The 7 Best Vegetable Choppers for Faster Food Prep, According to Our Tests

Best Overall Electric

Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor

$40 at Amazon $40 at Williams-Sonoma $40 at Sur La Table

Our Ratings

• Design
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Size
  4/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  5/5
• Convenience
  4/5

Made by Cuisinart, the Mini-Prep Plus looks and functions similarly to a food processor, featuring two settings that are operable with the touch of a button: chop and grind. The "chop" setting uses the sharp side of the S-shaped blade, which makes it ideal for softer foods like herbs and onions, while the "grind" setting uses the blunt side of the blade — designed to be used with harder foods like peppercorns or hard cheeses. Its three-cup bowl also comes with a locking lid that features holes to add liquid or oils. Equipped with a 240-watt motor, it's both powerful and speedy, and it can even handle weightier tasks like grating room-temperature parmesan cheese. (But be warned that this can wear out the motor if done too frequently!) 

During our testing, we put the Mini-Prep Plus through its paces as we chopped various ingredients, including garlic, onions, and chilies, and we found it to be a solid machine that is very easy to use. All you have to do is prep your ingredients by cutting them into smaller chunks so they can fit inside the bowl, then the chopper will slice and dice them with just one push of a button. However, if you need uniform pieces, this may not be the device for you. We found this to be a better option for applications like making salsa or mincing garlic, as you have little control over the finished product or the size of the cuts.

Before long, you may find yourself reaching for this gadget even more than your food processor because it’s so lightweight and easy to operate. Plus, it’s just as easy to clean as it is to use — the bowl, lid, and blade can all go into the dishwasher for quick cleanup. But make sure to handle the bowl with care because it can become damaged if you drop it, and it will cost you just as much as a whole new chopper to replace it.

• Dimensions: 9.25 x 7 x 5 inches
• Capacity: 3 cups
• Operation: Electric
• Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Overall Manual

Fullstar Vegetable Chopper

$30 at Amazon $30 at Walmart

Our Ratings

• Performance
  4.5/5
• Ease of Use
  4.5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  5/5
• Value
  5/5

If you want a manual chopper that doesn’t require too much physical labor to achieve quick, uniform cuts, then it’s worth it to check out Fullstar’s 4-in-1 Vegetable Chopper. With four interchangeable blades — including a small and a large dicing blade, a spiral blade, and a ribbon blade — it can cut the time it takes to complete some of your most tedious kitchen tasks in half. The chopper lid rests on top of a 1.2-liter collection tray that catches all your freshly diced veggies and stores them until you’re ready to add them to your recipe, and its non-skid base makes sure you have maximum leverage as you chop. Plus, safety features like a blade lock and a finger guard ensure that nothing more than fresh produce ends up in the bowl.

We’ll admit that we didn’t have the highest expectations when comparing manual choppers against high-performance electric models, but the results we achieved with this one blew us out of the water. The first thing we noticed was the high quality of the materials and the extra sharp blades, which all come with protective elements to make sure you don’t accidentally cut yourself. The chopper’s opening was large enough to accommodate one-half of a large onion at a time, and we were able to slice through it easily by pushing the lid down with minimal effort. We also found the inserts easy to swap, and all the cuts we made came out extremely uniform.

We love that it comes with dedicated cleaning brushes and tools so that you can get any stray pieces out of every nook and cranny when you’re done. And if you’re in a rush, you can simply throw all the parts into your dishwasher on the top rack. The only drawback we could find is that we wish the top fastened with just a little more suction. But other than that, we have absolutely no complaints.

• Dimensions: 10.6 x 4.5 x 4.7 inches
• Capacity: 1.2 liters
• Operation: Manual
• Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Value

OXO Veggie Chopper

$22 at Amazon $23 at Target $47 at Walmart

Similar to the Fullstar model, OXO’s Easy-Pour Chopper allows you to dice vegetables by pushing them through a grid of sharpened blades. However, this version only has one permanent blade that isn’t interchangeable. But what it lacks in versatility, it makes up for in overall value, convenience, and functionality. Innovative features, like a convenient opening at the back so you can easily pour out your chopped ingredients as you go and a removable grid to help clean between the blades, make it a high-quality option that allows for efficient prep and easy cleanup. So, if you like this style of manual chopper but know that you won’t use all the extra blades and accessories that some other models come with, then this could be the perfect chopping tool for your kitchen.

While slicing everything from garlic, onions, and celery to carrots and potatoes, we found that this model could handle just about anything we threw at it. It’s very durable, which is a plus because you don't have to exert a significant amount of pressure in order to push the food through the blades. And we love just how precise you can get your cuts with this style of chopper, especially for recipes where everything must be cut down to the same size so it cooks evenly. This is a great tool for making quick work of vegetable prep for soups and chilies, and it cleans up easily in the dishwasher once you’re done. You just need to make sure to thoroughly dry all the parts before reassembling and storing them.

