As any chef will attest to, you can’t prepare food without chopping things up. Whether you’re cutting up carrots, slicing through steak or mincing up mushrooms, every dish starts with chopping. In the past this meant spending hours hunched over a chopping board. But the advances in kitchen technology mean there are a range of appliances which will dice up your dinner in no time.
What are kitchen choppers?
Choppers are essentially compact food processors designed to slice up small quantities of food. These simplified models typically include a single sharp blade powerful enough to render ingredients into wet paste or simply cube it up depending on the dish. Choppers tend to have a limited number of settings and functions so are suited to specific tasks. With a standard capacity of around 500ml, kitchen choppers are ideal for creating accompaniment dishes such as salsa or hummus. Of course as their name suggests, they excel at chopping and are a go-to for prepping onions, herbs and nuts.
Read our guide to the five health benefits of eating hummus.
What can you use a kitchen chopper for?
These electrical whizzers are fantastic at taking the work our of fiddly chopping tasks such as mincing garlic, grating cheese or blitzing up breadcrumbs. It can also be used to whip up a plethora of sauces, dips and purees. These lightweight models are great for putting together garnishes or side dishes quickly without having to get out your food processor. There are even some cordless electric choppers on the market for those with limited space, as well as a number of manual models.
What is the difference between a chopper and a blender?
Aside from the obvious difference in size, a chopper differs from a food processor in that is has fewer functions and is more suited to making deliberate cuts and wedges on specific foods such as vegetables. While food processors often include a selection of blades for different cuts, choppers usually have a single blade so there is less control. Choppers are particularly efficient at salad and vegetable prep and are useful for making smaller amounts of chopped ingredients quickly and easily.
What kind of chopper should I buy?
This depends on what you will be using your chopper for. If you plan on mostly using it for chopping up salads and slicing vegetables, a basic model will suit your needs. If you plan to use it in place of a food processor to save space, look for a model with multiple speed settings and features such as pouring lips.