Best Small Food Processor for Two People

Question

I am just cooking for me and my spouse. I have a Vitamix for smoothies but I assume that is not the same thing as having a food processor for processing herbs and garlic and vegies or other items. Any recommendations for what small, relatively inexpensive food processor to buy? I am not a fancy chef.

Lynn Clark · Accepted Answer

We don't do equipment reviews here at Milk Street but we couldn't live without our food processors! A food processor is great for prepping vegetables, grating cheese, chopping nuts, and making doughs. The food processors we use at Milk Street are in the 10 to 14-cup capacity range. This size is great for large-quantity pestos, like our Peruvian Pesto, and for shredding vegetables like the carrots in our French Carrot Salad. A small food processor (under 6 cups) is technically considered a food chopper, rather than a food processor. This means it will be able to chop small amounts of vegetables, make sauces, dressings, marinades, and bread crumbs, but will not come with a slicing or grating blade (like we use for the French Carrot Salad) and the work bowl will be too small to make doughs and larger volumes of sauces. If a food chopper does meet your needs, you'll want to look for one in the 3 1/2 - 4 cup range that includes a feeding tube for best performance. There are only a few out there that have a feeding tube in this size range and you should be able to find one for $40-$50. In order to get all of the features of a true food processor you would need to go up to at least an 8-cup capacity food processor. Personally,  I have an 8-cup food processor which is considered pretty small by most people's standards. Sometimes I have to work in batches, but it generally performs most tasks I need it to and includes a slicing and grating disk. I think this size would still be under $100 and doesn't take up too much space on the countertop. Good luck and thanks for writing us! Best, Lynn C.

Best Small Food Processor for Two People

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