advice sought about cooking appliance

A pair of sharp scissors and a mug always works for me.

For the herbs that is. A sharp knife takes care of the rest.

I daresay Caleo knows all about sharp knives but is no longer able to use them, so is looking for a kitchen aid to help her prepare her vegetables.

I buy pre chopped frozen mire poix from Waitrose. Saves all the faff…chop other veg big and use a processor if I want a smooth soup. Always make a huge batch so can freeze half

Our eldest son is disabled. He uses a Kenwood Mini Chopper - about £25 from Argos.

Yes, lots of electric mini processors around.

I was watching Mortimer and Whitehouse on Gone Fishing and noticed Bob using a manual pull chopper on a camping trip. Useful for small amounts of ingredients if you have the dexterity and strength to pull the cord.

tinyurl.com/5hdb8n4s

The Ninja Vegetable chopper is on Amazon for £29.99. I don’t have one, but thinking of getting one. I think there is a cheaper one by Braun

Kenwood mini chopper is great. Not expensive, had mine a good few years, still going strong!

The thermomix will do everything you wish and make amazing soup and more.
It will however set you back about £1100.

the chopper look good but you can just buy ready chopped things now for the freezer if you have a big enough one

https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/202310/medium-304173-zyliss.jpg%3C/span%3E https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/202310/medium-226144-zyliss-pull.jpg%3C/span%3E

I have one of these, recommended on GN and by The Hairy Bikers. It is as good as a food processor but powered by pulling a handle and cord. I have RA in my hands and have no problem using it.
Zyliss food chopper

Caleo, I use my food processor for that. The Zyliss looks good Shysal - and simpler too.

Caleo, I use my old food processor.

I'll tell you what it is. My daughter in law makes delicious veg soup which she thickens with potato and adds celery, carrots , parsley etc. She makes large batches and freezes portions for me too as I no longer cook as I can't move about without becoming tired and shaky. I was wanting to help by buying her an apparatus if she would like one. Thanks for all the helpful advice. She is strong and fit but I am concerned about all her labour washing and chopping the veg. for a large potful f soup. I never had a food processor and did not know if these do cutting as well as fine chopping.

PS I noted someone's advice to buy prepared chopped veg. However she would not like do this as she believes in buying simplest ingredients. I don't suppppose there is a device that scrapes carrots too.

By the way, is one of these food processors eeasy to clean?

Caleo If your budget would stretch to £150 the Lakeland Touchscreen Soup Maker would save your dil a lot of time and is very easy to clean

https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/202310/medium-428099-kenwood.png%3C/span%3E https://signal-corridor.live/uploads/talk/202310/medium-119179-kenwood-elements.png%3C/span%3E

I make a lot of veggie soups too. I just give carrots a scrub with a nail brush rather than scrape or peel them.

My Kenwood food processor has a blade that can be flipped over, one side for slicing, one for grating. You just feed the ingedients down a funnel opening in the lid. It's the blade next to the sliced red onion in the picture.

I put the various elements of the processor in the dishwasher (not the base with the cable, obviously) but they are easy to hand wash, taking care with the blades, of course.

Mine cost £30 in John Lewis but that was in 2019.

I use a mini chopper/processor for one, easy to use. B&M around £7

I use a Nicer Dicer

I've got a Kenwood mixer and have an attachment which chops veg into centimetre cubes. You prepare the veg, peeling, scraping whatever and cut into bits small enough to go down the shute, and bingo, perfect centimeter cubes. Only any good if you've got the mixer but it makes soup look rather posh.

Although this is a US link, it explains a mezzaluna really well, and lots of good cook shops sell them. They are best used with the concave board (DH made mine).
www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/tools-products/mezzaluna
I also do a lot of chopping, and this makes all the difference to me - although good ones are a bit of an outlay, they are simple, no elecricity!

There’s a reason already chopped vegetables are available - for ease of cooking for people with limited mobility, resources or time.

Your daughter - who says she prefers to do it by hand, the “simpler way” is missing the point. Just how valuable is her time anyway? And yours?

New gadgets just accumulate when you find out they don’t work as you wish. The simpler way is to leave all he prep-work up to the purveyor.

Personally I have a mini 2-3 cup capacity electric food processor that is handy and might work for you, but I do not use it to chop vegetables because I would not want irregular cut veggies.
USA Gundy

thanks for that nannarose, I just bought a mezzaluna

I was gifted a Tower cavaletto glass bowl chopper. I would never have bought such a thing, but it's the best thing ever.