PrintFood Processors
I finally splurged for a food processor and am looking for recipes to play with my new toy this weekend. Any suggestions--besides mac and cheese?
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22 Comments:
I recently treated myself to a food processor, too. I have enjoyed making hummus, empanada dough, pesto, salsa, and potatoes au gratin (potatoes, onions, cheese - all on the slicing blade.)
I love being able to throw a handful of fresh herbs into a salad dressing instead of chopping the leaves by hand.
SSMom at 12:56PM on 03/08/08
You won't believe how easy it is to make yeast bread dough in a food processor!
Your instruction book may have some recipes, and many bread cook books now provice food processor instructions.
srhcb at 1:05PM on 03/08/08
pesto is amazingly easy. just throw in a couple of garlic cloves, salt, pepper, a big handful of basil leaves and another of parmesan cut into small chunks, a handful of toasted pine nuts, and start your engines. use the pulse. drizzle in just enough olive oil to make it cohere. pulse it until it's something in between a paste and chunky.
cybercita at 1:33PM on 03/08/08
The Italiancookingandliving.com Basic Foccacia recipe is a great food-processor yeast bread. It's as follows:
1 lb-2 oz beard flour
2 tsp yeast
1 TB kosher salt
2 TB olive oil
warm water
put the bread flour in to the processor bowl. add the yeast to one side of the bowl, and the kosher salt on the other. pulse it a couple of times to blend the dry ingredients. Then, with the processor running, add the olive oil, and then enough warm water (about 3/4 cup, maybe a little more) to make a soft dough. process the dough untol it forms a nice ball and clings together. then follow the rising and proofing you normally would for yeast breadds. after you pan the dough, dimple it with you fingers. brush it with a mixture of olive oil, water, and herbs. bake it at 450 until it's done.
beth1 at 2:54PM on 03/08/08
Pie dough!
LoCo at 3:01PM on 03/08/08
Thanks for the suggestions!...All things considered it looks like the food processor may not change my life after all...Instead, it will replace my blender and mandolin (which have ably gotten me by) in many tasks. Still I look forward to using it for tasks old and new.
JojoK at 3:11PM on 03/08/08
Olive tapinaude,it is fabulous
GeneR46 at 3:17PM on 03/08/08
When I bought my Cuisinart (22 years or so ago) I bought a bag of carrots and a bag of onions with the intention to play with them. Learn the machine. Pulse, shred, etc. (You'd be surprised how fast onions become onion juice...)
I don't ever make bread dough in the FP because the blade breaks the gluten strands you've worked so hard to create. If anything, do the dough at the very beginning stages - but knead by hand for at least 10 minutes.
Salsa is quickly made in the FP - as is hummus.
chiff0nade at 5:00PM on 03/08/08
Piecrust! Tart crust! Financiers! Stuff with ground nuts!
Before getting one I was excluded from the land of homemade financiers/meringue/biscotti/macarons without buying almond flour. Much love.
Or if you're less of a sweet freak, you can make awesome sauces and dips - try homemade pesto or peanut sauce or just chop up produce and watch it do the rest :)
jazzinx at 8:19PM on 03/08/08
Process sweet smoked paprika and sel gris together for a great steak seasoning.
Also, processing breadcrumbs with herbs like chervil, parsley, etc makes the crumbs green, and they stay that way during cooking as a topping for fish or whatever.
You can make compound butters. Try softening crystalized ginger in warm water or rice wine, then pureeing with softened butter and chilling. Then you can use the butter to finish pan sauces for fish or pork.
zapatista at 8:37PM on 03/08/08
Hummus, nut butters, pesto and pie crusts.
frederika at 12:34AM on 03/09/08
I second the salsas, salad dressings, and breadcrumbs. Make homemade breadcrumbs and you'll NEVER go back to the canned kind! They freeze well too. Actually you probably won't go back to bottled salsa or salad dressing either!
Shredding cabbage and cheese is a breeze, slicing potatoes for chips or scalloped potatoes takes seconds!
