13-Cup Food Processor with French Fry Disc and Dicing Kit (KFP1320CU)

I will just say good luck with the minimal plastic.    Have you looked into kitchenaid food processors?

Yes.  That was the one I was thinking about.   I know they also used to make a food processor attachment for the stand mixer.  

I have the 13, too, and I love it! It has so many great functions, too. I like to bulk chop onions, because I hate chopping them by hand. The fixing attachment has been a game changer for me.

I love mine. I have the 13 or 14 cup (not sure) I upgraded from 2 smaller ones because I got tired of having both. I use mine almost everyday because I do a lot of bulk stuff like pesto and tomato sauces, etc.

It depends on your needs. My Blendtec high-speed blender saw the light maybe once a month for years. Then I developed some dietary restrictions and a need to eat a great deal of cooked vegetables. Now it's in constant use for making pureed soups, sunflower cream, and no-mato paste. Similarly, I went 50 years disliking food processors as noisy and not worth the cleanup. I found knife work satisfying, peaceful, and part of what I love about cooking. Now, though, I have health problems that bring fatigue, poor stamina, painful knees, and so many food intolerances that I have to cook nearly everything I eat. I've finally gotten a food processor, and I really like it. It's fast, quiet, and versatile, and it can shave fennel translucent- thin. Sure, the dicing kit isn't as precise or flexible as knife work, but it's fine for most things and it's terrifyingly fast. It lets me do more, and that's what I need right now. I like the food processor for its flexibility. I got a Kitchenaid 13 cup with adjustable slicing thickness and a dicing kit. I can use it for chopping, dicing, shredding, mixing dough, and slicing a good range of thicknesses. If you're looking for the most bang fit your buck, it's not a bad choice. But really, think about what you most want to do in the kitchen and what would best help you achieve it. For the past 50 years, what I wanted to do was cut things by hand. I got a good knife and I was set. Now I want to stand less and cook more, so I have a shiny red prep chef friend.

It is the small KitchenAid but a few years ago. I have two, a big and a small and I love them.

We have a large KitchenAid food processor with a variety of discs and blades, but mainly use a Ninja 3-cup food chopper instead. I loathe the texture of cooked zucchini, carrots, and bell peppers, but am fine with the taste. So, finely chopping those veggies and disguising them in lasagna works great. A mini chopper also does well for dicing onions, making salsa, and repurposing pot roast to make enchiladas and meat pies. When looking for a small food chopper, get one that has blades going up the spinning vertical shaft ... not just a pair of blades at the bottom. My previous mini chopper with a pair of blades at the bottom just mauled the vegetables. The Ninja one has four blades. It is actually an attachment for an immersion blender power stick, but I believe the company makes free-standing models. I have not checked to see what companies make similar mini choppers.

The most used kitchen tools for us are: digital thermometer, digital scale, Santoku knife (others prefer a chef's knife), paring knife, bread slicer, fish spatula, offset spatula (aka hamburger turner), multiple sets of measuring spoons ($3 each), an easy-to-clean large cutting board, electric kettle, and rice cooker. A knife sharpener is essential. Things like an immersion blender, food processor, sous vide machine and/or pressure cooker are nice to have, but not essential items for a new cook. We have a fantastic KitchenAid food processor, that mostly gathers dust.

My cuisinart died after 20+ years, replaced it with a kitchen aid (they had a sale, cuisinart was more expensive at the time) and I like it just as much as my cuisinart. They do the same thing so for me, they’re interchangeable