The 5 Best Vegetable Choppers of 2023
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The Presto Professional SaladShooter makes kitchen prep easy and mess-free
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
If you love creamy dips and chunky pico de gallo or prefer lighter zucchini noodles with your shrimp and lemony garlic butter over regular pasta, a vegetable chopper can make your favorite recipes even easier. These small kitchen appliances are less expensive, smaller versions of bulky, but more powerful, food processors that can cut, puree, chop, and slice everything from toasted almonds to cucumbers.
According to meal prep expert Alyssa Rimmer, creator of the blog Simply Quinoa, “Food choppers are great for cutting veggies into uniform sizes without needing pro-level knife skills. This ensures that your vegetables cook evenly—whether you’re roasting, sautéing, or steaming. It also speeds up the prep time considerably since you won't have to waste time carefully chopping to the perfect shape and size.”
We looked at electric and manual food chopper options, keeping in mind the pros and cons of each type. We also considered size, capacity, cleaning, and maintenance when choosing our favorites. The Presto Professional SaladShooter came out on top as the best overall electric food chopper for its multiple color-coded blades and safety features.
Presto Professional SaladShooter
Best Overall, Electric
The electric machine literally shoots out perfectly sliced cucumbers, carrots, and more.
What We Love: Multiple color-coded blades, funnel directs ingredients, plunger protects your hands
What We Don't Love: Multiple parts can be tricky to store
This handheld food chopper is as fun to use as its name implies. The electric machine literally shoots out perfectly sliced cucumbers, carrots, and more. The box includes four color-coded blades to produce cuts in various sizes and shapes, including ridged rounds, shreds, and thick slices. There’s also a handy funnel that prevents things from shooting too far off course.
Though it’s handheld, the 11-ounce machine is very safe. A plastic plunger pushes food down towards the blades, so your hands stay far away from anything sharp. You can quickly prep an assortment of shredded cheese, sliced veggies, and meats to have ready for a variety of homemade pizza recipes for family movie night.
It’s powered by a 5-foot-long electrical cord, which is long enough so you won’t be tied to the one corner of your kitchen with an electrical outlet. And when you’re done, all of the blades are dishwasher-safe. The only drawbacks are that it does not come with a storage box to contain the multiple parts, which can be tricky to store, and a fine shredder blade is not included in the set. Otherwise, this is a solid value for the money.
Price at time of publish: $75
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
Dimensions: 11 x 4.25 x 8.5 inches | Capacity: 11 ounces | Dishwasher Safe: Yes, except electric base
Fullstar Vegetable Chopper
Best Overall, Manual
If you don’t mind putting in a little extra work for perfectly chopped vegetables, this manual chopper is a great choice.
What We Love: Very portable, comes with a spiralizer blade, dishwasher-safe
What We Don't Love: Requires more elbow grease
If you don’t mind putting in a little more elbow grease for perfectly chopped vegetables, this manual chopper is a great choice. It comes with five blades made of rust-resistant, heavy-duty 420 stainless steel: two dicers, a julienne, a mandoline, and a grater. Plus, you’ll get a manual spiralizer that produces ribbons in three thicknesses. You can effortlessly achieve precise thin cuts to take your shaved vegetable salad to the next level.
When you first unpack the portable appliance, you might get a little confused figuring out how everything fits together. But after you’ve assembled the system once, it’s easy enough to replicate. To avoid mess, all your chopped food falls into the clear plastic reservoir underneath. And while you use the mandoline to make thin slices, be sure to use the plastic guard and cut-proof glove to protect your hands from the blade. The 6.5-cup food chopper also receives high marks for being dishwasher-safe and durable.
Price at time of publish: $40
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
Dimensions: 10.63 x 4.72 x 4.48 inches | Capacity: 6.5 cups | Dishwasher Safe: Yes
Ninja Express Food Chopper
Best Budget
This affordable, well-built food chopper is an excellent lightweight alternative to a full-fledged food processor.
What We Love: Easy to clean, sharp blades, non-slip pad
What We Don't Love: Only one speed
This well-built food chopper is an excellent lightweight alternative to a full-fledged food processor. The sharp blade isn’t quite as sturdy as larger models and only comes with one speed, but it does the trick for softer produce and makes soft and fluffy guacamole or fresh gazpacho in minutes. While running, the machine stays very still, thanks to a smart nonslip pad on the bottom. The 16-ounce bowl can even double as a food storage container, as it comes with an airtight lid. Better still, the plastic does not hold on to odors or colors, even after storing food for several days.
All the parts other than the detachable motor are dishwasher-safe, although hand-washing is still recommended, especially if you put it through a lot of use. Many reviewers love the versatility of this compact electric chopper and often favor it over their large food processors because it is much easier to use and clean.
Price at time of publish: $38
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
Dimensions: 10.1 x 5.7 x 5.7 inches | Capacity: 2 cups | Dishwasher Safe: Yes, except electric base
MOSAIC Electric Food Chopper
Best Large Capacity
What We Love: Sturdy titanium blades, customizable for desired texture, rubber garlic peeler blade
What We Don't Love: Only one speed
This stainless-steel food chopper with a 5-cup capacity glass bowl works like a pricier and larger food processor but has a more compact size and shape that’s great for smaller kitchens. All the detachable parts are dishwasher-safe. The titanium blades are sturdy and sharp enough to handle tough ingredients like nuts and raw root vegetables. They’re also customizable. You can blend with one or two blades, depending on the number of ingredients you’re working with and your desired texture.
The electric processor also comes with a rubber blade that quickly peels whole garlic cloves, which online reviewers love and is particularly useful when making a dish like garlic chicken with white wine sauce. Reviewers also give this food chopper high ratings for being easy to assemble, use, and clean. A minor drawback is that there is only one speed.
