Mixer Grinder vs. Food Processor: Understanding Key Differences

One of the first appliances that you equip your modern kitchen with is either a mixer grinder or a food processor. While they may look similar and even perform a few similar functions, each appliance is designed for certain specific tasks and excels in them like no other. Depending on your needs and the recipes you cook often, you must pick an appliance that would help you ease off the load in the kitchen.

Understanding how a food processor and a mixer grinder differ will help you choose the right tool for your daily needs. Whether you’re a busy home cook or an experimental chef, being well-versed with the strengths of each gadget can save you time and effort, especially when you are hosting people throughout the year.

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What Is A Mixer Grinder?

A mixer grinder is a versatile kitchen appliance commonly found in most Indian households. Its primary job is to grind, blend, and puree ingredients, which people traditionally used to do using a heavy mortar and pestle (silbatta). It usually comes in two or three jars in different sizes — the small one is for dry spices, the medium jar is for chutneys and pastes, and the large one is for making batter, milkshakes, or smoothies.

It is ideal for everyday tasks like grinding masalas, making dosa or idli batter, pureeing tomatoes, onions, and cashews for curries, or whipping up quick milkshakes in between meals. Since it is compact and user-friendly, a mixer grinder can help you cut down the prep time by almost 75-80%.

What Is A Food Processor?

A food processor is more of a multi-tasking powerhouse featuring a wider range of attachments and blades for chopping, slicing, shredding, kneading dough, grating cheese, and even juicing. It usually comes with a large bowl in which you drop all the ingredients, and you can swap out blades depending on what you want to do with them. This appliance can handle large quantities of food with ease and can reduce the amount of manual labour that would otherwise be required. You can also bid farewell to upper arm muscle exercises while kneading the dough or crushing the ingredients.

Key Differences

The biggest difference between a mixer grinder and a food processor is their range of functions, and you must assess the appliances based on those. A mixer grinder specialises in wet and dry grinding, blending, and pureeing, thus, it is perfect for Indian households where home chefs prepare curries, batters, and spice powders every day. 

A food processor is good for cutting, slicing, and shredding large batches of vegetables or fruits, kneading dough for bread or roti, and grating cheese quickly. Another difference is their design: mixer grinders come with multiple jars which you can keep inside one another to save space. But a food processor usually has one large bowl and several blade attachments. Food processors also require more wattage to handle heavy-duty chopping and dough kneading.

Which One Should You Choose?

Your choice depends on your cooking style and what you need the appliance to help you with. If you mostly need to grind spices, blend chutneys, and make smooth batters, a mixer grinder is indispensable. You can even use it for chopping ingredients into a coarse paste.

But if you regularly prepare salads, soups, or baked goods, a food processor will save you a lot of time by cutting down the preparation time. Many home cooks find having both appliances handy because if your preparation time is reduced by 90-95%, half of the job is done.