This year, my garden produced so many yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers that I ran out of things to do with them. After making and freezing a year's worth of zucchini bread and canning plenty of pickles, I decided to start shredding them to freeze and dehydrate. By hand. Because I didn't have a food processor.
Why? I don't know. I have a minor (some may say major) addiction to kitchen small appliances and have a pretty impressive collection, but I didn't have a food processor. I have had a Ninja blender for many years that I love, love, love, so my first instinct was to order a shredding blade for it. Unfortunately, because mine is an older model, I couldn't find a shaft extender for it.
Some of the links below are affiliate links; this means we will earn a commission from the seller, at no additional cost to you, if you click and make a purchase. We only link to products we use or trust.
Finding the Perfect Food Processor
With that in mind, I set out to find the perfect food processor. I did quite a bit of research and ultimately chose to go with Ninja, both because I know and trust the brand and because the Ninja Professional XL model meets my needs perfectly. I wanted a quality food processor with a strong motor, a large bowl, and discs for slicing and shredding, and that's exactly what the Ninja Professional XL Food Processor provides.
Ninja XL Professional: A Great Choice
I couldn't be more pleased with the Ninja Professional XL Food processor. It helped me navigate my way through the rest of the zucchini harvest faster and less painfully that with the manual grater I had been using. It is very easy to set up, operate, and clean. It fits perfectly between my countertop and cabinets, so it's easy to keep it within easy reach without taking up too much counter space.
Thanks to the garden and my new food processor, my pantry is stocked with plenty of shredded zucchini, squash, and cucumber (frozen and dehydrated) to use throughout the year.
I'll use the cucumber to make Tzatziki sauce (I use Alton Brown's recipe) and add shredded zucchini and squash to a lot of recipes.
I particularly like adding shredded zucchini to the meat portion of shepherd's pie and mixing it into meatloaf.
This is the first year I actually got a large zucchini harvest, which is why I never really noticed the absence of a food processor in my kitchen before. It wasn't hard to keep up with shredding a tiny harvest manually - but dealing with a beyond bumper crop was another matter entirely.
Versatile, Time-Saving Kitchen Appliance
The Ninja XL Food Processor saved me a lot of time and money, and also helped me to preserve more of what my garden produced than I would have otherwise been able to use.
I'm very glad I purchased this item, and have already started using it for other things, such as shredding blocks of cheese instead of buying pre-shredded cheese at the store. It can even mix dough, though I haven't tried that feature yet.
I can highly recommend this item to anyone who is looking for an easy way to make the most of their garden harvest, or just to save time in the kitchen.