I have done one full recipe, and the tornado blade is pure magic. I used to be very brand specific. This processor blows any I have used out of the water. I am a forever fan.

>> Overview The package arrived and it felt heavy for a food processor. Would inside come a powerful device? Yes indeed, the Ninja Professional XL Food Processor must be one of the most powerful and convenient food processors for home use out there. It has been an upgrade from the smaller food processors we own, and we are more than happy to have made the jump. We can now prepare food for parties or gatherings better and faster. And even just for the small family that live at home, with the different options it provides from chop/slice to dough mix, we found the Ninja a very convenient device and it has become our de facto food processor. If I try to find a flaw in this device, perhaps the only other drawback, besides being a little heavy, is that although it has a 3-part pusher to adjust different size ingredients, some ingredients have to be sliced to smaller pieces to fit in. For example, big potatoes or zucchinis. Nevertheless, that is just a little inconvenient or no inconvenient at all if compared to our other devices. - Pros: big size, powerful, sharp blades/discs, multiple configurations, food processor, dough mixer. - Cons: a little heavy. >> Food Processor My first use of this device was to chop veggies. I placed the carrots, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos, and the Ninja Professional XL Food Processor did its job amazingly fast, I ended up with a tasty mix for my salad. And that was just using the auto-IQ chop setting. I can set it to low-speed and high-speed settings if needed. With the high-speed setting, you can go from chopping to making puree in a few seconds, it is just that simple. The only issue I’ve found when doing some puree is that sometimes small chunks/pieces would get attached to the sides of the bowl. The blades run very close to the sides of the bowl, but there is still a little space that can cause for some of the material. Well, not a big deal, just use a spoon to give it a pass around the bowl and continue pureeing. >> Slicer (Disc) I like to slice my veggies mostly by hand with a very sharp knife since I can produce slices (even thin ones) without damaging the vegetable or fruit too much and preserve their “original” taste. That is if I have time, if I don’t have much time, then I have other devices for slicing, but I’ve found that the pieces don’t come up as neat as I would want. Using the discs provided with the Ninja Professional XL Food Processor I was able to get slices as close to what I would have liked in seconds! No noticeable or unnecessary damage to the fruit/veggie. Since the discs are adjustable, I was even able to get paper-thin pieces! Incredible. I hope the discs/blades stay sharp for a very long time. I can slice carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, etc. to the thickness I’d like. It is insane how useful having the option to adjust thickness is, Yuca fries, for example, sliced very thin are so delicious. One thing I tried and doesn’t seem to work that well, is when slicing thin layers of garlic (yes, some preparations I have extremely thin slices of garlic), but this device is a little too big to be really useful, well I don’t mind to still having to slice garlic manually. >> Dough mixer I am not the kind of person that makes any pastries, but my wife does. Although she has a couple of different mixers from other manufactures, she decided to give the Ninja Professional XL Food Processor a try. She’s been amazed at how good this device mixes dough. It is not as high a capacity as other dough mixers we own, but it is good enough to mix most of the recipes she usually makes. Her favorite preparations: pie crust and cookie dough. She’s been very pleased with the pie crust mixing, as the results are outstanding with a mix as homogenous as one would want, and with all the butter evenly spread (without needing to melt the butter or make it softer, just using it fresh out of the refrigerator). This contrasts with other devices which sometimes leave chunks of butter in the mix even if using room temperature butter.

This was actually my 2nd one, the 1st one I returned because it appeared to have hairline cracks in the base of bowl. So we reordered and had it shipped and the new one also has these same hairline "cracks" in the bowl. The unit was packaged well and doesn't appear to have any shipping damage so I'm unsure if these are actually hairline cracks or some sort of manufacturing defect. We have only used it a few times and mostly to chop pistachios or mix bread crumbs etc "dry stuff" - so far so good. Size is much bigger than the normal ones so should be able to handle anything we throw at it.

In the box you get the motor, 12 cup blending cup, 1 adjustable thickness slicing blade, one shredding blade, one dough blade and one very sharp puree blade (It is really sharp....). This also comes with a storage case for all but the really sharp blade, but that one can be stored inside the unit when not in use. It would have been really nice if they could have incorporated the storage case to hold the sharp blade when not in use. I have found this to be best when making larger amounts of food. If you cook very small batches I would recommend a smaller unit, however if you are cooking for a crew...this is your unit. It has tackled everything I have thrown at it, carrots, sweet potatoes, cabbage and it makes salsa in a snap... I mixed some chocolate chip cookie dough and although I do think my mixer does a better job, this handled it with ease. I whipped up some creamy pesto sauce in nothing flat. There are two motor settings, pulse and four pre-set functions for just about anything you could want to do. A couple of things to note, the unit shakes when using the slicing and shredding blades, however it does have suction cup feet so it stays put. No experience with other units but I would imagine the power of the motor on any other unit would have the same results. There are plenty of safety features in place so the unit will no run in a condition where you would be able to be hurt. Clean up was easy, I rinsed the parts, top rack of the dishwasher and done. I reccommnend the Ninja Professional XL Food Processor as a worthy kitchen gadget...

When I first saw the box I thought, “This is BIG. Maybe too big for me?” After all, I’m a single guy and live alone. But after opening it and seeing all the friendly labeling on all the items, I stopped being intimidated and started thinking logically. Yes, it’s big. But I also do a lot of large meal batches that I later package and freeze so I have meals ready when I don’t feel like cooking. And doing things like dough really require a container big enough to allow free movement of the ingredients; something I hope to be doing more of with this device. So, while it makes perfect sense for your average family, I’d like to also note that smaller households shouldn’t rule this one out. It provides a lot of value for the price and is quite easy to use. (If you have the space to use and store it, of course. But I have a smaller kitchen for a one family house and had no issues.) The two things that stood out most to me was the packaging/initial impressions and the accessory storage. Whomever was the packaging lead on this team, they really did an outstanding job! As you open the box in layers, each piece is packed carefully, and everything is labeled with easy-to-understand points on how they are used. By the time you get the whole unit assembled, you already feel familiar with it even before you open any of the manuals. The Quick Start Guide covers the essentials; the other manual has a lot of duplication of the quick start guide but it’s safety guide on the first two pages is the main read here – and I read it carefully. The Ninja’s blades are super sharp, so I was more than happy to read the safety stuff! The other thing that was a standout to me was the accessory blade storage box. It’s a neat little way to keep everything together and safe and I never got anything like that with prior food processor purchases. May be this is a recent and more common inclusion but then again, the last food processor I bought was an old Moulinex in the 80’s! I thought it was a real nice addition and I’m surprised that neither the Best Buy site nor Ninja’s show it in the product images. I made sure to include a shot in my review. Using it was easy and it does a great job at the basic food prep functions like chopping and slicing. Thanks to the adjustable disks, you can get just the right thickness for whatever your needs, from potato chip thin to nice chunks for soups and stews. Haven’t got the chance to make dough yet, but the preprogrammed seems like it will make it easy. This is where the recipe booklet comes in handy. In the beginning of the booklet, there are tips on basic functions per recipe type (like doughs) that show how you’d use it for your own recipes. I’m a big fan of how Ninja does documentation, and this product is no exception. I’m also a big fan of how Ninja products are engineered. They are built solidly of quality materials and last a long time. I’ve NEVER regretted purchasing one of their products, from their Shark vacuums to any of their Ninja food line and they are all still working great for me.