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Product DetailsColor: Pink
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Product Description
Color: Pink
Amazon.com
This little 250-watt workhorse comes in handy when a full-size food processor is unnecessary. The 3-cup work bowl is just right for making pesto or a salad dressing, and two receptacles in the lid have pinholes for one or two oils to stream into the bowl while the processor is blending a perfect emulsion. It's also ideal for chopping and grinding. Pressing the "chop" button deploys the sharp edge of Cuisinart's patented reversible blade to chop onions, herbs, or bread crumbs. Pressing the "grind" button whirls the blade in the other direction so its blunt side can grind nuts, coffee beans, or cheese. Compact at just 9 inches high and lightweight (it has a plastic body), the Mini Prep Plus can be tucked away in a cabinet, and the little spatula accompanying it goes into a drawer. It carries an 18-month warranty against defects. The plastic work bowl and lid are dishwasher-safe, but the stainless-steel blade should be hand washed to protect its edges. --Fred Brack
Editor's Note: A portion of proceeds from the sale of every Cuisinart Pink Series product will be donated to help support breast cancer research.
Product Description
Included components of the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Processor
Pulse controlled buttons
Why Is This The Perfect Mini Processor For You?
The Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Processor handles a variety of food preparation tasks including chopping, grinding, puréeing, emulsifying and blending. The patented auto-reversing SmartPower blade provides a super-sharp edge for the delicate chopping of herbs and for blending and puréeing other soft foods. The blunt edge offers a powerful cutting surface to grind through spices and other hard foods. Pulse activation gives maximum control for precision processing, whether chopping or grinding. Spatula, product manual and recipe booklet included.
Using Your Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Processor
The powerful high-speed 250-Watt motor works hard and fast to accomplish any small job with ease. Chop herbs, onions, garlic; grind spices, hard cheese, purée baby foods; blend mayonnaise and flavored butters, all with the same compact appliance. The Mini-Prep Plus Processor takes up minimum counter space and stores neatly on the countertop or in a cabinet.
Best Practices When Using Your Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Processor
Size
Always cut large pieces of food into smaller pieces of even size – about 1/2-Inch. If you don't start with pieces that are small and uniform, you will not get an even chop.
Quantity
You don’t want to overload the 3-Cup work bowl. Use the quantities given in the included recipe section of the product manual. As a rule of thumb, remember that after being processed, food should not reach more than 2/3 of the way up the central hub of the blade assembly.
Selecting the Right Operating Control
Use the Chop function for chopping, puréeing and mixing. It’s the best option, for example, when chopping soft, fragile food such as herbs, celery, onions, garlic and most cheeses. It is also the right choice for puréeing cooked vegetables, making mayonnaise and mixing salad dressing. Pulse action is best when you are using the chop function. Two or three pulses are often enough.
Use the Grind function for grinding spices, and for chopping hard food such as peppercorns, seeds, chocolate and nuts. Continuous-hold action is best when you are using the grind function.
Adding Liquid
You can add liquids such as water, oil or flavoring while the machine is running. For example, you might want to add oil when making mayonnaise or salad dressing, or you could add vanilla or alcohol when making frozen yogurt. Pour the liquid through one of the two openings in the cover.
Removing Food From the Sides of the Bowl
Occasionally food will stick to the sides of the bowl as you process. Stop the machine to clear food away. After the blade has stopped moving, remove the cover, and use the spatula to scrape the food from the sides of the bowl back into the center.
Cleaning and Storage
Read to clean up? No problem! To simplify cleaning, rinse the work bowl, cover, and blade immediately after each use, so that food won’t dry on them. Wash blade assembly, work bowl, cover, and spatula in warm soapy water. If you have a dishwasher, you can wash the work bowl, cover, blade assembly, and spatula on the top rack.
The Mini-Prep Plus Processor stores neatly on the countertop in a minimum of space. The hidden cord storage underneath the motor base will help to keep excess cord off the countertop. Store the unit assembled to prevent loss of parts.
Easily dice tomatoes in seconds!
