I've never tested a more versatile food processor - this is a chef and baker's dream and it's great value too

I have made no secrets of the fact that I love hard-working appliances. In fact if it were up to me our kitchen would have just one appliance that could do everything — and look beautiful and not take up too much space and it would be reasonably priced. Is that too much to ask?

Well, seemingly Kenwood is heading in that direction. One of the new releases, the Multipro One Touch, promises to be the best food processor of all time. It also promises to be the best blender (both jug and single-serve) too, whilst boasting a bread-kneading accessory and whisks. And if that's not hard-working enough, it also has digital scales integrated. There’s just no limits to what it can do.

Combine what you know about me with what you know about this and you’ll know that I was very excited to test this. It’s been all I can talk about ever since too. I used every function on offer, so it’s worth looking at the menu at the top of this article to jump to the area that you’re most interested in. Don’t let that stop you from reading the full details of everything I tested. I'm ready to write a whole novel on this impressive piece of kit.

Specifications

Unboxing

The Kenwood Multipro One Touch came in a big square box which was easy to pick up and move around, even though the appliance itself has some weight to it. I have to credit Kenwood for their impressive eco-conscious packaging too. Where cardboard and paper could be used it was. When plastic was needed, it was both recycled and recyclable. Well done, Kenwood.

On the counter, the Kenwood Multipro One Touch looks great. It's not going to be mistaken for some kitchen decorations. It looks functional in a very sleek way, so I wouldn't mind keeping it on show, but it's equally easy to pack away into the cupboard in its separate parts.

Talking of parts, this comes with more than a few accessories, as you can see in the picture above. I’ll admit that the accessories look like a lot when you unbox the Kenwood, but they all serve distinct and useful purposes. You get the main blade, two different slicing and grating discs, a dough blade, whisks for whipping, a feeding chute, and a juicer to go with the food processor. I would normally only expect the main blade and two discs possibly even just one disc so this is beyond generous — and that's not even the full extent of it all.

There's a whole blender aspect to the Kenwood Multipro One Touch too. Kenwood sends a large blending jug, which works well for family sized smoothies soup and ice cones. And then you get the single serve blender which works for portable smoothies and protein shakes. If you want to take these with you on the go, you get a bottle that you can pour your smoothie into. That’s not forgetting the scales, you’ll have a platform which on the base of the unit that can convert these into metric scales. So although this might look like a lot Kenwood has managed to pack even more than it looks like into this single appliance. I’m very impressed.

Who would it suit?

There are a few key features of the Kenwood Multipro One Touch that lend it particular use to specific homes. The fact that this combines the functions of a food processor, blender, and weighing scales into one appliance makes this perfect for homes that are looking to save on space. The size of the base unit is still pretty hefty and the accessories do add up, so I don't picture this in a really compact kitchen. It's more of an option for family homes that need to save on space.

Kenwood covers off the powerful, efficient functions that home cooks will appreciate: you can grate, slice, chop, and blend at just the touch of a button. Even a beginner would be able to make good use of this, so it's a handy kitchen assistant for anyone looking to cook recipes from scratch, just with a helping hand. Whilst it does appeal to chefs, I'd also put it into the category of a baking assistant too. You can whisk, make doughs, and there's even a cake function too, so you could replace your stand mixer with this, if you wanted to save even more space at home.

There are other little features, such as the timer that make this really handy for busy kitchens. The pre-sets, scales, and integrated simplicity of the machine is a godsend. Unless you're really short on space, I'd recommend this to you.

What is it like to use?

I thought that all the different accessories might make this confusing to use. However, it’s very simple. Each accessory owns its job and it does its job very very well. As I mentioned earlier, I’ll talk you through each every accessory so if there’s one you particularly interested in, don’t worry I’ve got you covered.

You can see that Kenwood offers a range of pre-sets to help get you started. Generally, you could work through all of these using manually adjustable settings, but the pre-sets integrate pulses and special timers that will automatically stop. If you're busy in the kitchen and have lots on, that's where these come in handy.

The digital scale reader also doubles up as a timer, which might not seem immediately useful, but it's one of the things that you won't realise that you need until you have it. I found it particularly useful when I was whipping cream and kneading dough, but it's also a great way to gauge how long your machine has been running. For example, I was making a big batch of smoothie in the morning whilst I was washing up. When I looked at the timer and saw that the Multipro One Touch had been running for two minutes, I knew that the smoothie would be ready, without needing to take the lid off and give this a tentative swill around.

The one function that I haven't given a dedicated section to is the weighing scales. These aren't really something that I can test; they're either right or wrong, so there isn't really a subjective element to the feature. However, I couldn't let them slip by unmentioned, because weighing scales are a really useful extra to have integrated into the base. It made me more tempted to leave this out on the side. It's handy to have scales out and ready to use and, as you can see from the picture, they're clear and simple too.