Price at time of publish: $41
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
Dimensions: 8.86 x 9.65 x 7.8 inches | Capacity: 5 cups | Dishwasher Safe: Yes, except electric base
Related: The Best Vegetable Peelers
Viatek Cordless Chopper and Grinder
Best Mini
This miniature and wireless chopper is better suited to whole spices and coffee beans than fresh produce.
What We Love: Great for grinding whole spices and coffee, good for chopping small amounts, portable
What We Don't Love: Can be difficult to clean
This miniature wireless chopper is better suited to whole spices and coffee beans than fresh produce. It has two chopping compartments: a smaller one on the top with a built-in blade that’s great for breaking down whole cardamom pods and other seeds into powder. This can come in handy if you use a lot of black pepper and are fanatical about only using freshly ground peppercorns. The bottom chopping compartment is slightly larger and has a small removable S-blade. With a maximum capacity of 60 grams, it's useful when you only need to chop ingredients like chiles, garlic, or ginger in small quantities.
The chopper is battery-powered and must be charged via the included USB cable. The battery life is adequate for regular home kitchen use, as you only really need to run the motor for 30 to 60 seconds at a time. The main drawback with this portable chopper is that the detachable parts are not dishwasher-safe and can be difficult to clean.
Price at time of publish: $80
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
Dimensions: 3.2 x 3.2 x 6.4 inches | Capacity: 6 tablespoons (60 grams) | Care: Hand-wash
Related: The Best Small Coffee Makers
Final Verdict
For the best overall electric food chopper, we chose the Presto Professional SaladShooter because it comes with a variety of color-coded blades and has a funnel that keeps ingredients from shooting off-course and a plunger to protect your hands. If you favor a manual food chopper, then the easy-to-clean Fullstar Vegetable Chopper is the best option for precise slicing, cutting, and chopping.
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
How We Tested
We sent these food choppers to our experienced food reviewer, who tested them side-by-side. She used each one to chop both red onion and cherry tomatoes, to assess how it handled both hard and soft produce. She assessed them on their set-up, performance, and ease of use. She also cleaned each according to the manufacturer's instructions and analyzed how easy or hard they were to get back to spotless.
Other Options We Tested
Cuisinart Stainless Steel Food Chopper: We also tested this manual chopper hoping it would be a great value option that you could easily store away. That last part was true—it is very compact and easy to store. But the blades were the worst of the bunch. The flimsy blades didn't chop food at all, but more mashed it to bits. You're better off with another one of our options, or your own chef's knife.
What to Look for When Buying a Food Chopper
Manual vs. Electric
Both manual and electric food choppers have their pros and cons. With an electric chopper, in most cases, all you have to do is press a button, though you usually have to hold the button down for the entire process as opposed to walking away. Manual machines, of course, require much more hands-on work, but you also maintain more control. While an electric food chopper can quickly and easily overprocess your ingredients, with a manual one, you can see how every cut turns out and adjust as necessary. Manual choppers are better for making precise, uniform cuts. "I use a mandolin at home to slice something very thinly," says Alyssa Rimmer says. "I love it for all vegetables, but especially tougher vegetables like carrots, cabbage, radishes, and potatoes.” Electric choppers are your friend for quickly processing large amounts of food when you’re not worried about a picture-perfect presentation.
Size
The size of your food chopper depends on how much storage space you have, as well as how much and what ingredients you intend to process. For example, the miniature chopper from Viatek is all you need to break down whole spices and coffee beans. But the larger-capacity Mosaic chopper will do a much better job making a smooth-textured soup like a cream of celery or herby pesto sauce.
Maintenance
The electric food choppers on this list all have some parts that are not dishwasher-safe, such as the electrical base. This should be wiped down with a damp cloth and should never be submerged in water. While many of the electric food choppers like the Presto, Ninja, and Mosaic have dishwasher-safe parts, it's still better to hand-wash those parts whenever possible as some of the manufacturers recommend. Manual choppers, on the other hand, are often entirely dishwasher-safe, which makes for super easy clean-up.
Simply Recipes / Lizzy Briskin
FAQs
Is a food chopper the same as a food processor?
The main difference between a food chopper and a food processor is size. Food processors tend to have mixing bowls with at least a 4-cup capacity, and some are as large as 14-cup. They also have heavier, more powerful motor bases and larger S-blades than food choppers. Food choppers, on the other hand, are the smaller, less powerful, and more manageable cousins. They’re a great alternative to expensive and bulky food processors in smaller kitchens. "Food choppers are an amazing tool for beginners," says Rimmer. "They save loads of time chopping. I especially love them for things like onions and garlic."
What foods can you chop with a vegetable chopper?
A vegetable chopper is a perfect tool to cut up large quantities of produce. From hardy items like carrots and sweet potatoes to juicy fresh fruit, a high-quality food chopper can break things down into uniform pieces. You can also make a complete dish in a food chopper, such as mango salsa, butternut squash soup, or hummus. You can also use some choppers to make homemade seasoned ground meat for burgers and meatballs. In general, these devices make food prep faster and easier than doing knife work by hand.
Why Trust Simply Recipes?
This article was written by Lizzy Briskin, a chef, food writer, and recipe developer who uses her SaladShooter whenever she can. In researching the best food chopper options on the market, she considered the pros and cons of electric and manual choppers, as well as size, capacity, and ease of care. Lizzy also consulted with meal prep expert Alyssa Rimmer, creator of the blog Simply Quinoa, for her insights on ways food choppers can improve food prep.
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