Just a Few of the Many Foods You Can Prepare
| Food Item | Operation/Technique | Comments/Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Seeds and Dried Berries | Grind. Pulse to break up, then process continuously to desired consistency. | Coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, sesame, poppy, and juniper berries |
| Herbs, fresh | Chop. Pulse to chop to desired consistency. | Rinse and dry completely. Remove leaves from stems to chop. |
| Onions | Chop. Pulse 5-10 times to chop to desired size. | Peel; Cut into 3⁄4-inch or smaller pieces of similar size. |
| Mushrooms | Chop. Pulse to chop to desired consistency. | Choose firm, fresh mushrooms. Cut into quarters or even-size pieces, no larger than 3⁄4-inch. |
| Nuts | Chop. Pulse to chop to desired consistency. | Toast nuts first for maximum flavor. Allow to cool completely before chopping. |
| Vegetables, cooked | Chop. Pulse 5-10 times to chop, then process continuously until desired consistency is reached. | Cook vegetables until tender. Process to a smooth purée for baby food or sauces; may need to add liquid for consistency. |
Available Extended Warranties for This Appliance
Color: Pink
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1,875 of 1,888 people found the following review helpful
By S. Burch
Color Name:White|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I starting searching for a mini-chopper I was surprised by the huge rating difference between the Cuisinart DLC2 and the KitchenAid KFC3100, so I bought both and did a side-by-side comparison. The only explanation I can give for the ratings difference is that Cuisinart buyers must have higher expectations. For most operations they have nearly identical performance and for some operations the Cuisinart is the clear winner.
Onions: Many Cuisinart reviewers panned its performance here, claiming it made onion purée, but most KitchenAid reviewers praised its onion chopping ability. I found almost no difference between the two. Maybe its an issue with the instructions - for chopped onions you must use a few short pulses. A few more pulses and you get minced onion - more than this and both give you onion puree. I wouldn't say either is great at chopping onions, but both are equally mediocre.
I also tested chopping nuts, and making breadcrumbs with similar results. Both performed about the same for a course chop, although the Cuisinart produced a more even chop on the nuts, but its when you want a really fine chop that the Cuisinart starts to shine. The first reason for this is the grind feature found only on the Cuisinart. This spins the blade in the opposite direction which allows the flat, back-side of the blade to impact the food. More importantly, it redistributes the food, so if you've got a couple of chunks that refuse to be chopped, a short pulse in the opposite direction helps it drop into the blade. For perfect, fine breadcrumbs I alternate between the normal chop mode for a few seconds, and grind for one second.
The other reason the Cuisinart gives a better fine chop is that it does a much better job of cycling the food through the blade. This is a real key when you're working with softer foods like spreads, pâtés or purees. When I made a cream cheese spread in both choppers the Cuisinart did a far quicker and better job of pulling the ingredients down the center and into the blade. The KitchenAid kept larger chunks bobbing on top. If you're making dips, spreads or baby food, the Cuisinart is the hands-down winner.
On the practical side, both choppers were equally easy to clean. Both have small holes in the lid for pouring in liquids on the fly, but only The KitchenAid has a slot for dry or thick ingredients - if that's important to you. Overall, I found the Cuisinart easier to use for several reasons. First, the Cuisinart blade drops on easily, while the KitchenAid blade is keyed and I found myself turning it several times before it dropped in. Second, the KitchenAid lid must be removed first before you can lift off the bowl, but on the Cuisinart, the bowl and lid can be detached as an assembly. Finally, the Cuisinart blade has a "handle" that extends to the top of the bowl like a popsicle stick allowing you to remove the blade without getting your fingers in the food.
After all my testing, I really can't understand the large ratings difference between these two. Neither is perfect - you'll never get a perfect, even, course chop with things like onions or chocolate, but they do come in handy. For many uses either one will give you pretty much the same results. Because of its advantage with softer foods and its ease of use, I recommend the Cuisinart.
Onions: Many Cuisinart reviewers panned its performance here, claiming it made onion purée, but most KitchenAid reviewers praised its onion chopping ability. I found almost no difference between the two. Maybe its an issue with the instructions - for chopped onions you must use a few short pulses. A few more pulses and you get minced onion - more than this and both give you onion puree. I wouldn't say either is great at chopping onions, but both are equally mediocre.
