The Cuisinart Mini-Mate Plus Chopper Grinder is an Essential Kitchen Appliance

The Cuisinart Mini-Mate Plus Chopper Grinder is an essential kitchen tool! I find that I use this little appliance quite often and for the most common tasks.

This little appliance consists of a small bowl that fits over the motor section. Inside the bowl you place a small blade piece that is reversible. That is, you can put it in upside down or right side up, depending on finely you want the food inside to be chopped. One side will chop the food and the other side is more of a mixing blade, a great little feature! The motor is mounted on top of the bowl and there are two speeds of processing.

The bowl on this small appliance only holds about 1 cup of food or liquid or a combination thereof so it is not meant for large jobs. However, if you want to chop some hard cheese like parmesan for topping the casserole you just cooked, this is the perfect choice. Or, if you want to chop some carrots or celery for a salad, it is so much easier to put them into this handy little appliance than to chop them yourself. It is also great for chopping spices such as cinnamon stick and it works great with nuts. I often buy whole nuts because they are cheaper and then chop them. I do almonds a lot because I love green beans almondine!

This is also good if you want to combine a more liquid ingredient really well. For esample, I make single servings of instant pudding for my children in this little Cuisinart. I simply add ½ cup of milk and a scoop of pudding mix (the scoop is exactly 3 tablespoons in case anyone wants to try this) and turn it on and off a few times and my children have pudding. It is much cheaper than purchasing those individual pre-made cups of pudding and you KNOW it has real milk in it!

In my opinion, the greatest thing about this mini chopper/grinder is that is is soo easy to clean. I have a large Cuisinart Food Processor and I only drag it out for really big jobs because I hate to clean it! This little chopper is so easy. I simply rinse the bowl out and put it in the dishwasher. The blade also gets rinsed and put into the dishwasher (I have a little basket on the top rack that is usually used for baby bottle nipples or sippy cup valves but it works great for the chopper blade too). The motor part of the chopper is simply wiped clean with a sponge and a paper towel and you're done.

This chopper also takes up very little counter space so it lives on my counter at all times. This way it is always handy and ready to use but I don't have to worry about not having room to keep it.

There is nothing I would change about this product except to make it more widely available. I bought this little appliance several years ago and I went to purchase one for my cousin and found that it was very hard, but not totally impossible, to find. I had to do an online search and I was finally able to find it.