Verdict

Pros

• Compact and lightweight
• Multiple blades
• Dishwasher-safe

Cons

• Small capacity
• Limited blending time
• Unit doesn’t lock together

What is the Tefal Minipro chopper?

For those of us who begrudge heaving a huge blender onto the worktop for a single milkshake or puréeing some baby food, the Minipro is a godsend.

Compact in size but with the option of up to six blades and two speeds, it aims to tackle any small task from whizzing together leftovers for soup to chopping herbs, making pesto, mayonnaise and salsa, and crushing ice. Light and nimble, it also takes up relatively little surface space in the kitchen, so you can keep it on hand all the time. It even features a clip at the back for keeping the flex neat and tidy when it’s not in use.

Tefal Minipro Chopper – Design and features

The Minipro is part of Tefal’s White collection, so the design is as pared back as the rest of the range. There’s a compact bowl for ingredients, with useful measurements on the exterior, and a small metal prong in the centre to keep the main chopping blade in place. Two optional upper dual blades can be slotted onto the lower blade’s spindle to up the number of stainless-steel knives to six, four of which are angled for speedy chopping. A lid then drops on top of the bowl with the blades in place.

The Minipro Chopper is powered by an ergonomically shaped motor unit sporting two buttons for slow speed or turbo. Each button needs to be held down for constant blending – you can’t simply push and walk away – which lends itself well to the intermittent pulsing recommended for some foods. The motor unit features a quick reference guide on the front for the number of blades required for different foods, and its long cable offers plenty of flexibility.

Tefal Minipro Chopper – What is it like to use?

The Minipro’s instructions aren’t the clearest to understand, comprising mostly of pictures. I found there was some guesswork involved in figuring out what different foods were and the settings they required, plus there was no indication of how many blades to use for specific foods. The information includes one recipe, for apricot marmalade, which feels like a missed opportunity given the huge potential of the chopper.

I started by making a shake with milk, roughly chopped pear and strawberries. Using only the lower blade, I blended the mixture constantly on the slow speed setting for around 40 seconds – the maximum recommended time. While blending, I found I had to hold on to the Minipro or the motor unit would start to turn the bowl, wrapping the flex around it. Suckers on the bottom of the bowl, or a non-slip mat (provided with other models of the Minipro, but not this one) would have helped here. The finished milkshake was a consistent colour and frothy, but there were some gritty particles from the pear.

Next, using the lower blade with one of the upper blades in place, I added two eggs to the bowl. I used the turbo setting for a constant 15 seconds to produce a foamy, well-beaten mixture. Finally, I added the third blade and placed florets of broccoli into the bowl. Using a pulse action of the slow speed for about 10 seconds, this was blitzed until it was finely chopped. The results were consistent, with no large lumps remaining. A small spatula to scrape down the sides would have been a handy addition since using a full-sized tool proved cumbersome.

Cleaning was straightforward, if perilous, by hand – the smaller blades are especially tricky to wash without accidentally nicking yourself. Fortunately, all the parts are dishwasher-safe, which is a more convenient option.

Should I buy the Tefal Minipro Chopper?

There’s no doubting that the Minipro does the job it sets out to do. The more I used it, the more I felt it was likely to handle a huge variety of small tasks beyond what I was doing – albeit with some trial and error.

However, unless size is a real issue in your kitchen – or you have an addiction to freshly made pesto – a blender with a greater capacity may prove to be a better investment in the long run.

Verdict

Mini in size, big on power; but Tefal misses a trick with recipes and could provide better guidance on its use.

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