Kitchenaid slicer vs electric chopper

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

davemchine

Assistant Cook
Joined
Oct 26, 2013
Messages
25
Location
Yakima, WA
My wife has a Kitchenaid mixing bowl that she likes very much. She mentioned that she would like the slicer/dicer attachment for it. As I do my christmas shopping I see that I can easily get one but I also see standalone food dicers for about $50 from good brand names. I'm wondering which one would do the better job and/or be easier to cleanup.

If it makes any difference most of the food we "cut" is onions, mushrooms, celery, potato, bell peppers and garlic.

Thanks,

Dave
 
Hi, Dave. Can you be more specific about the food dicers you're looking at? I have a mini-chopper, but it doesn't hold a lot so it's not used much, and it doesn't slice. I also have a mandolin for slicing foods very thin, like potatoes for chips or for scalloped potatoes; I'm not sure a "food dicer" will do that, but the slicer/dicer should. Need more info :)
 
Thanks for the response. As I mentioned we primarily chop onions, mushrooms, celery, potato, bell peppers and garlic. After quizzing my wife a bit I learned she feels this would be easier to do with the kitchen aid slicer vs cutting by hand as we do now. So I guess I'm looking to learn if this is true or if I should pursue something like a Kitchenaid electric chopper like this one, http://www.kitchenaid.com/shop/countertop-appliances-1/countertop-appliances-2/food-processors-3/-[KFC3511OB]-401109/KFC3511OB/

Thanks for any advice.
 
Slicing and chopping are different things.

Your link doesn't work for me but electric "choppers" essentially grind your food and aren't very good for any preparation where you need uniform sized pieces -- which is most of the time. I have one and use it mostly as a mini food processor not as a chopper.

Attachments for your mixer are great. I have a pasta roller and a sausage maker. But they take a bit of time and effort to attach and use. And unless your mixer lives on the kitchen counter you have to drag it out. By the time you do all that you could have sliced or chopped a bag of onions by hand.

To my mind nothing is better, faster and easier than a knife.

But if she wants to try a gadget and mentioned the mixer attachment, I would get her that.
 
Hi, Dave. I hope this doesn't sound too picky, but in order to recommend the right tool for the job, we need to be clear on what the job is :)

"Cut" is pretty vague, so let's use these terms:
- slice - like for potato chips or onion rings
- chop - cut roughly into a fairly uniform size
- dice - cut into cubes of a specific size (large, medium, small) - more precise than chopping
- shred - like for pizza cheese or potatoes for hash browns

So, I don't see a slicer/dicer attachment at the KitchenAid site; I see a slicer/shredder: KitchenAid® Rotor Slicer/Shredder. This won't dice or chop.

The food chopper you linked to - KitchenAid® 3.5 Cup Food Chopper - will chop, but not slice, dice or shred.

A food processor, on the other hand - KitchenAid® 7Cup Food Processor - will chop, mix, slice and shred. This can be used to make dough, hummus, salsa, etc. There are larger, more expensive ones that have a large bowl and a small bowl, can slice different thicknesses, etc.

So your decision depends on the kind of cooking you do, or want to do in the future. I think they're all easy enough to clean, so I don't think that's an issue. Hope this helps.
 
After reading the responses I'm inclined to stick with a knife. I do 90% of the cooking and I find it easy enough to "dice" the above mentioned items. We have discussed leaning to make salsa but I suspect we will get along fine with a knife there also. That just leaves one problem...Christmas! :) thanks everyone for your advice.
 
After reading the responses I'm inclined to stick with a knife. I do 90% of the cooking and I find it easy enough to "dice" the above mentioned items. We have discussed leaning to make salsa but I suspect we will get along fine with a knife there also. That just leaves one problem...Christmas! :) thanks everyone for your advice.

Well, just so you know, there are various kinds of salsa, too ;) There's pico de gallo, which is basically raw diced onions, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes with lime juice and cilantro. There are also cooked salsas, where you roast tomatoes or tomatillos, onions, garlic and peppers, add seasonings, and then whiz them in a food processor - they can be smooth or you can leave them a bit chunky.

Like Italian pastas and sauces, there are many variations for different purposes. It just depends on how much you get into it :) Personally, I wouldn't be without my food processor.
 
For us, the most used appliance is probably our immersion blender. We have worn out a cheapy and replaced it with a Breville. The spice grinder is a very close second.
 
Back
Top Bottom