The Vitamix A2500 is one of our favorite high-end blenders. So we were intrigued when we heard that Vitamix had come out with a food-processor attachment that was compatible with the A2500 and other models in Vitamix’s Ascent and Venturist series. The potential is tempting: Instead of crowding your cabinet space with two bulky appliances, you can have one multitasking workhorse that acts as both a blender and a food processor.Â
The attachment is essentially a mixing bowl like the one you’d see on a conventional food processor, which goes on the A2500’s base. Once the bowl is locked in place, the blender is able to recognize it and automatically put the blender into food-processing mode. The attachment comes with two reversible disks, each having two functions. One disk allows you to either coarsely shred ingredients or slice them into ¼-inch-thick pieces. The other lets you either finely shred ingredients or slice them into thinner, ⅛-inch-thick pieces.
We put it through all the tests we typically use to evaluate food processors, using it to shred cheddar cheese, grate carrots, slice potatoes and tomatoes, dice vegetables for mirepoix, grind frozen meat, and knead pie and pizza dough. Â
What We Liked
- Good Emulsifying: Its feed tube has a small hole on the bottom, allowing oil to drip in slowly so that we could emulsify mayonnaise easily.
It did a good job combining ingredients quickly, including thoroughly mixing food-dyed yogurt and making burgers from frozen steak with butter cubes.
- Uniform Chopping and Shredding: It excelled at simple chopping tasks, making uniform mirepoix and evenly mincing a bunch of parsley. It was also capable of chopping frozen cubes of steak and butter into even bits, as we do in our recipe for Tender Juicy Grilled Burgers. And it shredded cheddar and carrots into thin, short strips in the blink of an eye.Â
- Even Slicing: We were impressed by how well the attachment sliced delicate tomatoes using both of the slicing disks. After trimming potatoes extensively to fit them through the feed tube, most came out in even slices, though potato ends sometimes got shredded as they spun around the tube due to their light weight. Still, since we lost only a small portion of the potato to trimming and shredding, this seemed a minor flaw.
- Saves Space: The accessories and processing bowl can be neatly packed into one compact unit, making it a few inches shorter than a full-size food processor for lack of the base.Â
- Easy Cleanup: Everything except the base is dishwasher-safe. And all parts were easy enough to clean by hand, too, as a gentle wash with hot and soapy water did the trick.
What We Didn’t Like
- Unresponsive Pulse Button: The touchscreen wasn’t as responsive on food processor mode as on blender mode, taking the blades 2 extra seconds to come to a full stop after we’d pressed the pulse button, risking overmixing.Â
- It Can’t Handle Dough: The machine was quick to incorporate most of the pizza dough ingredients together, but the blades soon became stuck in the heavy, sticky dough and weren’t able to finish the job, leaving some flour unincorporated. Struggling to move the blades, the motor then almost threw the mixing bowl off its base and we noticed a burnt smell coming from it afterward. (We had to finish kneading the dough on a floured surface.) When making pie dough, the processor combined ingredients quickly, but the dough felt a touch too warm, making us concerned that the butter might melt instead of staying in relatively solid form within the dough. Why did this otherwise powerful blender fail to make good dough? According to Senior Research Editor Paul Adams, blenders typically spin their blades about 25 times faster than a food processor does. This speed makes it hard for them to effectively incorporate all ingredients before getting stuck in the resulting dough.Â
- Irregularly Shaped Feed Tube: The feed tube curved, requiring us to trim vegetables more extensively in order to fit them in for slicing or grating.
Should You Get the Vitamix Food Processor Attachment?
All things considered, we think you can skip this one, unless you already own one of the designated Vitamix models or have very limited storage space for additional appliances. On the positive side, it shredded carrots and cheese into even pieces, minced herbs finely, chopped vegetables well, and even handled frozen steak pieces well, turning them into evenly sized bits. It can also emulsify mayonnaise to a thick, creamy consistency. But while it’s decent at the most basic tasks of chopping and slicing and mixing, it can’t perform all the tasks we expect of a food processor, such as kneading dough. And at $185, it’s only slightly less expensive than the Cuisinart Custom 14 Cup Food Processor, which has been our favorite food processor for decades. The Cuisinart does take up more space than the Vitamix attachment, but it can perform a much wider range of tasks, making it more useful overall.
The Tests
- Shred 8 ounces of cheddar cheese
- Shred carrots
- Mince fresh parsley
- Chop onion, carrot, and celery into mirepoix
- Chop raw steak and cold butter for Tender, Juicy Grilled Burgers
- Slice plum tomatoes
- Slice russet potatoes
- Process plain yogurt and drops of yellow and blue food coloring to achieve uniform green color
- Emulsify Homemade Mayonnaise
- Puree canned whole tomatoes
- Mix American Pie Dough
- Mix double batch of heavy, sticky dough for Pissaladière as an abuse and capacity test
- Hand-wash parts including bowls, lids, blades, and feed-tube inserts after each test and evaluate design elements that aid or impede cleanup
How We RatedÂ
- Performance: We evaluated how well the attachment mixed, chopped, emulsified, pureed, ground, sliced, and shredded foods.
- Ease of Use: We considered how easy it was to place and remove parts, add and remove ingredients, and interpret and work the controls.
- Cleanup: We evaluated the effort required to clean and dry all parts.
