Blender or chopper: what to choose for the kitchen?

Here are the difficulties of the "kitchen" choice - a blender or a chopper? And why can they calmly coexist in the same kitchen? What is better to choose if there is no opportunity to purchase both? Answers to these questions in today's review.

What is a blender

This is a household appliance focused on fine cutting of food. With its help it is easy to prepare a homogeneous puree or emulsion. Same blender copes well with whipping cocktails or cracking ice.

There are two varieties of these kitchen helpers: stationary and submersible. The first is distinguished by a relatively massive body and a set of bowls with blades, which are installed on top of the base.

The hand blender is more compact and relatively cheap. The latter is often achieved due to a more modest configuration, which sometimes includes only a body-handle with a motor hidden inside and a basic nozzle for making puree. In this case, any deep container of a suitable size can serve as a bowl.

Blender benefits

Compactness, ease of storage and safe operation of household appliances have long become not so much an advantage as an indispensable attribute of high-quality kitchen assistants. Therefore, let's focus on the main thing right away:

• quick preparation of mashed potatoes, emulsions, cocktails or batter;
• the ability to grind solid ingredients to a powdery state (optional);
• cutting food into small pieces.

And the hand blender and the stand blender are easy to keep clean. You just need to thoroughly rinse the bowl or attachment in running water immediately after use.

What is a chopper

As the name suggests, this household appliance is geared towards chopping food. At the same time, the initial task is not to transform the ingredients into mashed potatoes, but to cut them into quite tangible pieces of the desired size. (large, medium or small).

Among the design features, one can single out a body with a motor, which is always located above the bowl, and never acts as a handle. A slightly different structure of the attachments should also be noted: the knives are located asymmetrically, in two rows or at a slope.

Chopper benefits

The main difference is the ability to adjust the size of the slices into which the ingredients are cut. This means that a chopper can easily replace a grater and a meat grinder when it comes to preparing salad or minced meat.

Another advantage is the high power of the motor, because the technique is also focused on cutting raw and hard vegetables. If for an average blender the norm is 500–800 W, then for a grinder the most typical range is 600–1200 W.

Caring for this kitchen helper is simple: the nozzle is not connected in any way with the bowl, which makes it easier to wash the ingredients. Storage will also not cause problems, because replaceable knives do not take up much space, and the device itself does not stand out with serious dimensions either.

So which one to choose: a blender or a chopper?

A sound assessment of your needs will help you decide on the most suitable option for home appliances. If you want to make it easier to cut ingredients for salads, side dishes or liquid dishes, then the chopper is better for this task. But for making baby purees, mousses and various cocktails, it is still advisable to purchase a blender.

It is important to understand that multifunctional equipment does the best for immediate tasks, and much worse for secondary options.

This means that with a blender, you will not be able to get such a neat cutting of ingredients as in a chopper. Even if the manufacturer has provided such an option. The rule works the other way around: it will not be easy to get the desired smooth consistency of puree in a chopper.

And this despite the fact that the cost of multifunctional models is extremely rarely lower than the sum of prices for simple chopper and blender options, purchased separately.