Cuisinart DLC-2BK Mini Prep Plus Food Processor, Black
by Cuisinart
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Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart DLC-2BK Mini Prep Plus Food Processor, Black
Customer Review: Perfect for Baby food
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this processor for the sole purpose of making homemade baby food and I am not disappointed. This processor is wonderful. It only has 2 settings, chop and grind. I use grind generally, but hit the chop button now and then to stir what I'm grinding and get any thicker pieces that may have just been swirled around (I haven't seen this happen, but just in case!). I also have a mini-chopper for onions, garlic, etc and I'm thinking about tossing it and just using this one. And clean-up is a breeze. Rinse or not and pop it in the dishwasher! This is perfect if you want to make baby food or puree anything to a super-smooth consistancy.Customer Review: Best $20 i've ever spent
Summary: 5 Stars
i bought this several years ago, when i planted some basil, with the intention of using it specifically for pesto. Since then, i've gone through 3 basil plants (and delicious pesto), had a baby (made baby food), and now use this machine regularly to chop nuts, garlic, onions, puree tomatoes... this machine is fab! Its simple construction, easy to use and clean, and very hard wearing. I've been impressed.Customer Review: Fabulous for Baby Food!
Summary: 5 Stars
Small and easy to use. The instruction book is one that you can and will actually read and refer to! I dumped canned fruit into it and within 45 seconds I had baby food. It is saving us lots of money!Customer Review: Cuisinart Mini Food Processor
Summary: 5 Stars
For small quantities, this gadget does a great job and is easy to use and clean.Customer Review: Great at Fine Chop to Puree - not good if you want a coarse chop
Summary: 4 Stars
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.