Also pie dough comes together so fast in your FP. I keep my crisco and butter frozen so I can always whip up dough in minutes.
One of my favorite Cooks Illustrated tips is to cover your bowl with plastic wrap (obviously if you aren't using the feed tube) before puting the lid on, then you don't have to clean the top when done, just wash out the bowl.
Enjoy your new "toy!" I use mine at least 5 times a week I love my "Choppa" lots!
bobcatsteph3 at 12:49AM on 03/09/08
I used my food processor for the very first time this week (it's been in its box for more than 6 months now, LOL)... and I think I'm in love. I made Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake and frosting in it, and it was so easy!
Lorraine at 7:57AM on 03/09/08
Not long after I got mine, I made one of those Provencal pizza-like tarts, pissaladiere.The pastry-like crust went in, the onions to be sauteed a long time went in, and the cheese for the top went in. The metal blade, the slicer and the shredder all got a workout. About the only component that didn't touch the processor was the anchovies. Oh, you'll have a great time.
lemons at 11:48AM on 03/09/08
Fresh salsa is my favorite thing to make in my food processor.
Take 2 pounds of tomatoes, 1 half-dozen jalapenos, 1 white onion and 1 green bell pepper, slice them in half and put them in the smoker for about an hour.
Put all of the veggies from the smoker in the food processor with cilantro, a couple tablespoons of minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Blend until you have the desired consistency and serve.
PhotoKirk at 12:48PM on 03/09/08
I used my food processor for the very first time this week (it's been in its box for more than 6 months now, LOL)...
@ Lorraine...I did exactly the same thing. I was wrist deep in a bowl of chop meat for meatballs and gravy when I said, "Why not use the FP!???" If you really finesse it you can use the FP to work chop meat for meat balls (and it teaches you effective pulsing!!). As said earlier, I never looked back and used the blasted thing for everything I possibly could.
chiff0nade at 11:43AM on 03/10/08
Cheesecake filling whizzes up great in the food processor. No pesky cream cheese lumps.
aharste at 5:23PM on 03/10/08
I love to make biscuits in mine. In fact, my Kitchen Aid FP came with a recipe for parmesan cheese biscuits that I made on a lark one day and my family LOVED them! The FP is also a great tool for making a carrot cake from scratch, chopping the nuts, shredding the carrots and mixing the batter.
I most often break out my FP to make a bread crumb/parmesan cheese mixture. First I'll drop in a clove or two of garlic with the machine running to mince the garlic. Then I'll drop in a couple cubes of parmesan or romano cheese and let the machine pulverize. Then I'll throw in cubes of bread and let the machine go until I get the right size crumbs. Add in herbs and fresh cracked pepper and a tablespoon or so of EVOO and you've got the easiest gratin topping ever.
Otabenga at 5:23PM on 03/10/08
You guys are great! Years ago I used to make hummus in my blender, then I got lazy, and..well...I made it again in my new FP and loved it. I had forgotten how much better/fresher/more economical than store bought homemade hummus is . I also made homemade mac and cheese--Ina's grown up version (didn't love it), and bread crumbs, and now I can't wait to make salsa and some of the other suggestions you've all given--biscuits, pie dough, carrot cake, etc. ! I don't need to leave the house for weeks...other than to go to the grocery store....
JojoK at 9:36PM on 03/10/08
I'm gonna have to breakdown and get one too. I made a bolognese sauce not too long ago (Tyler Florence's recipe), and it took so long! Had to do everything in batches.
BITTER at 11:10PM on 03/10/08
srhcb (or anyone)- could you recommend a good cookbook or recipe for food processor bread dough. I have attempted two versions and was not happy with either. The first was a recipe that came with my Kitchen Aid FP it had eggs in it and was more cake-like than bread-like. The second was the Bon Appetite recipe for french bread or rolls -- I made rolls and they never rose properly (I proofed the yeast) the birds wouldn't even eat these things. I would love to find a great recipe. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
lakeloverhh at 10:46AM on 03/11/08
If you like pie, you might want to try this recipe.
hereandthe at 10:50AM on 03/12/08