If there’s one thing I’ve become more fond of this year than anything else, it’s kitchen appliances. There’s always something happening in my kitchen, so when the chance came up to test a device from the famous Australian brand,Breville(known as Sage in the U.K.), I eagerly seized the opportunity.
I’m familiar with Breville’s wide selection of coffee machines – the Oracle Jet is on my bucket list – as well as their line of air purifiers. However, I haven’t had the chance to truly experience Breville’s impressive range offood processors, especially the Paradice 9.
The Paradice 9 serves as a mid-range choice in Breville’s line of food choppers, carrying a significant price tag$399 / £299 / AU$529, and a significant decline from its older sibling, theBreville Paradice 16for $699.95 / £579.95 / AU$899. Aside from the price, the Paradice 9 has garnered excellent reviews, includingTom’s Guide’s 4.5 stars, as it features a high-performance processor and comes with a lifetime 30-year warranty for the heavy-duty induction motor. It is also highly space-efficient, utilizing its own bowl as a storage solution for its various attachments (in contrast to the 16’s two separate storage containers).
Speaking about accessories, the box contains an adjustable slicing tool, a dicing tool, a dough blade, the ‘S’ chopping blade, and a dual-sided shredding disc. It also includes a large feeding chute and a pusher, which serve as a safety feature to prevent unintended blending, as the pusher must be in place to activate the machine. However, once secured, the Breville Paradice 9 can slice and dice in under 10 seconds, according to most reviews.
To evaluate all the attachments, I put them through three fundamental recipes: homemade nut butter, shredded cheddar cheese, and a pumpkin pie prepared from scratch.
But enough of the hesitation – here’s how the Breville Paradice 9 performed in my recipe test!
Homemade Pumpkin Pie
As a devoted Halloween enthusiast and lover of pumpkin spice lattes, it was only natural to use the Breville Paradice 9 to create a pumpkin pie. Canned pumpkin pie mix is commonly associated with Thanksgiving in the U.S., but since I’m in Australia, I had to prepare it from scratch.
After buying the best Kent pumpkin I could locate, I began the preparation process by securing the dicing grid and blade component to the Paradice 9 bowl. Installing the attachment was somewhat challenging, as the sharp blade needs to be positioned in the direction indicated on the unit. However, once I understood the setup, I was quickly dicing pumpkin pieces.
The final pumpkin cubes were smaller than I had anticipated, but this is typical with this machine because of the smaller cutting grid. However, this does not affect the machine’s dicing performance, as my entire pumpkin was processed in just 5 minutes.
Nevertheless, the processor’s efficiency was hindered by an annoying design issue: the dicing grid frequently held onto the final piece of pumpkin. I did attempt to use the included pusher tool to remove it, but discovered that using a butter knife was more effective in pushing out the remaining pieces. Once the pieces were roasted for 45 minutes, I attached the ‘S’ blade to the processor base to blend the pumpkin. Similar to the dicing grid, it required less than two minutes to turn the pumpkin into a soup-like texture, thoroughly breaking down any chunks into a smooth puree.
After the puree was completed, it was time to make the dough using the pastel blue dough attachment. This was my first attempt at creating shortcrust pastry in a food processor, so I was quite doubtful about the process. Usually, when preparing dough or pastry, I use my KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer along with the dough hook attachment, and the dough typically forms within 10 minutes. However, in this instance, the Paradice 9’s dough attachment and pulse function reduced my usual time by half, producing a perfectly rough, knead-ready dough in under five minutes.
To speed up the manual tasks of cutting, blending, mixing, and kneading, the Breville Paradice 9 was a valuable addition to an already time-consuming recipe. I found the large feeding chute and bowl size very helpful, particularly when pureeing more than a kilogram of roasted pumpkin, as I could complete the task in one go.
A source of frustration – cleaning the ‘S’ blade was frequently problematic, as food particles often adhered to it, making it hard to detach from the spindle.
Recipe Verdict: Was the Breville Paradice 9 magical in this recipe? No. Was it helpful? Yes, but it didn’t introduce any new capabilities that a more affordable food processor couldn’t also handle. For the price, it didn’t demonstrate its value based on basic functions alone. While it did save me time and effort for this specific recipe, I still had to perform some manual tasks to complete the job and the cleanup.