• Dimensions: 8.74 x 5 x 3.5 inches
• Capacity: 2.5 cups
• Operation: Manual
• Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Splurge

KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper

$45 at Amazon $55 at Walmart $45 at Best Buy

If you like the functionality of a food processor but don't like a bulky appliance, this food chopper from KitchenAid is right up your alley. It is a bit of a splurge compared to some of the other items on our list, but it’s more than worth it. Equipped with two speeds and a pulse function, this small-but-mighty machine chops ingredients and even makes purees. The drizzle basin allows you to slowly drip liquids into the bowl, like olive oil for making salad dressing or emulsifying aioli. And with a 3.5-cup capacity, it’s roomy enough to hold lots of vegetables, but it's also lightweight and easier to bring out and put away than a full-sized food processor.

Although it took a minute or two to get used to the lid (which has to be locked in before the motor will turn on), we quickly fell in love with how powerful and easy-to-use this model is. We especially loved the convenient lever that allows you to control the speed of the motor for more precise cuts. Plus, the bowl, lid, and S-shaped stainless steel blade are all dishwasher safe, and we simply gave the base a quick wipe with a damp towel to clean up any splatters.

• Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 7 inches
• Capacity: 3.5 cups
• Operation: Electric
• Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best for Chopping Garlic

OXO Good Grips Chopper

$30 at Amazon $25 at Wayfair $17 at kohls.com

Our Ratings

• Design
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Size
  4/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  4/5
• Convenience
  5/5

This classic manual chopper from OXO works by pushing down on a rubber stopper to operate the rotating, wave-pattern blades. You can chop ingredients inside its included easy-measure cup, or you can use it directly on top of your favorite cutting board. The rotating blades keep food from sticking to the walls of the cup, while the built-in bumpers absorb any shock while using it. If you’re chopping directly inside the cup, then you can simply pop the included lid on top to store your ingredients until you’re ready to use. It even has a convenient locking feature so that the chopper remains locked in the down position for easy storage. 

We loved how durable and easy-to-use this chopper is, although we noticed that it doesn’t create very uniform or precise cuts. During testing, we used it for a variety of tasks, including chopping onions and cilantro for tacos, potatoes for hash browns, as well as carrots and celery. Since you have to push down very quickly on the stopper in order to chop, we found it to be better for pulverizing or mincing items like garlic or nuts. However, you should probably avoid using this chopper to cut up herbs or other delicate items that can bruise easily. When you’re done, its parts can be thrown into the dishwasher for easy cleanup, but you may also need to set them out to airdry afterward to make sure there’s no leftover moisture inside.

• Dimensions: 3.75 x 4 x 8 inches
• Capacity: 1 cup
• Operation: Manual
• Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best for Purees

Ninja Food Chopper Express

$33 at Amazon $20 at Target View on Bed Bath & Beyond

Our Ratings

• Performance
  4/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  4.5/5
• Value
  5/5

The Ninja Express Chop vegetable chopper lives up to its name. With its 200-watt power pod, you can mince, dice, chop, and puree, all at the touch of a button. Four blades make quick work of whatever produce you can throw at it, and the non-slip base and splashguard keep everything in its proper place. Like a few of the other models on this list, the Express Chop also includes a convenient storage lid that allows you to store your ingredients directly in the chopping cup until you’re ready to use them. And it can do all that — and more — in a matter of seconds.

With its simple 3-piece design, we found this Ninja very easy to use. Its blade attaches to the top motor, and all you have to do is press the silver button on the top to get things going. We did find it a bit difficult to use this chopper with any sort of precision, though — whether we pulsed or let it run on its own, there were very few uniform pieces. If anything, we could say that the Express Chop is almost too good. Overall, we found it was best to pulse our ingredients manually until they reached our desired consistency; otherwise, we could have ended up with a pureed mess before we knew it. Still, we think this would be a great pick for quickly throwing together a hearty salsa, sauce, or dressing. 

• Dimensions: 5.75 x 5.75 x 10 inches
• Capacity: 2 cups
• Operation: Electric
• Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Pull-Chopper

Mueller Dual-Speed Pull Chopper

$50 at Amazon

This manual chopper by Mueller offers quick and quiet chopping with the pull of a cord. Perfect for tearless prepping of onions or effortless mirepoix, it has a five-cup capacity plastic work bowl that gives you enough room to process ingredients to feed your entire family. Its easy operation means you can also let your children help with meal prep (with supervision, of course) — they'll enjoy pulling the handle and watching the blades chop ingredients. The lid also features a dial to select your speed, depending on whether you want coarse or fine cuts. 

During our testing, we found this model to be incredibly easy to use, durable, and of good quality. You do need to prep your veggies first by chopping them into manageable chunks for this chopper to function properly, but once everything is ready, it works quickly and efficiently. And while some of the other models on this list gave us trouble with uneven cuts, we didn’t find that to be the case with this one. The spinning mechanism seemed to even things out pretty well and left us pretty uniform cuts, similar to what you would get with a food processor or a blender. Plus, it’s fairly simple to disassemble and clean. 

While putting this chopper in the dishwasher is not recommended, it disassembles easily and can be cleaned by hand. But we’ll admit that we did pop it into the dishwasher after we were finished, and everything came out fine. But if you’re too nervous to try it, it’s simple enough to give it a quick hand-wash with soap and water.

• Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 6 inches
• Capacity: 5 cups
• Operation: Manual
• Dishwasher Safe: Not recommended