As someone who loves cooking a hearty meal after a long day of work, I was excited when I got the chance to test the KitchenAid Cordless Top Down Food Chopper.
The chopper made prepping dips an absolute breeze and I was able to make everything from a chopped salsa to a blended hummus. And it could have been one of the best food processors out there, but it's missing one key feature and I just can't get past it.
What the KitchenAid Cordless Top Down Food Chopper does well
With that complaint out of the way, the chopper actually does a very good job at chopping vegetables. And not to mention it is super fast. It took me a matter of seconds to finely dice a large carrot. It can also finely dice an onion with just three pulses.
The compact design of the chopper means it is very easy to store out of the way in cupboards. And it doesn't weigh much either at only 2.82 pounds, so it can also be stored on a higher shelf and is easy to reach for. And thanks to it being completely cordless it can be moved around and used anywhere in the kitchen without needing to hunt for a spare power outlet.
It is also extremely easy to clean as the bowl, shield and blade can all be thrown into the dishwasher. You can't get the motor wet though so will need to just give it a wipe down with a damp cloth.
Wait, where's the feed tube?
KitchenAid says that the Top Down Chopper can be used for chopping, mixing and pureeing, but I just want to know: where's the feed tube?
The feed tube is the chute usually found at the top of a food processor that lets you add extra ingredients while the blades are still spinning without any worry of getting your fingers jammed.
This is a feature found on other food processors and choppers in KitchenAid's collection, including the KitchenAid 3.5 Cup Food Chopper, so it's hard to see why exactly it's missing from this new model.
Without a feed tube, I'm not sure it can claim to mix and puree. Often when mixing ingredients together you need to do it slowly to find the right ratio or getting the consistency right, for example, when adding liquid to icing sugar to make frosting.
Or when you are making something with a pureed consistency, like hummus. Here you need to add in oil very slowly to get the right consistency and this varies depending on the weight or moisture content of the chickpeas that are being used.
You can get away with it though
Despite the lack of feeding tube, there is a way around the issue, but it gets quite repetitive and tedious.
The way that the chopper is constructed means that in order to slowly add in new ingredients you have to stop blending, remove the motor, and remove the shield.
One of the recommended uses for the chopper is making hummus, and it just so happens to be one of my favorite dips. I put a can of chickpeas in the bowl, which mostly filled it, added a little olive oil and set it to blend.
Anyone who has made hummus before knows that you need to keep slowly adding in oil until you get the right consistency, and without the spout this is pretty tricky. I ended up having to take apart the top half of the chopper three times before it was ready.
And as annoying as it was, the hummus still turned out great — it just could have been a whole lot easier.
You can find out more about how I got on with the chopper during testing in my full KitchenAid Cordless Top Down Food Chopper review.
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