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This little Cuisinart Food Chopper 250-watt workhorse comes in handy when a full-size food processor is unnecessary. The 3-cup work bowl is just right for making pesto or a salad dressing, and two receptacles in the lid have pinholes for one or two oils to stream into the bowl while the processor is blending a perfect emulsion. It’s also ideal for chopping and grinding. Pressing the “chop” button deploys the sharp edge of Cuisinart’s patented reversible blade to chop onions, herbs, or bread crumbs. Pressing the “grind” button whirls the blade in the other direction so its blunt side can grind nuts, coffee beans, or cheese. Compact at just 9 inches high and lightweight (it has a plastic body), the Mini Prep Plus can be tucked away in a cabinet, and the little spatula accompanying it goes into a drawer. It carries an 18-month warranty against defects. The plastic work bowl and lid are dishwasher-safe, but the stainless-steel blade should be hand washed to protect its edges.
Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini Prep Plus Food Processor Features
- 250-watt food processor with 3-cup plastic work bowl
- Chops and grinds with patented reversible stainless-steel blade
- Simple push-button control panel; durable, yet lightweight plastic body
- Dishwasher-safe bowl and lid for quick cleanup; spatula included
- Measures approximately 8 by 5 by 9 inches; 18-month limited warranty
Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini Prep Plus Food Processor Reviews
I love my MiniPrep, it’s a great help!
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.
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.
so… you want a food processor?
I have the Mini-Prep and I have the big guy version, but I use the MP 10x as much. It does everything! Want chopped garlic? peel a couple heads, add 2-3T of olive oil and about a 1/4-1/2tsp. of salt. It keeps in a jar in the fridge and tastes a heck of a lot better than the store kind! Fresh herbs, nuts, peppers without burning hands…it’s great! When I’m done, I just rinse it out. This is my favorite appliance after my blender, and if this made smoothies and margaritas, it would be my favorite!
