The Magimix Food Processor, Put to the Protein Bar Test

If you had 1.3 horsepower, bottled up inside a French food processor, staring at you from across the kitchen, what would you do?

Dive in?  Chop onions?  Slice zucchini?

Run away?  Scared to see what kind of user manual this powerful machine will try to confuse you with?

Wait for “the right time” because you’re not really sure what to do or how to go about it?  And you don’t have the time to clean up the kitchen from any accidental explosions before the husband gets home?

I did option #3 for about a week, until Mr. Crumbs asked me, “Are you going to do anything with that box?  Or are you keeping it for something?”  I told him, “It’s not just a box.  There’s a food processor in there.”  To which he exclaimed, “STILL?!  What are you waiting for?”

I will be the first to admit when it came to testing the Magimix 4200XL 14-cup food processor, I had no idea where to begin.  I had never owned a food processor before.  Yes there is a small food chopper in my kitchen, but you and I know darn well they aren’t the same thing.

What is the Magimix Food Processor Capable Of?

Ready or not, the experimenting began.  I took a fuyu persimmon, washed it and dried it and loaded it up according to the manual (which is REALLY easy to read, by the way).  Three seconds later, I was hooked.

That’s how long it took to slice an entire persimmon.  Just three seconds!

I was absolutely giddy as I loaded up the dehydrator with the persimmon slices.  Literally, my face was beaming!  Smiling ear to ear, I could not believe that the Magimix took three seconds to do something that would take me over three minutes.

It was like a new toy at Christmas and I wanted to do it again.  So I did!

• I sliced up another persimmon and the kids and I ate them.
• Then I changed out the blades and sliced up carrots for minestrone soup.
• Then I changed out the blades again and chopped up onions and garlic for soup too.

My regular prep work for soup night was literally reduced to less than two minutes, and it was totally awesome!

What Else Can the Magimix Do?

I’ve been buying random end and irregular pieces of pepperoni from a local discount grocery store for awhile, trying to save a little bit on our favorite homemade pizza topping.  But let me tell you something.  Trying to slice those weirdo pieces into neat little rounds is about as much fun as waiting in line at the DMV for three hours while trying to entertain two extremely curious and bored kids.  When I take a moment to consider whether or not I should suck it up and spend an extra $2 just so that I didn’t have to endure the agonizing defeat of mis-matched and deformed slices, I nearly caved.

And then last week, the light bulb went off.  I bet the Magimix could do it!

With the bowls and blades all set up, I hit “pulse” and watched magic happen before my eyes.

And yes, it was magic!  I know this because Mr. Crumbs stopped what he was doing, looked over and said, “Wow.”

“Pretty neat, eh?” was my response.

“Can you do it again?” he requested. 😉

We loaded the machine up for round two, hit “auto” just for variety and two blinks of an eye later, it was done.  In our bowl was perfectly sliced pepperoni, sitting pretty and waiting for us to top our pizzas.

It was like I had died and gone to kitchen prep heaven.  Now I can’t WAIT to scour the discount grocery store for more pepperoni.  The next time I’m there, I’m buying two!

Since this giveaway is in celebration of “High Protein, No Powder,” and my book recommends a food processor to make the bars, it’s only fitting that I test the Magimix with a new protein bar recipe.

I pulled out the ingredients for the Double Chocolate Almond Bar and instead of following the directions I wrote in the book, I through everything in the Magimix.  Because if this machine can work wonders with pepperoni and has the capability to chop meat and fish, then surely it can handle a few nuts and dried fruit, right?

RIGHT!  I threw everything in there (quartering just two items, as a first-time precaution) and let it run for 2-3 minutes.  Sure enough, it all stuck together as it should have!  The Magimix cut the steps in half, kept my hands clean and created a bar that withstood the fall apart test.  All was indeed good in the Crumbs kitchen.

