What's the easiest thing to use for vege prep! Our family would eat so much more healthy food if I didn't have to grate or cut by hand lol. The reviews on the tefal machines weren't good!
Would a food processor do everything I am after ( or will it sit on the bench unused and cluttering) or is there an easier option!
esawers,
Oct 17, 9:37pm
And what do the restaurants use to get their salad ingredients so neat and tidy!
vmax2,
Oct 17, 9:40pm
I can't believe it.Just chop.What's more important your time or your families health!
sarahb5,
Oct 17, 9:49pm
I only use my food processor to chop or grate when I'm making coleslaw at home or I've got it out to mince meat for shepherd's pie so I do the onion and carrot in it as well - the rest of the time I just do it by hand.We have at least 3 or more different veggies every night but if I'm bored with preparing them myself I just get the kids to help.I grate carrots for salad by hand on a normal grater and sometimes I do those really thin strips of carrot or zucchini by using the peeler - makes great garnish.
I do get a bit "over" slicing, dicing, chopping, etc. for stir fry which is probably why we don't have them that often but the time taken to prepare the vegetables is off-set by the time it takes to cook the stir fry so really not much more time consuming than anything else I cook, just that the time is in the preparation not the cooking.
davidt4,
Oct 17, 11:14pm
What exactly is it that you want to make!Not all vege dishes involve grating and chopping.How many people are you feeding!Dozens!
uli,
Oct 18, 12:30am
This post makes my day LOL So your family is not getting healthy food because you do not like grate or cut vegies!
Let's look at this more closely: Why do you think you need to cut or grate them! Most things can be just cooked after cleaning. Who is in charge of cooking! Can others help you in case you DO need to cut and grate! How many people are you feeding! And how long do you take to lets say slice a cabbage! Hours or minutes!
esawers,
Oct 18, 12:30am
Lol get off your high horse, I didn't say we didn't eat vegetables, I am a healthy vegetarian but I also have a 2 yr old and a newborn so I don't have time to chop everything into tiny pieces.
I am probably aiming for gourmet salads, have just bought a bag of coleslaw from the supermarket and added spinach, lemon juice and flaxseed oil, avocado and tomato, but probably want to make tht sort of thing myself from scratch. My sister had a spiraliser which made spaghetti out of courgettes so that would be cool as well, and the ability to make salsas, etc
esawers,
Oct 18, 12:31am
It's the grating carrots and courgettes which really puts me off. I guess a food processor would do this!
sarahb5,
Oct 18, 12:38am
How many carrots or zucchini are you going to be grating in one day!Zucchini are really quick to grate as you only need to wash them and they're soft so quicker to grate than carrot.Some carrots don't need peeling if you give them a thorough wash but I prefer just to peel them anyway because it's quicker and easier.I'm not sure what else you are going to be cooking/preparing that requires vegetables to be cut into tiny pieces even with a 2 year old and a newborn in the house.Avocado and mushrooms can be sliced using an egg slicer - if you wipe the "wires" with lemon juice before slicing the avocado it stops it going brown so quickly but I always make sure the avocado is the last thing I slice.
I didn't get a food processor until my youngest was 5.I'm pretty sure we ate vegetables, stir fries and salads before I got the food processor.In all honesty even though I have it I rarely use it even to make coleslaw because it's a PITA to wash all the bits of it instead of just the knife that chopping requires.
buzzy110,
Oct 18, 12:45am
vmax wasn't on her high horse. She was giving you good advice. Get a good quality knife and just chop. Carrots don't need grating. Things do not need to be cut into tiny pieces. Stop being precious. Your 2yr old has teeth. Let the child use them. A small kitchen whizz will take care of cooked vegetables and protein when it is time to wean the baby. Adults don't need food chopped into tiny pieces. They have teeth as well.
Mother Nature gave people teeth, put them to good use.
esawers,
Oct 18, 12:46am
I guess I have a fear of grating my finger lol, I make things like zucchini frittatas, would love to have time to make more salads. We also have a lot of wraps which would be yummier with grated carrot.
sarahb5,
Oct 18, 12:51am
Well unless you are grating vegetables blind-folded that is unlikely to happen!
antoniab,
Oct 18, 12:53am
A food processor will do all that (with grater attachment) if you dont like to do it by hand. Also good for fine coleslaw
antoniab,
Oct 18, 12:54am
Thats a bit unfair, I grate my knuckles sometimes, just because I slip not because I cant see lol
uli,
Oct 18, 12:55am
esawers - to cook for an adult and two kids you really do not need any food processor. To grate a carrot takes about 40 seconds. Time it next time. Rinsing the grater is much faster than washing a whole food processor.
However I see that your anxiety about chopping and grating is what puts you off. So all I can say is address that problem and then go for more healthy food.
Buying a "bag of" coleslaw from the supermarket and adding spinach (from the same supermarket bags) is not healthy food. By the time you eat those sliced pre-prepared things there is hardly a vitamin left.
Healthy food is buying whole fresh veges preferably from a market and then preparing them within a few days.
Good luck with your diet. I hope the kids do get some protein even if you are vegetarian!
sarahb5,
Oct 18, 12:56am
It was a joke - you know, a little humour, tongue-in-cheek - we've all done it but it wouldn't justify me getting the food processor out just to grate a carrot even if I ate grated carrots every day!In the summer I generally grate 2 or 3 at a time and keep them in a ziplock bag or Tupperware box in the fridge for the couple of days it takes to use them.
esawers,
Oct 18, 12:59am
Yes the kids and my husband arent vegetarian. We cook vegetarian then they add meat afterwards. And the spinach and extra veges were from the market :)
vmax2,
Oct 18, 1:02am
You made my day, lol - worrying about grating the finger!Maybe the problem is that you eat too many veges with being a vegetarian.Putting some animal protein in there might put an end to your anxiety and nourish your children too.
esawers,
Oct 18, 1:02am
What about a mandoline(!) The board that you run the veges over, are they any good or more of a gadget!
sarahb5,
Oct 18, 1:05am
They are even sharper than graters so the risk of hurting yourself would increase I would think
uli,
Oct 18, 1:07am
100% sure way to cut your fingertips into shreds LOL
holly-rocks,
Oct 18, 1:22am
You could try using a potatoe peeler, makes awesome vegie ribbons :)
sarahb5,
Oct 18, 1:47am
That's what I do
daisyhill,
Oct 18, 1:54am
There are only two of us at home and I use our food processor for grating and chopping all the time. It's far more efficient and safer for me than trying to do it by hand, and the results are far more uniform. I'm not great with a knife and the grater usually takes some of my fingertips with it! We do have a rotary grater but it's a real pain to clean.
Rinsing everything off after chopping something like carrots is easy. Something like cheese is a bit trickier as it can be sticky so I usually grate a whole 1kg block of cheese at a time and put it in a tub in the fridge for later use. That means I only have to wash the processor once in a while, rather than every time we want grated cheese.
esawers,
Oct 18, 1:58am
That's what I was thinking, if its mainly for vegetables it would be easy to rinse! Do the mini food processors grate!
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