KitchenAid 9 cup/2.1 liter KFP0921 food processor review

One minute review

KitchenAid needs no introduction, this American brand of home appliances has long been a favorite in kitchens around the world. Having started making food mixers, it is well placed to understand what it takes from other food preparation equipment and has been making food processors for several years.

The KitchenAid 9 cup/2.1 liter food KFP0921 is a small capacity food processor by many standards, but it’s not the smallest you can buy from KitchenAid, who also offer a 7 cup/1.7 liter option. However, this medium-sized food processor does not lack attachments. It comes with a slicing and grating disc, dough knife, cleaver, whisk and if you are in the UK you also get a julienne disc. Plus, everything fits into the main bowl, providing a tidy storage solution that makes this ideal for compact kitchens and smaller homes.

During the test, we found it easy to use and it excelled at most of the tasks we gave it, chopping, shredding, slicing and blending with speed and efficiency. But occasionally it moved on the counter and capacity is limited, so it’s probably too small for avid cooks and larger families. That said, if you want one of the best food processors (opens in new tab) for making smaller batches that also looks great on your counter and isn’t too big to store, it’s a good choice. But like most KitchenAid appliances, it’s not the cheapest, so if you’re on a budget, it might take a little long.

(Image credit: Future)

KitchenAid 9 cup/2.1 liter KFP0921 food processor: price and availability

MSRP: $149.99 / £199 / AU$339

The KitchenAid KFP0921 9 cup/2.1 liter food processor is KitchedAid’s medium sized food processor and is available directly from KitchenAid and other major retailers.

It’s cheaper than the larger 13 cups/3.1 liters KitchenAid KFP1319 food processor (opens in new tab) which we reviewed earlier this year.

Design

All accessories are neatly stored inside
Available in different colors
Compact design

Despite not being a full-size food processor, this model comes with plenty of useful attachments, including a reversible shredding and slicing disc, blade, whisk, dough blade, and a fridge lid that can be swapped out for the main processor lid for quick and easy access. food storage. All accessories, except the second lid, fit into the main processor bowl, making it neat and compact to store. The UK model comes with an additional julienne blade, while in Australia and the US it comes with a reinforced four-blade version instead of the standard S blade.

kitchenaid KFP0921 food processor and accessories

(Image credit: Future)

At just 16.5 x 9.4 x 8.3 inches/42 x 24 x 21 cm (HxWxD), it won’t take up much space in your cabinets, which is good news if they’re already overcrowded. But thanks to KitchenAid’s stylish design, the appliances are rarely the ones you want to hide in a closet. This food processor is no exception, because of the cute round bottom and the choice of colors you will find it no problem to leave it on the counter. It’s available in matte black, silver, empire red, onyx black and it’s also available in cream if you buy it in the UK or Australia, with an additional pistachio color option for those in the UK.

With two speeds and a pulse button, it doesn’t take much to figure out the controls. And unlike many food processors, there’s no complicated twist and lock to secure the bowl and lid. The bowl sits directly on the base and the hinged flip-up lid is secured with a simple latch. All accessories fit on the main disk adapter, making this one of the easiest food processors to mount.

The hinged lid contains two different sized pushers to feed food when shredding and slicing. Then, when you want to store your creation in the fridge, you can simply remove the lid and replace it with the fridge lid, without having to transfer food to another bowl or container.

Performance

Easy to use and assemble
Easy to clean in the dishwasher
Fast and effective

To familiarize yourself with this device, we started by cutting cucumber. Even at the slower speed, it only took a matter of seconds to slice half a cucumber, although we failed to keep it straight so the slices got a little shaky.

kitchenaid food processor chop cucumber

(Image credit: Future)

We turned the disc to the shredding side and tried it on cheese first – this time we used the higher speed and it sped through a block of cheese we had cut to fit in the feed tube. The result was mostly nice, even shreds, although there were also some crumbs in the bowl. In addition, about 9% of the cheese got stuck in the lid and we had to dig it out at the end before we could clean it. Carrot was no match for it though, soon producing shreds with just a small piece that hadn’t been shredded when we stopped.

kitchenaid food processor chopping cheese

(Image credit: Future)

We usually opted for a fine grater disc for chocolate, but that was not an option with this food processor, so we went ahead and shredded it on the only disc available. It produced quite a thick chip which isn’t ideal for chocolate and about 20% didn’t make it, instead it stuck to the top but nevertheless we were happy to see none of it melted to the disc which often can happen with other models.

kitchenaid food processor chopping chocolate

(Image credit: Future)

Thickening cream was our next task, so we poured 500g of cream into the bowl, with the whisk already in it. With the higher speed setting, the cream was thick and fluffy in just 35 seconds. Although the shape of the whipping disc made it difficult to scrape all the cream out of the bowl. And one slightly annoying feature is that the pushers don’t click into place, so they fell on the counter when we opened the lid to check the thickness halfway through.

Before mixing bread dough, we noticed that the manual recommends a maximum of 3 cups/375g of flour, which is less than the amount we wanted to mix for a loaf of bread and definitely something to keep in mind if you’re planning this food processor for dough. That said, we poured the ingredients in and it only took 20 seconds on the higher speed to combine everything into a dough. However, we recommend kneading by hand because if you spin the blade after the dough is combined, the whole unit will start to shake violently and will need to be pressed.

kitchenaid food processor mixing dough

(Image credit: Future)

The sharp cleaver made short work of slicing an onion, we sliced it into six segments first, then sliced it evenly on the lower speed in just 10 seconds. It was also able to turn diced beef into ground beef with the same speed and efficiency. But be aware the UK and Australia manuals advise only adding 7oz/200g of meat for chopping while the US manual says 1lb/450g is OK luckily the meat grinds quickly it only takes 5 seconds to grind 7oz/200g, so it’s not too cumbersome to do it in batches if you want to grind more.

kitchenaid food processor chop onions

(Image credit: Future)

We added all the ingredients for a cake batter to the bowl with the cleaver and in just one minute a smooth batter was ready to bake. But while mixing, it moved on the counter, so it’s best to keep an eye on it.

To chop hazelnuts we chose the pulse button and it took 15 presses to get a well chopped texture. The result was a mixture of somewhat coarser pieces and some fine powder, but it is always difficult to get evenly chopped nuts. Finally, as we were testing this in the UK, we tried the julienne slice with a carrot. It turned out to be a quick way to make thin match-sized pieces of carrots, perfect for a salad or slaw.

kitchenaid food processor chopping hazelnuts

(Image credit: Future)

If you have a dishwasher, cleaning is easy as it can all go in the dishwasher, otherwise like all food processors it can be time consuming and tricky to clean by hand.

While it maxed out at 87dB when chopping hazelnuts, this was generally not a noisy food processor, and our sound meter registered a much quieter 72dB when cutting cucumber.