When space is at a premium in your kitchen, it's important to have appliances that can do double-duty. While a blender and food processor may seem like they perform the same functions, they're actually closer to cousins in the kitchen rather than identical twins. If you don't have space for both a food processor and blender in your kitchen, you want best blender food processor combo on the market. We love the Ninja Blender & Food Processor Systems for those who are low on space, but don't want to sacrifice the functions of both machines.

How the Blender Food Processor Combo Saves Space

Ninja's systems are centered around a multipurpose base. The food processor, blender and smoothie container fit on the base which contains functions for all the machines. When you secure each container to the base in AutoIQ systems, the corresponding functions will appear on the interface, so you won't be able to make the mistake of choosing a function that's incorrect for the container you're using. This makes it easier to know which cooking tasks to perform in which container.

What's the Difference Between the Containers?

In general, blenders come with a taller, narrower container compared to food processors, and tend to have smaller blades that spin on the bottom of the machine, where food processors have multiple large blades at multiple heights. The Ninja Blender & Food Processor Systems come with a tall, spacious blender container, a short, wide food processor container and a single-serve smoothie cup with its own blade (AutoIQ systems only). Unlike other blenders, the Ninja blender blade has blades at multiple heights which makes for extra-smooth blended soups and smoothies. We also love it for frozen drinks. The food processor container can hold up to 8 cups of food, making it ideal for big batches of pesto and even cookie dough. The smoothie cup comes with a blade base with blending and a drinkable lid for taking on the go.

How to Use the Ninja Blender & Food Processor Systems

You'll want to follow the same general guidelines for using a blender and food procesor when using any of these systems.

The blender container is best for:

• Liquids including smoothies, soups, dressing, sauces and marinades: Use the blender container to make big batches of smoothies, blended soups like broccoli soup, tomato sauce or even marinades for meats.
• Loose batters including pancake, cake and cheesecake batter: Instead of stirring them up by hand, mix up loose batters in a blender to add air and get them extra smooth.

The food processor container is best for:

• Dips, sauces and spreads: Hummus, whipped feta and more are best done in a food processor. We also recommend a food processor for making homemade nut butters.
• Dough: You can whip up cookie dough and even knead bread dough with the right food processor blades.
• Slicing, shredding and chopping: Give your cutting board and knives a break and chop onions, slice zucchini and shred cheese using a food processor. It'll give you uniform cuts, faster.

The single-serve smoothie container is best for:

• Well, smoothies: Make a small batch of your favorite smoothie in this on-the-go container.
• Small batches: You can whip up smaller batches of salsa, mayo, sauces and more in this single-serve container. In general, the foods that work better in a blender will perform better here, too.