enough to chop 60 onions, so lasts much longer than you’d think.

It has a small 900ml bowl, with blades that are sharp on one side for chopping, and dull on the other side for grinding. Just press the clearly marked Chop or Grind buttons to get the feature that you want.

While this machine doesn’t have the power of a full-sized food processor, it easily managed to chop up an onion, made breadcrumbs and chopped herbs to make a stuffing. It was also brilliant for making marinade for Mexican cooking.

Once done, everything bar the base can go in the dishwasher, where it doesn’t take up much room. For sheer convenience, this is a great grab-and-go food processor that can handle most of those day-to-day jobs.

Review: Cuisinart Cordless Mini Prep Pro

Reviewer: David Ludlow

Hallelujah! A machine with an adjustable speed dial! We’ll forgive the Kenwood MultiPro Classic FDM790BA Food Processor a few of its shortcomings for offering the option to easily slow down or speed up a blend – a really useful feature when you’re after a specific texture.

To get the bad stuff out of the way, the build quality is not what we’d expect at this cost. The main three-litre bowl is light and thin, and the locking mechanism feels cheap. We had to keep fiddling with it to make sure it was properly in place.

On the upside, this machine looks clean and smart, and the addition of a 1.5-litre blender jug is useful, if not essential. It’s advertised as being able to cope with hot or frozen ingredients, but we’d rather the main food processor could handle that.

It does all the basics well, and the built-in scales are a lovely additional touch, meaning you can just measure everything directly into the bowl when cooking.

Reviewer: Olly Richards

Full review: Kenwood MultiPro Classic FDM790BA Food Processor review

If you’re not sure whether you should go for a food processor or a blender, the Tefal DoubleForce Pro DO824H40 multifunction food processor gives you both in one package. The base has two motor outputs: one for the blender and mini chopper, another for the bowl and citrus juicer.

A lack of guidance for first-time users detracts slightly, but we found that the DoubleForce Pro could dice, slice and chop a variety of different fruits and vegetables with ease. It also managed to whisk egg whites to a fluffy and firm texture. The citrus juicer is much harder to use, although we got a decent amount of juice.

The blender is a neat option, although when making smoothies, it didn’t cope as well as dedicated blenders. But if you only want one appliance in your kitchen, the Tefal DoubleForce Pro DO824H40 is a good all-rounder.

Reviewer: Rachel Ogden

Full review: Tefal DoubleForce Pro DO824H40 Multifunction Food Processor review

Looking for a food processor that can essentially do it all? You’d be hard-pressed to find a better appliance than the Vorwerk Thermomix TM6. Boasting over 20 modes and functions including chop, grind and whisk but also cook, fry and even caramelise.

Such a versatile food processor may seem daunting but using the TM6 is incredibly easy, thanks to its large 6.8-inch touchscreen. You can either follow the machine’s guided recipes or put the appliance in manual mode and use the display to set your own temperatures and timings. 

With its Wi-Fi integration the TM6 allows you to access the Cookidoo recipe subscription service, which is required to access some of the TM6’s cooking modes. At £40 a year, this is an extra cost to consider but we did find it to be a worthy investment.

You won’t need to rely solely on following guided cooking recipes though as manual mode offers numerous functions that are equally as impressive. Using the digital touchscreen, you can easily select which mode you’d like to use including cook, slow-cook, grind or even knead, and adjust timings and temperatures when required. 

The TM6 boasts precision too, with its integrated scales able to weigh ingredients with up to 1g accuracy and the temperature can reach and maintain 160ºC. This means you can use the TM6 to slow-cook or even cook sous-vide, which is bound to impress your family at dinner time.

It’s not just prepping and cooking that the TM6 makes lightwork of, but even cleaning up is easy. With the handy pre-clean/after-clean mode, simply use water and a touch of washing up liquid to clean even the most stubborn of baked on foods. All included tools, apart from the base unit, are dishwasher safe too.

It’s worth noting this is far from being the cheapest appliance out there but as it’s incredibly versatile and boasts multiple functions, it’s definitely worth the investment if you want to upgrade your kitchen. 

Reviewer: David Ludlow

Full review: Vorwerk Thermomix TM6