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Food processor vs blender: Which gear offers better performance?

Food processor vs blender: What are their differences? Oftentimes, many people don’t know the difference between a food processor and a blender, because at first glance when they come across both, they surely look alike as a result of their similarities, such as the motorized body with several buttons, rotating blades, clear bodies and more. But that doesn’t mean they are interchangeable.

If you are here to know the difference between a blender and a food processor, then you are definitely at the right place to know it all. In this article, we shall talk about the functions of blenders and food processors. And also see how they differ from one another.

What more? We are also going to compare both gears in a side-by-side analysis, to be certain which one offers more functionality between blenders and food processors. To begin, let’s see the difference between the two kitchen gears.

What’s the difference between a food processor and blender?

The duty of blenders and food processors are meant to lighten up the workload and make food preparation easier. Both kitchen appliances use blades and motors to accomplish their tasks and they are one of the essential kitchen gadgets, but the particular mechanisms are different, which for that reason, they can’t be interchangeable. Although like we mentioned earlier, those kitchen appliances look similar in designs and functions, but they defer in purpose enough which is something that should move you to want to know the difference between food processor vs blender.

Below is what a blender and food processor are.

What is a blender?

what is food blender 1 food processor vs blender
Blender

Blenders, as its name suggests, are kitchen appliances used in mixing, puréeing, or emulsifying food and other solid or liquid substances.

Just like a food processor, blenders are typically designed to have four(4) components: a motorised base, a set of blades which are removable and interchangeable, a lid and a pitcher.

On a blender’s base are functional buttons for configuration of your desired blending purpose, it can include speed and mix settings. In a blender are rotating blades screw onto the bottom of the pitcher, so they’re easy to remove for cleaning. Blender the lid fits snugly to the top of the pitcher and can be equipped with a removable plug. The removable plug allows you to remove the plug so you can add more ingredients as you blend.

Typically, most blender pitchers are conical in shapes, with handles and spouts for easy pouring of substance.

Blenders are most often used to puree fruits or vegetables for smoothies and soups. If what you are about doing involves liquid, then a blender is what you need. The conical structure of their pitchers is great at directing ingredients towards the blades. As the liquids and solids substance blend, they rotate, creating a downward-moving vortex that effectively ensures all unblended particles are shredded and combined.

However, having said all those wonderful things which might have started making you love blenders, there’s a downside. The drawback is that, when the substance in the pitcher is filled to its brim, they tend not to function properly. That’s to say, most recipes you are about blending would require to fill the blender only three-quarter full so that the would-be enough room for ingredients to move freely to prevent overflowing while blending. Also, blender blades have a limited reach, and without a liquid, they tend not to handle dry ingredients perfectly well as expected.

There are three major types of blenders, the regular (counter-top) blenders, high-speed (counter-top) blenders, and immersion (hand) blenders.

Immersion Blenders & Personal Blenders

in the above guide about what blenders are, we’ve treated the general feature of a food blender, which includes the parts and uses of it. But just as we’ve also make you understand that there are 3 different types of blenders of which the immersion blender happens to be one among those three. Immersion blender is a handheld device that allow you to press a set of small, rotating blades down into a container of ingredients and blend them as you go. Personal blender is a small blender that allows you to mix smoothies one serving at a time and drink them right out of the pitcher.

High speed blenders

High speed blenders are blender with one unit with many different operational modes and is often more capable than an average blender. They are design to be versatile and able to handle multiple substance. Typically high-speed blenders comes with a 1000+ watts motor with a reinforced sharp blades and are meant to feature an extra large jar. Vitamix is a professional high-speed blender. If you should walk into a smoothie bar or a coffee shop, you will most likely find a Vitamix blender making the drink you keep coming back for. This powerful machine will pulverize just about anything you put into it.

What is a food processor?

food processor 1 food processor vs blender
Food processor

Food processors are electrical appliances that allows you to quickly slice through thicker and more substantial foods in a variety of ways such as chopping, shredding and mixing dough that would taken you much longer time to complete manually.

A food processors typically have four parts: a base, a clear plastic body, a set of removable blades, and a lid. Food processors have speed and pulse controls located on their bases. A food processor’s body is wide and spacious, which allows it to accommodate larger recipes. It lids are equipped with tall feed chutes that allow you to add ingredients while mixing.

Food processors has larger blade which are positioned at two different angles of the processor machine. The bottom blade scrapes the base and the top blade chops things from above, those blades are designed for pulverizing solid food into smaller pieces.

Food processor however is not a perfect kitchen gadget for processing liquid like ingredients but with its wide and flat bowl, thus it makes it an ideal one for processing drier ingredients without having to worry about it spinning out. Aside that, it also comes with additional accessories such as shredder blade and slicing discs, which allows it to accomplish a number of labor intensive tasks

when to use blender vs. food processor

food processor vs blender, which is better?
food processor vs blender

When to use a high-speed blender:

Blending: if you are looking to perform just about any type of classic blending task, such as making smoothies, plant milks, soups, sauces, dressings, and purees, then you’ll need a high-speed blender. High speed blenders are also great for thick blends, such as frozen desserts, icy drinks, nut butters, dips, and spreads.

Crushing: if you are thinking of tossing an ice cream and crushing it in few seconds, then you’ll surely need an high-speed blender. As a regular blender might find it difficult to perform such strenuous task. Shaving and crushing ice is sure not an easy task, 

Grinding: if you are looking to grind nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains into flour then you will surely need a high speed blender, as it can be tricky with a standard blender to perform sKneading. Well, most blenders are not designed for grinding hard grains and legumes as they will dull the blades and wear the motor out quicker than desired. So opt-in for a high-speed blender if you’d be performing such task.

When to use a food processor:

Food processors are best used when chopping, grating, shredding and slicing. One of what makes a food processor stand out from the blender is that unlike the blender which can’t slice, food processors are very good at slicing due to the fact that it as an adjustable slicing disks that allow you to evenly slice and grate ingredients.

Kneading: you might have come across blenders make pastries batters in need of aeration, but that doesn’t make it cool as it could only perform such little task, but if you are thing of mixing dough such as the one required for bread, biscuits, pie crust, etc, then you surely need a food processor to perform such tougher task. Kitchen aid food processors are perfect example of food processor that is recommended.

Mixing: whenever you are looking to blend your recipes like pesto, chunky salsa, homemade energy balls, snack bars, raw pie crusts, cookie dough, etc. but do not want to achieve a smooth one, then a food processor should be the best kitchen gadget for such.

Can you use a blender as a substitute for a food processor?

From our review above about when to use blender vs. food processor, you can see that definitely not, you can’t substitute a food processor for a blender, vice versa, because, blenders are meant for blending, grinding and crushing of substance. They are better of used for soup making, pureeing, smoothies and dressing. Its also cool for but butter, etc.

On the otherhand, food processors are for design for mixing and kneading of substance. They are better of used for nut butter, chopping and mincing of vegetables, shredding cheese and cool for dough kneading.

If you are looking for a good processor for dough mixing, you may want to take a look at our recommended list of best food processors for dough kneading.

Food processor or blender: which is better?

Actually, from our detailed reviews on food processor vs blender differences you might be curious to know which better, i’d say, no one is better as they are both good in there own ways. But if you are to ask in food processor vs blender which do you need? Then I’d say, its base on your needs as blender is a better option for items with a lot of liquid, like smoothies and soups, while food processor is best suited for foods that are mainly solid and require more labor intensive handling, such as chopping and slicing.

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