KitchenAid 9 Cup/ 2.1 Liter KFP0921 Food Processor review

One minute review

KitchenAid needs no introduction, this American home appliance brand has long been a favorite in kitchens across the globe. Having started out making food mixers, it’s well placed to understand what’s needed from other food preparation appliances and has been making food processors for several years.

The KitchenAid 9 Cup/ 2.1 liter food KFP0921 is by many standards a small capacity food processor, but it’s not the smallest you can buy from KitchenAid, which also offers a 7 cup/ 1.7 liter option. This mid-size food processor isn’t lacking any attachments though. It’s supplied with a slicing and shredding disc, dough blade, chopping blade, whisk and if you’re in the UK, you’ll also get a julienne disc. What’s more, everything fits inside the main bowl, offering a tidy storage solution that makes this ideal for compact kitchens and smaller homes.

On test we found it simple to use and it excelled at most of the tasks we gave it, chopping, shredding, slicing and mixing with speed and efficiency. But occasionally it moved around on the counter and the capacity is limited so it’s likely to be too small for avid cooks and larger families. That said, if you want one of the best food processors for making smaller quantities, that also looks great on your counter and isn’t too bulky 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 be a bit of stretch.

(Image credit: Future)

KitchenAid 9 Cup/ 2.1 Liter KFP0921 Food Processor: price and availability

•  List price: $149.99 / £199 / AU$339 

The KitchenAid 9 Cup/ 2.1 liter KFP0921 food processor is KitchedAid’s mid-size food processor and it’s available direct from KitchenAid as well as other major retailers.

It’s more affordable than the larger 13 cup/ 3.1 liter KitchenAid KFP1319 food processor which we reviewed earlier on this year.

Design

• All accessories store neatly inside 
• Available in a range of colors 
• Compact design

Despite not being a full-size food processor, this model is supplied with plenty of useful attachments, including a reversible shredding and slicing disk, blade, whisk, dough blade, and a refrigerator lid that can be swapped for the main processor lid for quick and easy food storage. All accessories, apart from the second lid, fit inside the main processor bowl, making it neat and compact to store. The UK model comes with an additional julienne disc, while in Australia and the US instead of the standard S blade, it’s supplied with a beefed up four blade version.

(Image credit: Future)

At just 16.5 x 9.4 x 8.3 inches/ 42 x 24 x 21cm (h x w x d) it won’t take up much space in your cupboards, which is great news if they’re already overflowing. But KitchenAid’s stylish design means its appliances are rarely the ones you want to hide away in a cupboard. This food processor is no exception, the cute round base and choice of colors mean you won’t mind leaving it on the counter. It’s available in matte black, silver, empire red, onyx black and it’s also available in cream if you purchase in the UK or Australia, with an additional pistachio color option for those in the UK.

With two speeds and a pulse button, the controls don’t take much figuring out. And unlike many food processors, there’s no complicated twist and lock action to secure the bowl and lid. The bowl sits directly on the base and the hinged flip-up lid secures with a simple latch. All accessories slot on to the main drive adapter, making this one of the easiest food processors to assemble.

The hinged lid contains two different size pushers to feed foods in when shredding and slicing. Then, should you want to store your creation in the fridge, you can easily remove the lid and replace it with the refrigerator lid, no need to tip foods into a different bowl or container.

Performance

• Simple to use and assemble 
• Easy to clean in dishwasher 
• Fast and effective

To familiarize ourselves with this appliance we started by slicing cucumber. Even using the slower speed, it took just a matter of seconds to slice up half a cucumber, although we didn’t manage to keep it straight so the slices went a bit wonky.

(Image credit: Future)

Turning the disc over to the shredding side, we tried it on cheese first - this time we used the faster speed and it sped through a block of cheese that we’d cut to fit in the feed tube. The result was mostly nice, even shreds, though there were some crumbs in the bowl too. Plus, about 9% of the cheese became lodged in the lid and we had to dig it out at the end before cleaning. Carrot was no match for it though, it quickly produced even shreds with only a small piece left not shredded when we stopped. 

(Image credit: Future)

Usually we’d choose a fine shredding disc for chocolate, but that wasn’t an option with this food processor, so we went ahead and shredded it on the only available disc. It produced quite a chunky shred, which isn’t ideal for chocolate and around 20% didn’t make it through, getting stuck on top instead, but nevertheless we were pleased to see none of it melted to the disc, which can often happen with other models.

(Image credit: Future)

Thickening cream was our next task so we poured 1.1 pounds/ 500g cream into the bowl, with the whisk already inserted. Using the higher speed setting, the cream was thick and fluffy in just 35 seconds. Though the shape of the whisking disc made it fiddly to scrape all the cream from the bowl. And a slightly annoying feature is that the pushers don’t lock into place, so they fell onto the counter when we opened up the lid to check the thickness mid-way through.

Before mixing up bread dough, we noticed that the manual advises a maximum of 3 cups/ 375g flour which falls short of the amount we wanted to mix for a loaf of bread and is certainly something to keep in mind if you’re planning on using this food processor for dough. That said, we poured the ingredients in and it took just 20 seconds on the higher speed to combine everything into a dough. However, we’d advise kneading by hand because if you leave the blade spinning after the dough has been combined, the whole appliance begins to shake violently and has to be held down.

(Image credit: Future)

The sharp chopping blade made short work of finely dicing an onion, we cut it into six segments first, but after that it was evenly diced in just 10 seconds on the lower speed. It was also able to turn diced beef into ground beef with similar speed and efficiency. But note, the UK and Australia manuals advise only adding 7 oz/ 200g meat for chopping, whereas the US manual states 1 pound/ 450g is OK, thankfully it grinds meat fast, taking just 5 seconds to grind 7 oz/ 200g, so it’s not too laborious to do it in batches if you want to grind more.

(Image credit: Future)

We added all the ingredients for a cake batter to the bowl with the chopping blade and in just one minute it created a smooth batter ready for baking. But it moved around on the counter during mixing, so it’s best to keep an eye on it.

To chop hazelnuts we opted for the pulse button and it required 15 presses to get to a good chopped texture. The result was a mixture of some chunkier pieces and some fine powder, but it’s always tricky to achieve evenly chopped nuts. Finally, since we were testing this in the UK, we tried out the julienne disc using a carrot. It proved to be a fast way to create thin matchstick size pieces of carrot perfect for a salad or slaw.

(Image credit: Future)

If you’ve got a dishwasher, cleaning is easy since it can all go in the dishwasher, otherwise like all food processors it can be time consuming and fiddly to clean by hand. 

• For some top tips, see our how to clean a food processor to keep your new kitchen gadget clean.

Although it maxed out at a noisy 87dB when chopping hazelnuts, overall this wasn’t a noisy food processor and our sound meter registered a much quieter 72dB when slicing cucumber.

Should I buy the KitchenAid 9 Cup/ 2.1 Liter KFP0921 Food Processor? 

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First reviewed: June 2022