To help you find the best food choppers for all your kitchen prep, we sent top-rated choppers to our experienced product tester. Each one was carefully assessed during hours of home kitchen testing and used to chop nuts, garlic, and various vegetables. Then, the food choppers were all rated on design, ease of use, size, ease of cleaning, convenience, overall effectiveness, and overall value.
Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International cuisinart toaster costco Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade.
A little spoon hangs on the side of the chopper, so you can use it to scoop out a little of the chopped item or to scrape all of it out and into your pot or bowl. The chopper cup is actually two pieces—an inner cup that holds the food, and an outer shroud. If the inner cup is removed, the chopper can be used with just the shroud on a cutting board. This unit holds about two cups, so it’s plenty for making a bowl of salsa or prepping onions for a recipe. The lid lifts off easily, so emptying it and reloading with more vegetables is a breeze. The lid is not dishwasher safe, and should not be immersed in water when washing by hand.
And Cuisinart’s food processors have a solid reputation for overall durability—anecdotally, we know of some that have lasted for decades. The Cuisinart has a strong motor and a heavy base (roughly 18 pounds with the bowl on) that keeps it stable. Though its 750-watt motor is less powerful than those on some other models we tested, such as the 1,200-watt Breville Sous Chef (our upgrade pick), this didn’t negatively affect the Cuisinart’s performance. Making pizza dough was our most motor-intensive test, and the Custom 14 kneaded it effortlessly, without wiggling across the counter like some other processors we tried.
Additionally, the revolutionary BladeLock System keeps the blade secure during processing and pouring. Including three different bowls, this Ninja set allows you to make everything from salsa to smoothies. There is a 6-cup pitcher for smoothies and frozen cocktails, a 5-cup processor bowl for hummus and other cuisinart choppers dips, and a 2-cup chopper for dicing vegetables. Both the processor bowl and the chopper have four blades as opposed to two, meaning they are more efficient than most models. This set even comes with storage lids, so you can conveniently store leftovers in the fridge — no additional container required.