Kenwood 'multipro' food processor

I’ve had various jug blenders over the years, some better than others. I’ve also had a couple of second-hand Moulinex food processors which more than gave me my money’s worth. When my most recent one started making graunching noises, I decided to look for a new one before it gave up entirely. I discovered that the Moulinex varieties are no longer made.

FOOD PROCESSOR HUNTING

We live in Cyprus, and good quality appliances tend to be over-priced here. So I checked the Lakeland website in the UK. They offer excellent service, an excellent guarantee if anything goes wrong, and a reasonable fee for postage via courier.

Browsing through their options, I was struck by the Kenwood compact 'multipro' food processor. It has a blender as well as a food processor (some variations also have a herb mill/grinder, but this particular box set doesn’t) and seemed to be highly rated. It was on offer at just under £50. I was concerned it might be a bit small, but then there are only two of us living here now. I entertain from time to time, and like having a food processor for many things I make from scratch.

I found one or two other things I wanted from Lakeland, so eventually I put together the order, including a food processor for me as well as for a local friend who wanted one and agreed to share the postage.

FOOD PROCESSOR SETUP

Within about four days, the courier arrived with my new food processor. It was extremely well packed and everything was in excellent condition. I was slightly puzzled that the box claimed that it had twelve different uses; I could only come up with seven. But apparently the same box is used when other attachments are included, such as a herb mill and citrus juicer.

Putting it together was straightforward, even for some as mechanically challenged as I am. The main part, housing the motor, is bigger than I had expected. The food processor bowl has the usual hard plastic sides, with a well-fitting lid and removable pusher. The main cutting blade is metal, and there’s a grating/slicing attachment that can be fitted too. The blender is also a bit bigger than I had expected, holding over a litre of fluid. The food processor or the blender fit on top of the motor unit and won’t operate unless correctly clicked in place.

MAKING COLESLAW

My first experiment was some coleslaw; rather than using the grating attachment, I simply cut a peeled carrot into a few chunks and threw that in the food processor with the main metal blade, and ran it for a few seconds before adding the cabbage.

I quickly discovered that the capacity isn’t all that big; it would take about half a small white cabbage, but if I tried to add any more it bounced around on top of what was already cut. That wasn’t really a problem; I decanted what I had made already and did the rest separately. I was impressed at the speed and power. The specification is 750w which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s very effective.

MAKING CAKES AND BISCUITS

While I use a hand mixer for standard Victoria sponges, I have other recipes where ingredients are all thrown in together, including some gluten-free cakes that use chickpeas rather than flour. The Kenwood food processor works well for these, ensuring that the chickpeas are chopped so well that nobody would guess that they were present.

Cake or biscuit/cookie mixture processes into a ball in about twenty seconds and is easy to spoon into tins or on a baking tray. A useful spatula was provided with the Kenwood set, which enables me to remove any last  bits of mixture without any danger of scratching the surface.

NUT BUTTERS

I love peanut butter and other nut butters, but commercial brands are either full of additives, or extortionately expensive. We can buy basic nuts in bulk here, but when I tried making nut butters with my old food processor, the results were never all that great. With my Kenwood processor, however, I was able to make beautifully smooth peanut butter in about three minutes, out of nothing but peanuts. Other nut butters are equally successful.

NUT MILKS

My husband is dairy-free so I make my own coconut or nut milks. I’m pleased to find that cashew milk and cashew-based ice creams can be made using the blender. If raw cashews are soaked overnight, and then drained, they can be whizzed with a little water to make cashew cream, with more water added to make an excellent milk substitute for cooking or adding to coffee.

In the past I’ve used my stick blender, but the results were gritty and had to be strained. With this Kenwood blender, no straining is necessary, meaning that all the nutrients of the cashews are present in the nut milk - and if I don’t stir it before using, delicious cashew cream remains in the bottom.

SOUPS AND KETCHUP

I make soups and tomato ketchup at home, too. While I prefer to blend them in a saucepan using my stick blender, it doesn’t give nearly such a good result as the Kenwood blender. I have to weigh up the convenience of liquidising in the pan against the increased smoothness with the blender; usually convenience wins, but for special occasions, or if I can’t get the soup to the smoothness I want, the blender is ideal.

OTHER USES

That’s just a few of my most frequent uses of this excellent appliance. I’ve also used the food processor for making breadcrumbs, for grating blocks of cheese, for chopping onions, and more. It’s so quick and easy, and feels so powerful that I keep it on the countertop and use it regularly.

There’s an emulsifying tool too, for mayonnaise; however I haven’t yet used that.

CLEANING

While most of the parts are suitable for a dishwasher, I usually wash them by hand as they’re quick and easy, and the jug parts, at least, would be a bit awkward to fit in the dishwasher. As soon as I’ve used either the processor or the blender, I fill them with soapy water to soak, and then wash them properly later. They don’t take long and aren’t fiddly at all. It’s not a good idea to leave a sharp blade soaking in a washing up bowl, as I know to my cost.

INSTRUCTIONS

The machine is accompanied by a slimline instruction booklet, with detailed diagrams showing every part of the food processor (including the variations not in this particular box) on the inside front cover. This is followed by the usual safety regulations, warnings about over-hot liquids and the sharpness of blades, and so on. There are then more specific instructions about each of the different attachments, a troubleshooting guide, and a few (very few) suggested recipes.

As with most instruction manuals, I skimmed it rapidly, used it to check that all parts were present and correct, and then put it in my collection of appliance instructions, just in case I ever need them.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATION

My first impressions were of a surprisingly big food processor, for the cost, although it fits quite neatly on my worktop. It’s easy to operate, with two distinct speeds, and while I’ve had to learn not to put too much in the bowl at once, it’s big enough for most of my purposes. The blender part is probably the best blender I’ve ever had.

The suction on the feet is very strong, which is good while in operation, as it stops the appliance from jumping around, but I found it slightly annoying at first; I keep it at the back of my work surface, but want to move it forward to use. The suction is so good that it was hard to move until I had the idea of keeping it on an old place mat. That makes it easy to slide forwards and backwards to use, but still stops the thing from moving around on its own.

All in all, I am extremely pleased with this machine. Highly recommended.

2022 UPDATE

The food processor, I am happy to report, still works well over seven years after purchase. I suppose I use it on average two or three times per month; I particularly like it for making pastry, although it's slightly annoying that the capacity is limited, so I can't make a large amount in one go. I still use it for coleslaw, for my annual marzipan and royal icing for the Christmas cake, and one or two other things. I have successfully made vegan mayonnaise using the emulsifier attachment, but never use the grater attachment. It's quicker to use a hand grater, and much easier to clean.

The blender part, however, started to leak after about three years. Just a few drops at first, but it appeared that unscrewing the base to clean weakened it - and the seals do become very dirty if not cleaned, no matter how well one washes the blender as a whole. I couldn't find replacement seals, and a replacement jug was going to prove almost as expensive as a new food processor.

So I decided to buy a new high-speed blender for our nut milks, to use the stick blender for soups and ketchup, and to keep the food processor part. It has been a good decision.

The food processor won't last forever; but nowadays seven years seems to be a good lifespan for any electrical appliance. While this particular model is no longer available, Kenwood still do a range of compact 'multipro' food processors.