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, a useful 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.

Kenwood 'Wizard' Hand Blender

 The Kenwood Wizard HB615 Pro Hand Blender, which cost around £20 from Amazon, consists of two main parts - the electrical motor end, and a detachable piece with blades at the end.  Each part is about 18cm long, and the whole weighs around 700g.  When I first lifted it up, it was a little heavier than I had expected, but fit comfortably into my hand. I was surprised to find just two rather small and flimsy-looking metal blades at the end and wondered if they would actually work... 

This hand blender comes with a calibrated plastic beaker, and a standard instruction manual that explains how to use it. Not that it’s particularly helpful. It was rather obvious how to fit the two parts together, and am already aware of safety issues, so would not have considered immersing the electrical end in water, or allowing a child to play with it.

Incidentally, photos on Amazon and elsewhere show this blender without a cord, but it has a reasonable length cable with a standard three-pin plug.  

WHY DID I WANT A HAND BLENDER?

I particularly wanted a hand blender for home-made soups, of which I produce large quantities during the winter. A traditional blender can be used, but the process is rather messy - one has to transfer unblended soup from a pan into the blender goblet, ensuring the lid is firmly in place; then, unless one has made a fairly small amount, find a new pan to pour the blended soup into, because there is still lots of unblended soup in the original pan. 

Plenty of potential for spilling, and a great deal of extra washing up. So, inspired by reviews I read and a couple of friends who already owned hand blenders, I decided to try this out. 

FIRST ATTEMPTS WITH THE NEW HAND BLENDER

I put some carrot soup ingredients to simmer. When they were well cooked, I turned the pan off for twenty minutes or so (as with a traditional blender, this gadget isn’t supposed to be used on boiling hot food) and then put my new hand blender together and plugged it in. Watched by my son - himself something of a wizard in the kitchen - I tentatively placed the blade end in the pan. 

Not being very adventurous, I switched it on to the low setting. The soup splashed slightly, but thankfully it was in a big pan. I could see it swirling around, but could not understand how it was going to blend the onions, carrots, and so on into delicious soup. 

The instruction manual told me to use a ‘‘stabbing’ motion. I understood this to mean up and down, as if I were stabbing the base of the saucepan with the gadget...

‘Nooooo!’ yelled my son, as I lifted it up for the first stab, still switched on, and soup went flying all over the pan, the counter top, and my shirt. 

I was ready to abandon this apparently ridiculous gadget, so my son took over. Not just a better cook than I am, he’s a great deal more mechanically aware, and realised that the ‘stabbing’ motion was supposed to be fairly slowly side to side, keeping the base of the gadget on the bottom of the saucepan. This was much more successful, particularly when he turned it up to full power.  

A couple of times the noise changed to a sort of graunching which didn’t sound very pleasant, so my son stopped the motor at once and lifted the blade out, to find a bit of onion stuck to the blades. A quick shake released that, and then it continued to work well. 

It was a minute or so before the entire panful of ingredients had turned into soup, ready to be reheated, but we all agreed that this little stick blender had worked every bit as well as my more traditional blender; possibly even better. The soup was smooth and delicious.  And while there was a great deal more mess to be cleaned up, due to my incompetence, there were certainly less pans to wash.

USE OF THE KENWOOD STICK BLENDER

Since then, I’ve used this little blender many times. Its primary function has been for various kinds of home-made soup, with increasing success as I grew in confidence and developed a better technique.  

I’ve also used it for:

- blending cooked chick-peas and other ingredients for humus

- cooked mixed beans, to make US-style re-fried beans

- mashed potatoes which are much smoother than using a fork or potato masher

- tomato ketchup (home-made) after cooking the first ingredients - no need to sieve

Since the end of the blender is metal, it shouldn’t be used on non-stick surfaces. Current wisdom appears to suggest that non-stick pans aren’t a great idea anyway, and my favourite saucepans are heavy-based stainless steel, so that hasn’t been a problem.  For smaller quantities of food - such as when making humus - the plastic container that came with the blender works well. 

WHEN TO USE A TRADITIONAL BLENDER

In the summer, I make fruit smoothies, and they are a easier in a traditional blender (liquidiser) with its own goblet. I make both almond milk and coconut milk, too, and the stick blender isn’t appropriate for either, while the traditional one works extremely well.  So I haven’t been able to dispense with it entirely. 

CLEANING THE STICK BLENDER

I no longer spew ingredients everywhere when I use my stick blender, so it is unquestionably easier to clean than a traditional blender. When I’ve finished with it, I unscrew the blade end and pop it in some warm water to soak, then give the electrical end a quick wipe with a damp cloth. When I’ve washed the blade end, I make sure I place it upside down to drain, as water can get inside it. 

CONCLUSIONS

After 20 months of regular usage, my Kenwood stick blender is still working well, if looking a little faded. I wonder, now, how I managed so many years without it. I sometimes wonder how long it will last - it still feels flimsy, despite being so effective - but if and when it gives up, I will certainly replace it. I would certainly choose another one with the detachable blade part; a friend of mine has an all-in-one stick blender, and finds it much more difficult to clean. 

Unsurprisingly this exact model is not available on Amazon any more, but there are several replacements starting at around £30, and equivalents by other manufacturers at slightly lower price. 

Definitely recommended if you mostly cook from scratch and make soup regularly.

2022 UPDATE

I am happy to report that my Kenwood stick blender is still functioning well, almost twelve years after I first acquired it. Its main use is for soup (which I make about twice a month during the winter) and ketchup, which I make around once every four or five weeks. The apparent flimsiness was evidently an illusion; the blender has long outlasted my expectations. I hope it will continue to work for years to come, but if not I plan to replace it, if possible, by one of Kenwood's newer models of stick blender.