Rachel Wharton is a writer covering kitchen appliances. She used 72 bags of popcorn to find the best microwave (and set the office on fire only once).
When I was a younger cook, my prized kitchen possession was a 14-cup Cuisinart food processor. I imagined this heavy powerhouse of a machine made me a real gourmand, and I’d show it off at parties. I would shred giant heads of cabbage into coleslaw for barbecues or make vats of my mother’s recipe for perfect food processor pimento cheese.
But as I grew more experienced in the kitchen, I realized my processor’s smaller, lighter, cheaper cousin, the Cuisinart Core Custom 4-Cup Mini Chopper, was my real pro tool.
The mini chopper is the right size for more-practical, daily cooking needs, where I am processing just a cup of something, not a pound. Unlike the larger version, it fits almost anywhere on my counters, which are overcrowded with cookbooks and other kitchen tools. And because it’s small and light, it’s easy to move and to clean. That alone helps motivate me to make a from-scratch dinner on a weeknight instead of ordering in.
Also great
This mini chopper dices well and is extra roomy, and it was the only mini processor we tested with two drizzle holes, for frustration-free drizzling. But it slacks on dicing herbs.
The biggest (or smallest) tool is not always the best
Over the years I have learned the majority of good cooking does not involve processing enormous batches of produce or cheese, which I save for my 14-cup Cuisinart food processor. Most nights I just need to chop an onion for a marinara or grind four garlic cloves, a 2-inch piece of ginger, and two green chiles into a slurry to make Tejal Rao’s vegetarian kofta curry.
Those kinds of quantities are too small for my full-size food processor. They get wedged under the blade (so they don’t break down at all) or spread out on the far edges of the bowl, where I have to scrape them down after every pulse. But most mini choppers on the market have a small work bowl—holding somewhere between 1 and 3 cups—so you sometimes end up having to work in batches or spend time prepping everything into lots of smaller chunks. And time is what you’re trying to save by using a food processor.
The 4-cup Cuisinart mini chopper has a slightly larger bowl than most. That extra space fits a whole large onion cut into quarters, which is ideal, and it is also useful when you’re processing anything wet or watery, like watermelon for a cocktail or a salsa verde. Without that extra room to work with, the contents smoosh up against the lid of the chopper, spilling over and making a mess.
Better sauces, salads, dips, and dunking
Mini food processors—and this one in particular—are perfect for making 1- or 2-cup batches of green goddess dip, lemony hummus, or a quick chipotle mayo, which is exactly how much of those recipes I typically want to make.
Unlike its competitors, the Cuisinart mini chopper has dual holes nested in a deep channel across the lid; the others have just one. This makes it easier to continuously drizzle olive oil into my vinaigrette without shutting it off, scraping the sides, or even paying much attention to my pour. And that continuous, steady stream flowing into both sides of the work bowl results in a quick, thick, evenly mixed batch of anything creamy. (In their tests, my colleagues found that this processor excels at making homemade mayonnaise.)
Two buttons for chopping and grinding on the base (one turns the blade clockwise, the other counterclockwise) also make this machine better for making an emulsion than other mini choppers. The design is similar to that of full-size processors. By contrast, other minis require you to push down the lid, which gets in the way of the drizzle.
But it doesn’t grate, shred, knead, or precisely dice (or last forever)
This mini chopper won’t ever replace my full-size processor. It doesn’t have attachments for grating or shredding (both of which are extremely time-consuming without a larger food processor) or a plastic blade for making dough. And it’s definitely not big or powerful enough to quickly work through a large head of cabbage for a party.
Its smaller blades are also less precise: Our testing proved this food processor isn’t as good with stringy herbs as our larger top pick or some of its competitors, tearing parsley into uneven pieces rather than chopping it cleanly and evenly. But I have found that for many dishes, that’s not an issue—I can just add a little water, oil, or even an onion to the processor to get that smoother chop. (Our tests showed another mini model, the KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Mini Food Processor, did a better job with precisely dicing herbs.)
It’s also unlikely to last as long as the full-size version. I had to replace my first mini after the motor stopped working in less than a decade, but I have had my Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor for more than 15 years.
This article was edited by Rachelle Bergstein and Catherine Kast.
Meet your guide
Rachel Wharton is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering ovens, stoves, fridges and other essential kitchen appliances. She has more than 15 years of experience reporting on food issues and a master's degree in food studies, and has helped write more than a dozen books on that topic (including her own, American Food: A Not-So-Serious History). One of her first real gigs was reviewing kitchen gadgets in less than 50 words for the New York Daily News.