- Rating for value for money: 3 out of 5
Nut Butters
Nut spreads, especially peanut butter, are a common item in our kitchen, so making my own was a top priority. For both recipes, I used pre-roasted and salted nuts from the store, although you could also make everything from scratch using raw nuts if you’d like. However, both recipes were straightforward, requiring just two ingredients: nuts and oil.
The first item was maple cashew butter, made using a bag of salted cashews that had a flavor. I emptied the entire bag into the processor and pulsed several times, following Breville’s guidelines. Once a coarse paste began to take shape, I added two teaspoons of oil and continued processing for an additional minute until it reached a spreadable texture.
Then came peanut butter – a highly sought-after item that my dog and my husband both enjoyed. Peanut butter was even simpler than cashew, turning into a rich and smooth paste just after my first pulsing. I stirred in one teaspoon of oil for extra flavor (although in the future, I might skip it), and I ended up with a tasty peanut spread ready to eat.
Recipe Verdict: The Breville Paradice 9 amazed me with its speed, and in both cases, I was quite pleased with the results of my nut butters. To put it simply, I was also convinced that the induction motor would fail at any moment, but it didn’t, and for that, I’m thankful. Overall, the Paradice 9’s rapid performance almost made me reconsider my own value proposition.
- Rating for value: 5 out of 5
Grated cheese
Now, in my opinion, the real test was observing how the Breville Paradice 9 performed while grating cheese. I have experienced several problems with automatic graters before, including when using my KitchenAid shredder attachment, as the cheese, regardless of its firmness, often became stuck. And, as expected, cheese did get stuck in the Paradice 9.
But it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Breville’s instructions recommend freezing the cheese for 45 minutes. I left mine in the freezer for much longer, keeping it there overnight, which made it firmer than needed. According to Breville’s manual, grating soft white cheeses, such as mozzarella, is not advised, and this applies to most processors as well, since they often tend to clog the shredding attachments.
Slicing the cheese into cubes, I placed the pieces into the machine’s large opening, utilizing the pusher as I worked. At first, the reversible shredding disc functioned exceptionally well, resulting in minimal crumbs. However, by the time I reached the middle of my block, my concerns came true, as visible cheese accumulation began to appear on the disc.
Similar to the slicing grid, there will always be some cheese that remains unshredded, no matter which food processor you use. However, for me, this was just another small issue I hoped the Breville Paradice 9 would fix, and it failed to do so.
In addition, the shredded cheese was uniformly grated, with each strand ideal for melting and incorporating into meals. I also found it significantly easier to clean the shredding disc, and removing the cheese residue was much simpler than pushing out pumpkin pieces.
Recipe Verdict: In the end, it experiences the same accumulation problem as more affordable models, which is a disappointing outcome for a high-end device.
- Rating for value for money: 4 out of 5
Final thoughts
Although I really liked using the Breville Paradice 9, I left with a mix of emotions. Even though it was very fast at blending, cutting, and chopping ingredients, it didn’t offer anything new that a regular food processor from another brand couldn’t do as well. MyKitchenAid shredder attachmentperforms equally effectively, and other options, such as theNinja Quad Blade Food Processor or the Kenwood MultiPro Express, are equally capable — at less than half the cost, as well.
A mid-range food processor offers notable advantages – it’s small in size, strong in performance, and includes a good selection of accessories. I liked the large feeding tube and the smart storage system that maintains order within a single bowl.
Although the Paradice 9 performed well in creating smooth nut butters, purees, and doughs at a remarkable pace, it suffered from complicated dicing and grating parts that held onto food and made cleaning up a hassle.
Although the Paradice 9 definitely saves time and effort, it doesn’t completely remove the need for manual tasks – and at $399 / £299 / AU$529, it may not seem essential for all users. So, who is the Paradice 9 intended for? If you’re a frequent user who appreciates strong performance, a small size, and an extended warranty, the expensive price could be justified. However, if you’re seeking a device that effortlessly removes the typical challenges of cooking, you’ll likely be let down.
At this cost, you might also think about whether it’s worthwhile to pay extra for the bigger Paradice 16 model, which comes with additional features and a French fry attachment. However, no matter which model you go with, you’re still spending a significant amount on a Breville product.
- Final assessment: beneficial, effective, yet not groundbreaking.
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