THE Cuisinart brand was founded on food processors in 1971 so we’d expect, after 50 years, they know a thing or two about making these machines work like a dream.
We put the Easy Prep Pro to the test in a home kitchen to see just how efficient it is.
Cuisinart’s food processors come in two different sizes.
- Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro, £112.50 from Amazon – buy here
The Easy Prep Pro is the smaller one with a 1.9l capacity; you can also get the larger Expert Prep Pro, which has a 3.3l capacity and a few more accessories.
We found that size-wise, Easy Prep Pro has more than enough capacity for a couple or small family.
The body of the machine is fairly compact, so it won’t take up too much space on your countertop, while the two-bowl feature means it’s great for switching between different tasks – more on that later.
It even comes with a small recipe booklet to show you the sorts of things you can do with the machine.
Pros:
- Ywo bowls for different tasks
- Very sharp blades
- Super powerful motor
Cons:
- No neat storage for attachments
- Can be fiddly to assemble
Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro: what accessories does it come with?
- small 0.7l bowl
- large 1.9l bowl
- small chopping/mixing blade
- large chopping/mixing blade
- fine grating/slicing disc
- medium grating/slicing disc
- recipe booklet
Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro: how easy is it to use?
We found the Easy Prep Pro fairly easy to assemble and use.
There are clear instructions printed on the machine itself so you don’t need to refer to the manual every time – but they are helpful if you want to look up the right settings for the task at hand.
Our only gripe is that it can sometimes be fiddly to get all the bits to line up right to lock the bowl or the lid into place.
The feature we really loved is the two bowls.
The main bowl is 1.9l and you will need it for every function. There’s a large blade that can be used for chopping and mixing, as well as disks for slicing and grating.
The smaller 0.7l bowl, with its own mixing blade, is like an extra attachment that sits inside the main bowl and you can use this for smaller quantities of food.
It forms a tight seal with the lid, so food doesn’t drop into the bigger bowl, meaning less washing up.
You can’t use the two bowls simultaneously unfortunately but it does make switching between tasks much quicker.
- Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro, £112.50 from Amazon – buy here
Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro: is it good for chopping?
The Easy Prep Pro is excellent at chopping.
We were able to whip up a batch of red pesto in just seconds in the small bowl before switching to the larger bowl to make bread crumbs. It was just as quick, and the results were even.
This is in part thanks to the incredibly sharp blades – be warned, take extra care if you’re washing up by hand (we speak from experience).
The machine also has a 350W motor, which actually turned out to be extremely powerful and made easy work of harder ingredients, including chorizo.
The silicone feet did a great job of keeping the machine in place as well.
You can also use the chopping blades to mix pastry or bread dough although we’d recommend adding a portion of your liquid to the bowl before you start the engine as otherwise the flour will escape from the chute. You’d still need to knead it by hand though.
Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro: is it good for slicing and grating?
The Easy Prep Pro comes with two reversible disks for slicing and grating – you install it face up for slicing and face down for grating basically.
The 2mm slicing disk can also be used for fine grating while the 4mm slicing disk is for medium grating.
Again, the powerful motors of the machine came in handy and the grating was done in seconds.
The slicing needed a bit more practice to get the best results.
Because the motor is so powerful and the disk is spinning very fast, if you apply different pressure when pushing your vegetables down the chute, you can end up with slices of different thickness. So when using the slicing function, you have to remember to apply steady pressure.
- Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro, £112.50 from Amazon – buy here
Cuisinart 1.9l Easy Prep Pro: the verdict
We were surprised by how easy to use and efficient the Easy Prep Pro was. In fact, sometimes it took us longer to set the machine up than the actual chopping or mixing.
The attachments are all dishwasher safe, which makes clean up incredibly easy.
We feel it’s not really designed for dough – the Expert Prep Pro comes with a dough blade for example – but it is workable.
But if you mainly want to use the machine for chopping, slicing or grating, this is a great, affordable model to buy.
Looking for more kitchen gadgets? Check out our review of the Ninja Foodi Mini 6-in-1 Multi-Cooker.
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