Dos and Don’ts

Although your food processor can process almost anything, the following tasks are best done using other appliances, gadgets or a sharp knife.

Most manufacturers don’t recommend grinding hard spices, grains or coffee beans in a food processor. Although you can use a mini-prep for hard spices, the bowl will quickly get scuffed and cloudy, and hard spices such as cinnamon sticks will turn into coarse crumbs rather than powder. A coffee grinder does a good job of grinding hard spices and is also better for coffee beans.