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It's spinning too fast!

When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar.

Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem, and that's speed.

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Last modified on: November 12^th 2023

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It happens very, very often in the kitchen, when you need to grate, julienne or slice vegetables for one of your recipes.
You wash them, peel them, and then run them through one of your machines using the right disc or grater.
We all do this, and it's only natural, after all: it's super-fast, super-convenient and relatively efficient.
Many of us use what in France is called a "robot-coupe", or equivalent, a food processor with a simple electric motor and cutting discs of various sizes.

robot-coupe

And there's a little problem you may already have noticed: the robot-coupe runs (much) too fast.
Granted, it works very fast - it takes 2 or 3 seconds to grate a carrot, for example - but it has an annoying tendency to sometimes rough up the vegetables, and to make carrot purée and juice at the same time as it grates - you'll find a bit of this at the bottom of the machine's bowl. This is even more pronounced with tender vegetables such as zucchinis or cucumbers.

This isn't too bad for a simple carrot salad, you may say, but you have to admit that what is grated with this tool is necessarily in very, very small, very fine pieces, and sometimes this isn't great for the recipe and its texture.

légumes coupés très fins

Take celery remoulade, for example: it needs to be cut into medium julienne, which is important (in my opinion) for the recipe, and a food processor will make it too fine and too small.
The problem is that the food processor runs too fast, much too fast for this job, and therefore produces this "purée" effect, which is a bit painful.
It's almost impossible to reduce the speed of the machine (I've tried using a variable speed drive on mine), it starts to work badly, so what can you do?

The alternatives

râpe électrique

For grating and slicing by machine, you can now find electric (or hand-cranked) graters that turn much more slowly than robots, use a kind of cone instead of a disc, and are quite efficient.
Well, you "still" have to buy a new electric machine, which takes up a lot of space, but it's a good option.

râpe à main

On the other hand, the hand grater is much cheaper and just as effective: an utensil with a centuries-old principle, not very expensive, easy to clean and store, and still effective.

To sum up: conventional food processors run too fast when cutting or grating vegetables, and are far less efficient than a dedicated vegetable grater that "spins" much more slowly, or even better, a simple and economical hand grater.

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