I like eating a salad for lunch, but would like to somehow optimize the time it takes to cut the vegetables. My salad usually contains tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, carrot, etc.
I could buy an electrical blender, but the end result is usually not as tasty since the vegetable parts are too small. Therefore I tried to look-up for some alternatives:
Anyone have experience with such devices? Perhaps there's some great alternative that I haven't found yet?
You could chop all your veges with a knife once a week and put them in containers...
If you are set on a machine, pick up a Food Processor (like a Cuisinart). It has attachments to slice or grate your veges quickly and uniformly, and has many other uses too (quick bread dough, sauces, puree soups, etc.)
A Mandolin slicer will also work, and you can julienne things, but make sure to get a good one. I am not happy with mine at all. The advantage to this is you can change the thickness of your slices (i.e. thick cucumber slices, thin radish slices).
The tomatoes you will just have to cut by hand though. There are tools for that, but I haven't seen a consumer version (giant slicers/wedgers at McDs, many decades ago).
Not trying to be flippant here, but perhaps the 5 minutes it takes to make your daily salad is not worth the added efficiency of a device of some sort. Vegetables like carrots and celery can be prepped during less hectic days of the week. Likewise, cucumbers can be marinated in wine vinegar, water & spices, to add a piquancy to the salad. Cherry or grape tomatoes are much easier than slicing a big tomato. Bell pepper strips last longer than chopped bits.
Lastly, there's a lot of veggies not mentioned by your use of 'etc' after the list of your favorites. What else do you do with your salad? Do you add non-veggies like seeds or nuts?
I'm firmly in the mandoline camp. The break even point comes at about 200 g of vegetables for me, below that knife is quicker because of the cleanup time. It also doesn't add to your electricity bill and is by extension environmentally friendlier than running a 0.5 KW food processor daily. If your knife speed is different, your break even point will be at another amount.
Because a real food processor requires much more cleaning, I find that the break even point for it vs mandoline comes at about 800 g of vegetables.
I have never made good experience with small handheld choppers like the one in your first link. Maybe I just happened upon bad products, but they were clumsy and didn't cut well. A good use for them is raw onions - the enclosed cutter reduces tears because only very little of the vapors escape.
I have never used tools like your second and third link. But I'm very skeptical about them. If their cutting surfaces aren't razor-sharp, they will smash the vegetable rather than cut it properly. You'd need a softish vegetable for them anyway, I doubt that they can do carrots or potatoes. Even if they are perfectly sharp when you buy them, they will go dull with time and there is no way to sharpen them.
Thank you very much for your help! I eventually decided to get this tool (Genius Salad Chef Junior). Works like a charm. Here's what I've tried it with:
It should be sufficient for most salads. The bowl is sealable and can be used to store several portions.
I would STRONGLY advise a GOOD chef's knife. I am not a professional, but I would not trade either of my chef's knives for a gadget. For anything LESS than MASS PRODUCTION (think "cooking for 50"), the knife is quicker and more versatile in the results.
Let me emphasize a GOOD chef's knife. It should either be an 8" or a 10" knife. The blade should be 1.5"-2" thick from top to bottom. It should have a smooth blade, not serrated. Hold the knife in one hand, and the vegetable in the other. Make sure you hold the vegetable with your finger tips, but bend your hand so that the knuckles is closest to the knife blade, not your finger tips. That gives you a good grip on the food without putting the fingertips under the blade, and the knuckles are high enough off the food that you should use them as a guide. Hold the cutting spot of the knife against your knuckles and use them as a cutting guide. With each slice, slide your fingertips away from the blade just enough to make the next slice uniform with the 1st. Alton Brown on FoodTV gives a very good video lesson on knife use. Until I got my 1st chef's knife (I have both the 8" & the 10", and I use them differently, depending on the size of what I am chopping), chopping vegetables was a horrible experience trying to use a carving knife - it was a long, slow, tedius, dangerous process.
