Your kitchen helper

A good machine will allow you to make a number of different foods, desserts, dips and so much more. Once you find the right processor, however, you'll enjoy all that you can do with it and it just might become your favourite kitchen appliance.

Among the most popular processors on the market today are:

KitchenAid Food Processor

Cool sleek designs are the order of the day with all Kitchenaid processors.

The smooth and rounded curves will be a focal and talking point in anyone's kitchen and complete with the many colors available never look out of place.

Multipurpose stainless steel blades are as standard on all processors and with the sound proofing technology Kitchenaid have implemented a quieter and more peaceful kitchen is now the norm.

Cuisinart Food Processor

The Cuisinart food processor comes in many different styles and prices from the cheap and cheerful designed for minimum use and for those on a budget, to the expensive and more powerful DLC-XPN.

But if you want a food processor with a little more for your buck but not the top of the range DLC-XPN then the DLC-10S Cuisinart food processor could be worth a look. It comes with a 7 cup Lexan work bowl and a whole host of stainless steel discs including shredders and slicing discs.

Hamilton Beach Food Processor

If you have a busy lifestyle or even if you have one that centers on dinner parties or just love to cook and bake then a Hamilton Beach food processor will be an invaluable aid in the kitchen.

At the top end of the Hamilton food processors is the Big Mouth Deluxe 14 Cup Food Processor.

Where this food processor comes into its own is the ability to deal with whole foods thanks to the extra large feed tubes. It will quite comfortably slice vegetables like tomatoes into the perfect slices.

Most people, when they buy a food processor, buy it for a specific use. They may have a dip they want to make or a dessert, but they don't realize that a good processor can be used to make literally hundreds of different types of foods.

It's a good idea to get your hands on a good processor cook book so that you know just what you can do with it. After all, it would be a shame to spend lots of money on a good processor without utilizing it to its fullest potential.

So what can you exactly do with a good processor? Well, you can make pie dough, you can chop meat, you can puree vegetables from soup to use as a thickener rather than using flour, you can make refried beans, guacamole, mayonnaise, gravies, you can scramble eggs for a quiche, you can make pie crusts, syrups, cream cheese, and that's just to name a few.

Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to get creative and then there's no telling what you can do with a good processor. However, if you don't get the right processor you'll find it difficult to make many of the foods you want to make. That's why you need to be very choosy when deciding on the correct processor to buy.

When comparing compare food processors and looking through food processor reviews, you need to take into consideration sturdiness, volume, blade strength as well what type of warranty it comes with.

Sturdiness refers to how solidly the product is made. If your product is cheaply made with cheap materials, you may find it coming apart whenever you're trying to use it on tough foods, such as meat.

That's why processors that are made of metal or strong plastics are always better than those made with thin plastics. Sturdy processors will also last longer so you'll get more for your money.

The volume refers to how much food the processor can hold. Make sure you get one that will hold as much food as you think you'll be using. The more the processor holds, the less often you'll have to refill it in order to make the amount of food you're aiming for.

The blade strength is the most important aspect to take into consideration. If you plan on chopping meat, or even lots of vegetables, blades that aren't very strong may break or they may end up burning the machine up.

Therefore, when checking out food processor reviews, be sure to look for a processor that offers extremely strong blade strength so that you can chop through even the toughest of foods.

Finally, when looking through food processor reviews take some time to check for a good warranty so that you know you'll be able to return it and get another one in case yours ever breaks down.