LINK to Cuisinart 14-cup Food Processor: amzn.to/2jj7ewE Hi Guys, today I’m reviewing the Cuisinart 14-Cup food processor in brushed stainless steel. It measures 15 inches tall and 10 inches deep and 7.5 inches wide. It weighs about 18.4 pounds so it is heavy. You’re not going to want to move this around often. A food processor this size is best for people who do a lot of slicing, shredding and cooking in general.
The housing is plastic. The design is elegant, sleek and simple. There are two levers, one to turn on and process continuously and one to pulse and turn off the unit.
This food processor comes with the housing base, 14-cup work bowl, cover with extra large feed tube, small and large pushers, 4 mm stainless steel slicing disc, medium stainless steel shredding disc, detachable stem that fits both discs, stainless steel blade for chopping/mixing and dough, a plastic spatula and instruction manual with recipes.
To put the unit together, place the work bowl on the base and turn to lock. If you’re chopping, insert the blade, place your ingredients in the bowl and turn the cover, press the pusher assembly down to lock it into place.
To test the unit, I’ll make dough, hummus, puree, mince,slice and shred vegetables. First I’ll mince onions. I’ve got the blade in the bowl, cut up three beautiful red onions into 1 inch pieces. Put the cover on, insert the pusher assembly, lock it. I’ll use the off/pulse lever. Just press and release. When the blade stops, the food drops to the bottom of the bowl and goes through the blade when it starts up again. If you want bigger pieces of onion, you can stop here. If you want finely minced onion, keep going a few times. That’s beautifully and evenly minced. Whenever you’re chopping onions, tomatoes or anything with a lot of water, watch the bowl because it can quickly turn into a puree. To mince these three onions with a knife, it would have taken a lot longer. I love mincing onions finely especially when making curry. Next I’ll puree tomatoes to make fresh sauce. For a quick from scratch marinara, I mince onions, celery and carrots in the processor, sautee that and puree fresh tomatoes in here. This is 6 plum tomatoes cut up into 1 inch pieces. I’ll pulse then use the on lever to puree. The food processor makes it so quick to make your own sauce at home and you can control the ingredients that go into it so it’s much healthier.
Next I’ll make hummus. Put 3 cloves of garlic in. Turn the machine on. Now I’ll add 3 cans of drained chickpeas or garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt. Pulse a few times, then switch to ON. Let it go until smooth adding water through the feed tube if necessary. Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle paprika. The hummus is so smooth and creamy. It was also extremely quick to make. If you’re having a lot of people over especially during the holidays, the food processor will definitely cut down on your prep time.
Next I’ll make pie dough. 2.5 cups flour, 2 sticks unsalted butter, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar 6 - 8 tbsps ice water. Make sure your butter is cut up and extremely cold. Put the metal blade in the bowl. Put the flour, salt and sugar and butter in the processor. Pulse a few times until the dough is a little crumbly. Add a few tbsps ice water through the top and pulse until dough starts clumping together. Don’t over process it or let it ball up. Take it out and form a ball, divide it in half, press into a disk, wrap it up and refrigerate it. That’s how quick it is to make your own pie dough. You can also make pizza dough really quickly in the processor.
Next, I’ll use the slicing disc. Insert the stem into the disc, turn and lock. Put the stem in the middle, put the cover on. I’ve taken the stem off two bell peppers. Leave the bottom intact, put it in the feed tube, put the pusher assembly on and hold down the off/pulse lever, let it go once the pepper is sliced. The slices are even and round. This is great on top of pizza.
I’ve quartered a head of cabbage and taken the core out. Place the cabbage inside the feed tube. The pusher assembly has the small pusher in place. Put the pusher assembly in the feed tube and push down to lock. Press down on the off/pulse lever and let go when the cabbage is finished. That was done in 3 seconds which is super fast. This is perfect for coleslaw or just sauteed cabbage.