I also tested chopping nuts, and making breadcrumbs with similar results. Both performed about the same for a course chop, although the Cuisinart produced a more even chop on the nuts, but its when you want a really fine chop that the Cuisinart starts to shine. The first reason for this is the grind feature found only on the Cuisinart. This spins the blade in the opposite direction which allows the flat, back-side of the blade to impact the food. More importantly, it redistributes the food, so if you've got a couple of chunks that refuse to be chopped, a short pulse in the opposite direction helps it drop into the blade. For perfect, fine breadcrumbs I alternate between the normal chop mode for a few seconds, and grind for one second.
The other reason the Cuisinart gives a better fine chop is that it does a much better job of cycling the food through the blade. This is a real key when you're working with softer foods like spreads, pâtés or purees. When I made a cream cheese spread in both choppers the Cuisinart did a far quicker and better job of pulling the ingredients down the center and into the blade. The KitchenAid kept larger chunks bobbing on top. If you're making dips, spreads or baby food, the Cuisinart is the hands-down winner.
On the practical side, both choppers were equally easy to clean. Both have small holes in the lid for pouring in liquids on the fly, but only The KitchenAid has a slot for dry or thick ingredients - if that's important to you. Overall, I found the Cuisinart easier to use for several reasons. First, the Cuisinart blade drops on easily, while the KitchenAid blade is keyed and I found myself turning it several times before it dropped in. Second, the KitchenAid lid must be removed first before you can lift off the bowl, but on the Cuisinart, the bowl and lid can be detached as an assembly. Finally, the Cuisinart blade has a "handle" that extends to the top of the bowl like a popsicle stick allowing you to remove the blade without getting your fingers in the food.
After all my testing, I really can't understand the large ratings difference between these two. Neither is perfect - you'll never get a perfect, even, course chop with things like onions or chocolate, but they do come in handy. For many uses either one will give you pretty much the same results. Because of its advantage with softer foods and its ease of use, I recommend the Cuisinart.
260 of 262 people found the following review helpful
Color Name:Brushed Chrome
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.
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.
222 of 235 people found the following review helpful
By S. Rasco
Color Name:White
I have the Mini-Prep and I have the big guy version, but I use the MP 10x as much. It does everything! Want chopped garlic? peel a couple heads, add 2-3T of olive oil and about a 1/4-1/2tsp. of salt. It keeps in a jar in the fridge and tastes a heck of a lot better than the store kind! Fresh herbs, nuts, peppers without burning hands...it's great! When I'm done, I just rinse it out. This is my favorite appliance after my blender, and if this made smoothies and margaritas, it would be my favorite!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVE IT !
At age 82 I have my first food processor and I absolutely LOVE it. I use it every day for breakfast to chop up kale which I warm up and fry with an egg! Perfect. Read more
Published 3 hours ago by Yvonne H
1.0 out of 5 stars
Cuisinart DLC-2ALB Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor, Light Blue
The lid sticks and renders this useless! I don't think I was even able to use it three times :(
Published 3 hours ago by tharding
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quick and very efficient.
This is a great no fuss helper. I discovered it is not as "mini" as it looks, it prepared a "press-in-the-pan" pie crust very quickly. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Gerimack
4.0 out of 5 stars
like it a lot
Would have given it 5 stars for love, but I also had to purchase an adaptor of Australian power once I received the processor and discovered it wouldn't work here, not a cheap... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Karen Hughes
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible customer service, this processor ruins the food
I am so disappointed. I was given a mini prep processor as a gift recently. I'm always cooking and was excited to use this gift as it would help me speed up the tedious work and... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Julie Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cuisinart food processor
I like this item, but don't use it often enough to say that I "love" it. I have been chopping vegetables, etc. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Ethel Bisacre
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect for making baby food!!
I bought this mini-prep to make baby food purees. I looked at the products specifically for making baby food and they're (some) 3x's as much! Read more
Published 9 days ago by nola
1.0 out of 5 stars
incorrect product description
The description states you can add liquids through the 2 openings on top, that is not possible
there is no opening, now I will have to go through the hassle of returning it or... Read more
there is no opening, now I will have to go through the hassle of returning it or... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Christine
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent small food processor.
Easy to use and clean. It is perfect for small jobs. The cuisinart is similar to the Kitchen aid food processor.
Published 12 days ago by titus66
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't buy.
Bought it for chopping onion. It doesn't chop. It liquifies or chunks onions. Had another brand I couldn't find on Amazon so bought the Cuisinart. Used once. That was enough. Read more
Published 12 days ago by C.a. M.
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