Test 1: using the main blade

I have to start with a main blade because it’s what you expect when you get a processor. To test this out, I added a can of chickpeas some cloves of garlic, lemon and salt into the main part of the food processor with a drizzle of oil. All I did was set this running on it's first speed and within a few minutes, I could see that the Multipro One had whizzed up the ingredients into a silky smooth dip. It couldn’t have gone better. Normally, with bigger bowls, you get stray pieces of chickpeas under the blades and at the top and edges. That wasn't the case there. All the ingredients were well integrated and super smooth.

Test 2: using the grating and slicing discs

The next test I always do is using the slicing and grading discs. Kenwood sends two different sizes of these so you can choose to use wide grater and slicer or the more fine option. All you have to do to switch between grating and slicing is flip the disc.

These are some of the sharpest accessories, so Kenwood sends them in a little storage bag. This should keep them away from curious little hands and distracted adults, but they're worth being careful around.

I tested the finer grater on some cheese. I fed my block of cheddar down the tube using the pusher to get an even consistency and pressure on the grater. Without adding much pressure, the Multipro One Touch whizzed through my whole block of Cheddar. I couldn't even get to my timer to stop it at 30 seconds before this had worked through the cheese. The sizes of each piece were consistent except towards the end, where I had a little step of cheddar left behind but that’s the chef's treat.

I tested out the larger grating and the slicing functions on carrots since these are tougher than lots of soft vegetables and I wanted to see how well this would work with more resistance. As I should have predicted this was wonderfully consistent across the grating. I actually really liked the bigger disk — I think it would be perfect for patties if you were cutting courgettes or if you wanted to make a vegetable salad. I tried slicing the carrot on both of thin and thick settings and the Multipro One Touch delivered on both. Even though the shape of the carrot was quite inconsistent the thickness, which is what the Kenwood has control over, was faultless.

Test 3: the dough blades

Now we are moving on to the special extras. Having a dough blade isn’t unusual, but it's also not a given. If you consider that the Multipro One Touch comes with whisks as well, you could get away with using this as a stand mixer as well as a blender and a food processor.

I didn't expect a lot from the Kenwood, because it's tricky to work with bread dough at the best of times. The Kenwood didn't let me down though: I managed to make a great brown bread dough in the Multipro One Touch. I used my normal recipe of flour, oil, yeast, salt, and water and got a lovely elastic dough. It was slower to work with; I kneaded this for 12 minutes in the bowl and then needed to finish it off by hand. However, it goes some of the way towards making life easier, especially if you haven’t got great arm muscles. And, the all-important bread came out well-kneaded. It rose well and had a brilliant crumb, all down to the Kenwood.

Test 4: whipping cream

Being able to automate your whisking proves very helpful, especially if you’re in the kitchen a lot. I was really impressed to see that there were two whisking attachments that come with the Kenwood Multitouch One Pro and I have to say I was also pretty delighted. I needed to whip 500 ml of cream and I didn’t have an accessory to hand. I poured the cream into the food processor set it running. The peaks were silky and light within three minutes, which is as quick as some of the best stand mixes that I’ve tested so if you need a hand with your whisking, this is more than capable.

Test 5: smoothie

I normally put blenders through a series of different tasks. I make smoothies, ice cones, and hummus. Given that the food processing attachment can do a great job of dips, I decided to scratch that from the list because you would always use the food processor to make dips. So the first test I did was making a smoothie.

The Kenwood Multipro One Touch has two options for making a smoothie. The first one is using the jug blender, which is perfect if you want to make family-sized portions; it’s big and easy to pour from. It’s also going to be the one that you’ll use if you do choose to make dips or soups because it’s easier to spin ingredients around and get an even chop across them all. Your other option, if you want to make a single serving of smoothie or protein shake, is to use the bullet blender. This turns up on its head and works like a Nutribullet.

It’s great to have the choice between the two different types because each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The crossover between the two eliminates any blank spots in the Kenwood Multipro One Touch's repertoire.

So, the first test that I did was making a smoothie. In the jug blender, this was simple. I added banana, frozen blueberries, spinach, oats, and almond milk to the blending jug. This covers a range of different textures so it was a great way to test how versatile the blender is. I put in for a family-sized serving of smoothie which is about four or five glasses. The Kenwood Multipro One Touch quickly whizzed up a perfectly smooth drink: there were no remnants of spinach leaves or frozen blueberries or even oats. It was all one silky texture. It’s impressive, but it’s what I’ve come to expect from Kenwood.

I tried the same recipe in a single serving for the bullet blender with the same results. There wasn’t a single berry left unblended. I actually took this smoothie with me to the gym using the handy carrying bottle. I added a scoop of protein powder and gave this a quick whizz before taking it out. All of the powder was effortlessly incorporated into the smoothie. It sounds like something that you could skip over, but it shouldn’t be underestimated. Plenty of blenders would leave the protein powder in lumps, but the fact that this was thorough means that you can use it to make mixes, such as pancake batters as well as your protein shake too.

Test 6: crushing ice

The next test that I gave the blenders was crushing ice. I did try whizzing some ice cubes up in the single-serve blender, but I knew what to expect. These aren’t blenders that are designed for crushing ice and so you end up with the cubes rattling around and just making a lot of noise. It isn’t a surprise. I’ve never had good results with single-serve blenders and crashing ice.

