Cuisinart DLC-2BK Mini Prep Plus Food Processor, Black
From Cuisinart
Offering high and low speeds , the Cuisinart DLC-2BK Mini-Prep has dishwasher safe parts, including the Smart Blade - sharp blade moves one way to slice and dice, reverses for blunt blade that crushes and grinds. The 21 ounce transparent bowl is also dishwasher safe and the set includes recipes and a spatula for scraping every last morsel from the bowl. Cuisinart offers an 18-month limited warranty on the Mini-Prep.
This little 220-watt workhorse conveniently steps up when a big food processor is unnecessary. Making pesto or a salad dressing? The 21-ounce bowl is just the right size, and two receptacles in the lid have pinholes for one or two oils to stream into the bowl while the processor is working, providing excellent emulsification. Chopping onions, herbs, or bread crumbs? Press the "chop" button and Cuisinart's patented reversible blade employs its sharp edge to do the job right. Grinding cheese or nuts? Press the "grind" function and the blade's blunt edge takes on the task. Compact at just 8-1/2 inches high, with a lightweight plastic body, the Mini Prep Plus can be tucked away in a cupboard. The plastic bowl and lid are dishwasher-safe, but the stainless-steel blade should be hand washed to protect its edge. --Fred Brack
Great Performance But!
I am very happy with the performance of this food processor but the quality of the bowl seems to be a little suspicious. Scratches are very visible only after a few weeks of use. For 40 bucks, I would hope the plastic to be of a little better quality. No problem with the performance though and of course performance is more important - that's whi I still give it 4 stars.
Great at Fine Chop to Puree - not good if you want a coarse chop
I got this as a gift from my boyfriend and have been using it regularly. This is one of those things that you don't think you ever need (and I did give this topic extensive thought), but once you have it, you would really miss it.
The good is that it is really good at FINELY chopping things.
The bad is that it is really good at FINELY chopping things.
Keeping this in mind, I've learnt when to use and when to just use my knife. For instance, when chopping walnuts for banana bread, I put a cup of walnuts into the processor and hit "Chop" - it immediately chopped the walnuts into good sized chunks, but there was a couple of walnuts that didn't get cut yet, so I hit the "Chop" button a couple more times, but that turned the rest of the walnuts to a very small almost "powder" consistency. I tried it again, with about the same results. I guess I could try putting in less walnuts at a time, but then that would defeat the purpose of "less work" since I'd have to put in a small amount, chop, dump out the first batch, repeat. It's much easier in this case to do a coarse chop with knife. Chopping Mushrooms in this device also was lacking, it kind of made a mushroom puree.
Where it shines though is in my daily meals where I'm making some kind of pan sauce. Just about all my pan sauces or pan meals start with butter/oil, then saute'ing some garlic and onions. I'll just peel a few cloves of garlic, coarse chop an onion, dump it all into the MiniPrep, and presto, it's done! When I'm ready to dump it into my pan, just remove the co, remove the blade and use a mini-silicone spatula to dump the contents directly into the pan. A quick rinse of the lid, blade, and work bowl, and the processor can be put away. That can't be any easier.
For larger meals and more ingredients, it's great to just coarsely chop your items, dump into the processor, let it do it's work, and then fill up your prep bowls with the different ingredients - making everything easier once you're cooking.
I find the "Chop" and "Grind" feature to be pretty much the same thing, just in opposite directions. The opposite direction thing is helpful to get the food to drop down to the blade. If you don't put too much in the processor, once the piece is chopped, it gets flung to the sides of the work bowl and sticks there, creating empty space for the unchopped foods to drop into the blade. Everything gets chopped evenly...it just gets chopped very finely too.
The entire unit is very easy to use and clean. The blades are extremely sharp, so be careful when washing those. The clear plastic work bowl does get a little scratched up and not so clear anymore after a bit of use...but then, it's a work bowl. The buttons are under a protective plastic, sealed - so no chance of anything getting under the buttons, just a quick wipe and it's clean!
Overall, the unit is small, solid, quiet, easy to use, and easy to clean. It's great for fine chops to puree, not so great for coarse chops/dice. Perfect size for meals for 2 people. For making larger meals you may want to look at the larger cup sized processors, or just make a couple of batches.
Excellent appliance for small quantities
Here are some of the things that I have used this for: dressings for salads; fresh breadcrumbs; dry breadcrumbs; chopping nuts; chopping fresh or dried herbs; grinding spices; pureeing fruit; chopping olives for tapanade; chopping garlic; making gravy and sauces -- the list goes on.
This chopper has replaced my mortar and pestle, and sometimes replaces my knife if I'm feeling lazy. Holds about a cup or so of dry or wet ingredients. Has holes in lid to add oil to vinaigrette.
I bought this in 2001 and it is surviving frequent use. Bowl and knife are dishwasher proof. Body wipes clean easily. Has a useful cord storage in the bottom of the body.
I'm not too sure the difference between "grind" and "chop" but I have used both functions with success. One is clockwise the other is counterclockwise, so this is useful for clearing jammed pieces of food or whatever. Alternating chop and grind can help make uniform food.
