I broke down. I succumbed. I resisted no more. I bought a Ninja food processor.
Me, of the limited kitchen space and denier of single purpose machines. Me, who swore to never again buy an appliance that took five times longer to clean than any time it ‘saved.’
Why a food processor?
Because I made a mistake. I learned to make homemade falafel in Toronto, even though my favorite shawarma hut was only fifteen minutes away. Now, we’re on the edge of Canada and the nearest falafel hut is three hours away. When the urge hits to eat Middle Eastern there’s only one option: Chez Me.
Given a food processor, making falafel is easy. Soak dried chickpeas overnight. Whiz them in the chopper with garlic, onions, spices and herbs. Fry and enjoy.
In a quest to make this more than a single purpose machine, I tried another recipe. Sourdough Raisin Bread. It was a success … so long as I forgeddabout the time it took to clean the diabolical-double-decker-dough-hook and bowl. This was a very soft dough and it whizzed itself into every possible nook & cranny. Still, the baked bread did taste good. It was even better as French toast the next morning.
But really, how much better is a dual purpose machine than a single purpose one? To make this truly multi-purpose I needed a third recipe.
Cue the best cookie in the world: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. PBOC for short.
It is based on a recipe from King Arthur who is American royalty for home bakers and professionals alike. I’ve modified it be less sugary and more moreish. If you like tender chewy cookies, rich with peanut, butterscotch and chocolate, then you will like this.
The Sandy Chronicles 
wery good blog i like it
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What a fabulous food processor you have – dare I google Ninja?
I feel you – I also have very limited counter space, neither do I like cleaning up equipment. but some equipment is life-changing (like my air-fryer, which I finally gave in and purchased a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back since!).
I love King Arthur Baking as well – every recipe I’ve tried has worked out extremely well. I can’t believe you can make bread with your Ninja. Can’t wait to hear what you will make with it next!
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I have been going back & forth on purchasing an air-fryer. So far I’ve always convinced myself that my full size convection oven will do the job. However, I can see the advantage of having a smaller appliance in Singapore. When I lived there, my kitchen did not come with an oven
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Also, the air fryer cooks everything in a fraction of the time. It is also very helpful in our very hot weather because it doesn’t produce the kind of heat that a convection oven does. I really don’t remember life without it!
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I have an ancient food processor I received as a wedding present over 40 years ago. I take it out once a year to make latkes.
I like my counters clear, so no extra gadgets for me. Although, I have thought about buying a bread making machine 🙂
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Hmm. Latkes sound good.
I have a bread making machine too. It was wonderful to just load the ingredients and enjoy the smell of baking bread. Minimal effort. Maximum satisfaction! I put it away in the garage when I realised how many more carbs we were packing away!
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That’s what stopped me from getting a bread machine…I wouldn’t be able to resist all that fresh doughy goodness 😦
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We have one and I use it from time to time but probably not enough to justify owning it! However I don’t find cleaning too much of a chore as most parts go in the dishwasher 🙂 Those cookies sound yummy!
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That’s true, all the parts are dishwasher safe. Maybe I should try that 🙂
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🍪🍪🥠🥠 Excellent!
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It’s the after- washing that gets to me too.
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Especially the razor sharp edges!
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Welcome to the world of food processors, Sandy – and the careful washing up afterwards. Although I make wholemeal pastry by hand, I like to use the food processor sometimes. I also use it for recipes when I haven’t got soft butter – my honey and oat bikkies for instance. I don’t use it much to chop anything and so far it has lasted 37 years! Durable!
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37 Years! You must have bought one when they’d just come out. I waited for ten years before I bought my first one … so my original is only 27 years old 😉
That one is the source of my ambivalence to kitchen gadgetry. For the longest time, it never justified its use of counter-space. I only use it to make this one Chinese dish that my father likes. It involves finely chopping raw meat & seafood into a meat paste (something my grandfather used to do with two Chinese cleavers!)
My new one has a more compact design with a different set of blades for mixing doughs. They are not sharp & are easy to clean. I’ve yet to use the slicers, dicers and choppers .. that’s recipes 4, 5, 6 to come.
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It was a wedding present and a large sized one. I don’t keep it on the bench though. It gets packed away. I have replaced the lid and maybe the bowl once when it jammed up. Otherwise not too much to go wrong. I have the attachments but have never used them. My m-i-l on the other hand, uses it to chop and slice all the time though. (A smaller version).
I can imagine those two cleavers rabidly going at the meat and seafood with your grandfather at the helm!!
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BTW which one did you get? Amazon has a three piece set with a with 450-watt base for about $55 and free shipping. I suddenly feel the urgent need to have one on my counter….to whiz things. 😋
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I got “Ninja Professional Plus Food Processor 850-Watts with Auto-iQ Preset Programs Chop Puree Dough Slice Shred with a 9-Cup Capacity and a Silver Stainless Finish (BN600C) – Canadian Version.” I don’t know what makes it Canadian. Maybe the extra translation costs for French and metric?
I looked more at capacity versus power .. it seems like there were complaints about noise with the lower power engines, but then people complained about noise in this one too – which I don’t find loud really. None of these things are quiet afterall. 9 cup capacity is ideal for me.
$55 sounds like a good deal. Go forth and whiz !
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The one I mentioned does seem very small and the larger one is not that much more expensive. Believe it or not I used to make my own Hummus with my food processor but for the life of me I can’t remember why.
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Probably because Hummus wasn’t as popular and commonly available back then. Kinda like Greek yogurt and kombucha. I remember recipes from the 90’s telling me to strain my yogurt. And I see recipes today about scooping out your scoby for kombucha.
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Butt wait grasshopper, the first priority to the ninja is to win without fighting. 🙏
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