There’s Still So Much More to Test

Let me say that again.  There is still SO much more to test.  I know I’ve barely scratched the surface.  On my list of things to do:

• I want to shred mozzarella (frozen) to speed up pizza night prep and stretch the cost of the unprocessed cheese.   UPDATE:  This was a HUGE success!  Frozen cheese didn’t work at all, but semi-frozen cheese surprisingly did!  Long, semi-thin strips just like the “regular” shredded cheese in the store.  But way tastier, and way more affordable!
• I want to make meringue with the egg white blades instead of having to stop partway through a recipe to wash and dry my mixing bowl. Which would be dirty from making the filling.
• I want to use it to cut the fat in homemade pie crusts, keeping my hands free to do something else and to not have to dig pie crust out from the crevices of my fingers all night.
• I want to try mixing dough for homemade bread.  Because I can.  UPDATE:  This didn’t turn out as I thought it would, but I really think it was my fault.  I think the Magimix is designed to mix the dough, not knead.  It mixed beautifully, but I let it keep running to knead and it turned into a huge mess.  A review of the manual is in order and another attempt again next pizza night.
• I want to take all the extra homegrown zucchini I can get my hands on the summer and shred it all up for my friends.
• I want to continue to slice fresh, seasonal produce and dehydrate the slices for easy, no-mess snacks. (Because this is one of the best ways to save money on produce, like I teach in Grocery Budget Bootcamp.)
• I want to shred my own semi-hard cheese that I buy in bulk, and then freeze it in one-cup portions so it lasts longer than if we shred it by hand, each night at the dinner table.
• I want to grind chocolate.  Because I can.  And because grated chocolate looks pretty on homemade latte’s.

There are two reasons why I haven’t done all of these things and reported the findings to you.

1. Time.  It’s going to take me a few weeks to not only go through this list, but to not do it needlessly and waste food in the process.
2. I know it can do it.  There’s no doubt in my mind that this machine is 100% capable of doing everything above.  The persimmon work itself knocked my socks off, and the sliced pepperoni sealed the deal.  I don’t HAVE to do more experimenting to know what the machine can do.  I’ve already seen it first hand.

A Few Things I Noticed During Experimentation

This wouldn’t be a true review if I didn’t share some of the random things I noticed during my experimentation, so here they are, in no particular order.

The machine is quite heavy and takes up a lot of room.

The base itself is much bigger than any other appliance I own, but at the same time, I understand that it needs to be.  It’s like complaining that your stand mixer is too big.  Duh, it won’t work the same if it were smaller.  And it’s not so heavy that I can’t pick it up.  It’s just not light.

Fortunately, the machine comes apart for easy storage.

I have it stored in three separate pieces.  The base and bowls (which nestle inside each other to save on room – BONUS) are kept on the same shelf in my pantry, sitting next to each other.  I did some cleaning and rearranging and was able to make room and so far, so good.

The third piece contains all the attachments.  It’s an enclosed case, which is good considering the blades and discs are EXTREMELY sharp.  I keep those on a bottom shelf, behind my stand mixer in a different cupboard.  It’s out of reach from the kids and since it’s low, I don’t risk toppling the case on top of my head when my 5′ frame pulls it down from a high shelf.

The bowls, blades and all attachments are SUPER easy to clean.

A quick wash with a sponge was all most items needed.  A few pieces of food got stuck in the discs, but I used a dish brush to poke them out and washed as normal.

There are a lot of pieces.

This is both good and bad.  It’s good in that you have A LOT of chopping, grinding, and grating options to choose from.  But it’s bad because I’m still having to refer to the owner’s manual on proper set-up and such.  It’s not the end of the world or anything, but you might need a few rounds of assemble and disassemble before getting the hang of it.  Or maybe you’re a food processor ninja and you can do it right the first time.  I’m certainly not a ninja.

Magimix customer service is ASTOUNDING. 

I’ve been emailing Suki for several months now and she is an absolute pleasure to work with.  When I told her about the persimmons (I had to share my excitement), she wrote, “It’s an awesome machine, isn’t it!”  Even Magimix knows how great their product is and they stand behind it 100%.  The 20 year warranty on their motor should have clued me in.

If I had to sum up this machine in one word, it would be “Wow.”  I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on the amazing-ness of a food processor for so long!  No wonder all my foodie friends have one, lol!

Magimix is a proud sponsor of High Protein, No Powder – the only eBook written to educate consumers on the dangers of commercial protein bars and protein powders and teach readers how to make their own using healthy, REAL protein.  Read the rave reviews about the book, and start fueling your body with REAL protein!

Do you have a food processor?  How does it help you in the kitchen?

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