My beloved mini-food processor seems to be careening to the end of it’s road. I use this thing nearly every day and it has served me well for at least 4 years. I think my mom might have bought it for me to make baby food in? It is a Cusinart brand. Before I re-buy, I wanted to see if anyone had a strong recommendation. I have an immersion blender but always reach for the mini-food processor instead.
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I love the Cuisinart mini-prep, but I had two in a row become useless for the same reason - the inside of the blade cylinder got stripped and wouldn’t spin properly anymore. I couldn’t find a good alternative, so I broke down and got the Amazon Basics 4-cup. It serves me pretty well.
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Are you happy with the Amazon one? That was something I was considering.
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I am, for the most part, except that its footprint is (obviously) bigger, and it doesn’t process a small amount of whatever very well. However much scraping down the sides you did with the mini-prep, double it.
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I also have a cuisinart. I like it alot.
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I love the mini FP that came with my Braun IB - so much so that I bought another whole one for a different size. I also have the cuisinart mini, but it’s a rare use.
What do you use your mini FP for?
The new Brauns have two bowl sizes - the larger one does a very fine chop perfectly. The smaller one gets to a paste (though the IB itself will so that too). Plus a range of other accessories that are good too (balloon whisk etc).
I also have a magic bullet which I bought “just to see” but found very useful for a narrow range of tasks - I use it when I want a full purée. The IB can get that done too, but for indian chutneys or curry pastes, the MB is my go-to.
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Let’s see. If I have to mince more than 2 cloves of garlic, I use that. I like to mince up garlic/ginger for stir fries or garlic/shallots/onions for the base for other stuff. Lots of quick sauces too. Last night, I made a lemon, garlic, cilantro sauce for pork. Toss everything in the mini food processor and boom sauce! I also make fake ice cream with either frozen mango or frozen banana (or both). Add a little milk, it is a perfect cold treat without a ton of calories. I ate this nearly every night when I was pregnant.
What else… I’m constantly on the quest to squeeze more vegetables into my 3 year old’s diet. I’ll take the stems of broccoli (which she refuses to eat anyway) and gets them soft by steaming, then make a puree with those for broccoli with pasta.
I might have a crappy IB too but it never felt powerful enough and makes a mess! (might be a user problem there) I have a serious food processor with two bowls but it is huge and then washing it in the dishwasher takes up most of the top rack.
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Ok, then I’d get a Braun - my mom got me my first one when they were just introduced in the US maybe 20y ago? Only 200W but you would never know it.
They have a few lines now, with more powerful motors, and more accessories. 5 series, 7 series, 9 series. The accessories are common between the 5 & 7. The 9 is souped up, but I don’t know that it’s necessary.
They come with either the small or large chopper, but you can buy the other. If you look on Amazon, they have some excellent package deals with accessories.
You have to play with which bit gets your optimal result - for eg I puree soft things with the IB stick in a jar or glass (or soup directly in the pot), but I’ll start anything like ginger-garlic-onion type bases in the small chopper - sometimes I’ll make double to help the blades move, and keep the rest for another day.
I think you’ll be fine with frozen fruit, but not ice. For that you want something like a nutribullet - but then that doesn’t do a good job of chopping/mincing, and it the blades need more quantity and/or liquid to move.
ETA: Looks like they’ve run low on Amazon stock. Hope it’s sold elsewhere too…
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Awesome, thank you! I’ll look into it.
I don’t do ice, just frozen fruit and sometimes I even pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds to help it along.
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Braun immersion blenders are sold in quite a few places - just make sure you’re getting the model you wanted with the attachments you wanted, because they often package the same model with different attachments just to keep you on your toes, AND the packaging basically looks the same for all models. Same thing for their other products too.
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Did you have this one? You killed it? lol This is my second in about 20+ years it get’s moderate use weekly, this current one my mother purchased me and I’m scared for the day it stops working. I actually just bought a newer larger but similar style to help take some of the work load off of it. I forget the brand of the larger one. Can’t believe you killed it!!! lol
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Listen. First, it’s not dead yet and if I can figure out how to replace just the blade I WILL! But, it seems like extreme overuse has made cracks in the plastic holding the blade together and I’m terrified that I will need to mince garlic by hand!
Second, it seems you too are scared for that sad day when our beloved mini food processors will go sailing off to heaven. To be joined with my other favorite appliances including Cuisinart food processor (RIP - 2020) and a spice grinder (RIP 2018).
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This is exactly what happened to (two of) mine. And replacement blades cost almost as much as a new appliance.
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Crazy isn’t it!
It was quite disappointing, and it made me not want to get another Cuisinart, despite how much I liked my mini-preps (before they broke).
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The reason I bought the second Braun is that the plastic part of the mini chopper blade came loose from the steel cylinder that connects it to the IB motor, and a whole new set (on eBay at the time) cost less than just a new chopper attachment 
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Try ebay?
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I should learn to fix things. Like how in Cuba people got good at keeping ancient cars running 'cause that’s all they had.
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In India too - there are largely uneducated guys who are experts at fixing machines like these - so blenders and things like that would be owned for decades upon decades with just a change in part here and there.
Labor cost makes it prohibitive I think.
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I can live with the cost. I just hate throwing stuff away that mostly works.
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