The jug on the other hand I had more hopes for. This even has an ice-crushing setting so Kenwood obviously intends for it to be good at doing its job. The preset works using pulses so it can be noisy at times but it does the job well. My two handfuls of ice cubes were missed into a snow texture within two minutes. I was surprised to see that a couple of ice cubes had remained untouched and almost whole in the middle. However, if you run the preset through again I think that these would quickly mist into ice. All in all, these are impressive results from the blender.

Test 7: soups and dips

I couldn’t resist testing out a soup setting too so I boiled some peas and mint and added in garlic onion and stock. I set the blender running and it quickly made a smooth soup. Of course, this doesn’t heat like some blenders can but it can handle hot ingredients (although the single-serve bullet can't). My pea and mint soup was as good as I would expect from this powerful and impressive machine. Within a couple of minutes, all the peas had whizzed up into a smooth soup. You could have opted for a pulse function if you wanted something a little chunkier, but I like my soups smooth.

I kept back some of the peas to see how this would work if you did want to make a dip. Although I would recommend using food processor, this did whizz up the peas into a nice, thick dip. I got the same when I repeated this with chickpeas a few days later, so, if you don't want to get all the food processor accessories out, you can enjoy brilliant dips made in the smoothie jug.

Cleaning

With all the different parts, there’s a lot to clean up once you’re finished using this. Thankfully, most of the parts of the dishwasher safe. I’d stay clear of putting the middle blades and the whisks into the dishwasher because these will be tricky to dry and they can be difficult to clean properly too. In fact, even though everything is dishwasher safe, I’d be tempted to wash it by hand to make sure that it all lasts longer.

You'll be less likely to see misting and cracking on the plastic and the blades will stay sharper and in better condition for longer without the hot jets of water wearing down the accessories. If you do choose to wash this up by hand, I would recommend using a gentle dish soap, such as Ecover or Method. The plastic and stainless steel all wiped clean really easily in my experience and you can use the clean pre-set on the screen to let the machine whizz itself into a sparkling clean condition. As if things could get any easier.

How does it compare?

I’ve always been interested in blender food processor combination machines so I have tested some other ones that are on the market. The Kenwood Multipro One Touch has the most extensive range of accessories and functionalities, so if you want to versatile appliance that’s going to cover juicing, blending, chopping, slicing and grating in one this is your best bet.

If you’re short on space and you like the idea of the Kenwood but don’t think you could fit it into your kitchen, there is a smaller option. The Magic Bullet Kitchen Express is a smaller version of the Kenwood Multipro One Touch. You don’t get all the accessories. In fact, all you have is a grating disc and a blending blade but you do also get a blending cup for smoothies. It's compact, cheap, and one of the most used appliances in my kitchen. I might be tempted to go for this if you really want to save space in your cupboards. However, if you don’t mind and you need bigger capacities it is a great bet.

Alternatively, NutriBullet makes a great combination machine too. This feels a little cheaper because it is so don’t expect it to last as long as the Kenwood Multipro One Touch. However, it does cover many of the same functions without the hefty price tag. As with the Magic Bullet alternative, you won’t have all the accessories but you will have a food processor and a blender so you’ll have the same basics covered.

Should you buy it?

If you have a big kitchen and you want your appliances to work hard for you, this is a great investment. It feels well made and I’m sure it will become a central feature of your kitchen as you’ll come to rely on it. In the two weeks that I was testing it, I began to wonder what I ever did without one of these. I actually found the grading discs to be some of the most useful, sharp, and speedy of any that I’ve tested. However, if you’re worried about space, it really is worth checking out the Magic Bullet Kitchen Express.

How we test

It’s very easy to read about the successes and strengths of food processes without knowing whether the claims are actually valid that’s why our testing process is rigorous and thorough at every stage. When I test a food processor, I research all the claims that it makes and then I make sure that I have used each one in my kitchen multiple times that I can tell you about it. That way you’ll know what you’re getting in the genuinely good or something that’s a bit gimmicky.

All of our food processors go through a standardised series of tests. I use the main blade to chop onion and make hummus because this is a great way to test how sharp, powerful, and efficient the food processor is. Generally, these appliances are also sent with grating discs, which I use to grate cheese and carrots and slice cucumber. This is a great test of how powerful and consistent the food processor is.

Often they’re a little extras so I make sure I can test too. In the case of the Kenwood, there was a lot more than just a couple of functions, so I made sure to work through them all . This is also an important part of the testing process because it lets me compare between different models. I do all of our testing, so I naturally end up comparing all of the different experiences I’ve had. It’s only fair that I put these down for you so that you can get a sense of having shopped around and had different models. I’ll often give you models that are a little bit more expensive and a little bit cheaper so that you know whether you’re getting good value for money or not. I like to give you alternative options so that you feel like you can make a good decision with information from the experts.

If you want to find out more, I’ve written a dedicated page on how we tested processes that share all the information with you.