Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor, Brushed Chrome
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor, Brushed Chrome
Customer Review: I love my MiniPrep, it's a great help!
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this as a gift from my boyfriend and have been using it regularly. This is one of those things that you don't think you ever need (and I did give this topic extensive thought), but once you have it, you would really miss it.
The good is that it is really good at FINELY chopping things.
The bad is that it is really good at FINELY chopping things.
Keeping this in mind, I've learnt when to use and when to just use my knife. For instance, when chopping walnuts for banana bread, I put a cup of walnuts into the processor and hit "Chop" - it immediately chopped the walnuts into good sized chunks, but there was a couple of walnuts that didn't get cut yet, so I hit the "Chop" button a couple more times, but that turned the rest of the walnuts to a very small almost "powder" consistency. I tried it again, with about the same results. I guess I could try putting in less walnuts at a time, but then that would defeat the purpose of "less work" since I'd have to put in a small amount, chop, dump out the first batch, repeat. It's much easier in this case to do a coarse chop with knife. Chopping Mushrooms in this device also was lacking, it kind of made a mushroom puree.
Where it shines though is in my daily meals where I'm making some kind of pan sauce. Just about all my pan sauces or pan meals start with butter/oil, then saute'ing some garlic and onions. I'll just peel a few cloves of garlic, coarse chop an onion, dump it all into the MiniPrep, and presto, it's done! When I'm ready to dump it into my pan, just remove the co, remove the blade and use a mini-silicone spatula to dump the contents directly into the pan. A quick rinse of the lid, blade, and work bowl, and the processor can be put away. That can't be any easier.
For larger meals and more ingredients, it's great to just coarsely chop your items, dump into the processor, let it do it's work, and then fill up your prep bowls with the different ingredients - making everything easier once you're cooking.
I find the "Chop" and "Grind" feature to be pretty much the same thing, just in opposite directions. The opposite direction thing is helpful to get the food to drop down to the blade. If you don't put too much in the processor, once the piece is chopped, it gets flung to the sides of the work bowl and sticks there, creating empty space for the unchopped foods to drop into the blade. Everything gets chopped evenly...it just gets chopped very finely too.
The entire unit is very easy to use and clean. The blades are extremely sharp, so be careful when washing those. The clear plastic work bowl does get a little scratched up and not so clear anymore after a bit of use...but then, it's a work bowl. The buttons are under a protective plastic, sealed - so no chance of anything getting under the buttons, just a quick wipe and it's clean!
Overall, the unit is small, solid, quiet, easy to use, and easy to clean. It's great for fine chops to puree, not so great for coarse chops/dice. Perfect size for meals for 2 people. For making larger meals you may want to look at the larger cup sized processors, or just make a couple of batches.
Customer Review: Love it
Summary: 5 Stars
Love it, love it, love it! Can't say it enough.
I've been doodling over an onion chopper for a long time.. partly because I am of the old school who believes that such a gadget would only turn onions into a juicy mush (I blame my mother for that), and partly because I couldn't decide which machine to get (so many choices!).. What's also more confusing, I find, is the fact that it's hard to tell sometimes whether more expensive is better, or a cheap one would do the job just as well. A vicious circle.
But, something happened recently that made me finally throw my caution (and my Libran indecisive trait) into the winds: I made my daughter's favourite Lebanese meatloaf dish (in tahini sauce) - which requires finely chopped onions, and there she was.. picking the not-so-fine pieces of onion out of it! So, I thought that's it. No more Ms-turning-into-my-mother-yet-in-deep-denial, denial.
I am familiar of the two brands (Cuisinart and KtchenAid) and know that both are top notch in kitchen electrics (I have a KitchenAid stand mixer), so deciding which to go for was a bit tricky too. But, I must say, the review above helped me make my mind up. And so it was: I went for the Cuisinart and, man, was it the right decision or what!
It's absolutely amazing! It definitely does the job - and way better than I had anticipated. The onion is chopped finely and evenly, and, get this.. without bruising it or releasing any juices! Not a drop. Nada.
It hardly made a noise too, so it's a little wonder machine really. I've only used it once so far (only got it last week!), but I can't help but stop and admire it - stroke it too! - every time I happen to be near it (yeah, I know. I need to get a life).
Anyway, you know what they say: different horses for different courses.. so if you have certain dishes that need fine chopping, then this machine is for you. It will not replace slicing, for example. But, I love it - even if I use it for just the one dish (though I am sure that won't be the case). My daughter calls my meatloaf heavenly, and so as far as I am concerned, it's worth it.
Happy cooking!
Customer Review: Right tool for the job it was designed for
Summary: 4 Stars
When I first bought this, I thought this was a 'mini' version of the big brother. (Now I own power prep 11 plus, as well as the belnder from cuisinart). And this is where most of the angry customers come from. If you want to 'slice', this thing isn't it. Nor is it for grinding coffee beans or anything heavy like that. In fact, I own a grinder for that exact purpose. But as one equipment review show stated (America's test *******), it's better to use the knife then any of these units or even gadgets for chopping/mincing. And they recommend coffee grandinger for grinding and I have to agree. I just never found better way to mince then a my favorite Wustof classic chef knife. Even with the dish washer, it takes too long to clean (for daily use when I run a dish washer 2x a week), and it just isn't as fine and even as a good knife.
But if you do buy a 'chopper', this is probably the best stand unit for 2 reasons. From actually using several models (in store and friends' house), you won't find anything that's more then this. And on top, if the plastic pieces on top shatter due to accidents (which I recently had), you'd soon realize that you can go to cuisinart's site and get replacement part for the bowl and cover. You know that it was meant to be used on regular basis.
As for the motor burning out. A lot of people complain about this and it all depends on how people use these device(S). Granted there is always a percentage of defects, some people will use this thing for things it wasn't meant for such as blending or grinding on regular basis. This unit is more meant for short pulse work and not a 2 minute blend/grind cycle. Just remember to buy the right equipment for the job. If you want an optimal equipment go for the big brother (11 cup model) or equivalent from kitchenaid, and buy yourself a nice knife. I use my 11 cup cuisinart of puree, dough, and slicing large quantities of food.
Customer Review: Why did I wait so long??
Summary: 5 Stars
I have the 11 cup Cuisinart & for years I used a FP attachment for my Krups blender, but it broke after only 6 years (grin).
I put off buying one of these thinking that it wouldn't be big enough or powerful enough to do what I needed it to do, essentially replace my molcajete for grinding and my large Cuisinart for smaller jobs.
This little machine rocks!
I love the fact that I don't have to fish around for the blade, that it's not 'keyed' and the grind and chop buttons reverse the food so that it's sucked back down into the workbowl, making having to scrape the sides nearly unnecessary.
I used it the first time to make an onion, garlic, herb & spice puree for my Mexican meatloaf recipe and it really did the job! I've seen some people complain that it makes onion puree, well, not unless you want it to.
I gave it a few quick pulses and had chopped onions. I then reversed the blades by using grind and by switching back and forth, had the puree done in a matter of seconds.
It can just chop easily enough, that was obvious.
Also, not having to remove the bowl to take off the lid is a terrific feature.
It would have gone into the dishwasher, but it was so simple to just wash it out with a sponge that I didn't bother. I will put it in the dishwasher if I'm making a large meal, but this can be rinsed and reused simply enough.
Quite the little workhorse for the money.
Most of my appliances are white, but since they've tended to yellow over the years, I chose this chrome version. It's not actually chrome, it's painted on, but that's okay, it wiped clean easily and since it's not shiney, no worry about fingerprints.
Get one, you'll wonder how you did without it!
Customer Review: Perfect tool for a single person in a small kitchen
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought my Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus a few weeks before Thanksgiving, after living without any kind of food processor for a few years. My old cheapo (neither Cuisinart nor KitchenAid) food processor was long gone, after I broke some plastic doohickey on it.
The Mini Prep Plus worked fine for a few small jobs. Then I volunteered to make cranberry relish for our large extended family Thanksgiving dinner. And immediately eyed the full-size food processors, but decided against buying one of them.
By taking it easy and not trying to overload or overwhelm the Mini Prep Plus, I successfully used it to make two large batches of different cranberry relish recipes. From fruit to nuts, it performed like a little champ. I chopped small quantities of ingredients, then combined them in a big bowl. And I used a lot of pulsing rather than continuous grinding or chopping. Which I think is the way this machine was intended to be used, anyway.
If you want - or need - to be able to just dump lots of stuff into a food processor and chop/grind/blend it all at once, then this little guy isn't what you're looking for. But for small jobs, or dishes in which you can chop/grind things in smaller batches and combine them in another container, this is a good choice.
The Mini Prep Plus is simple to assemble, disassemble, and clean. The blade is easy to slip into place and out again, and you can grab the blade assembly without sticking your fingers down into the food. The mini prep is designed to require the lid to be attached before the food container is slotted into place for operations, a safety measure I appreciate.
This is one of my favorite gadgets. Simple, small, and efficient.