Brieftons Manual Food Chopper, Compact & Powerful Hand Pull Chopper Blender to Chop Onion, Garlic, Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs for Salsa, Salad, Pesto, Hummus, Coleslaw, Puree, Indian Cooking

I don’t write many reviews… it’s simply not part of my skill-set. However, when a product comes along that exceeds my expectations on every level; I feel I should let others know. The Brieftons Manual Food Chopper is one of those items.At first glance, I wondered how this little plastic gizmo could possibly live up to such high praise. It is lightweight and very compact. It reminds me of a mini-salad spinner, except it has a little green, spring loaded ‘lawn mower’ pull rope coming off one side… intriguing indeed. I had to put it to the test so I got out a few remnants of salad veggies, red and green bell pepper, onion, carrots, cucumber and what was left of some broccoli slaw (about a cup).I quickly washed and dried the devise. Warning! THE BLADE IS SHARP, so be careful. (I bought a pair of inexpensive stainless steel forceps for cleaning processor blades. They grip tight and your hands are a long way from the cutting edge. They’re also good for digging out those stubborn fish bones, but I digress)Here are the detailed assemble instructions:1. Put the blade on the little post in the container2. Put the lid on the containerOf course to make it useful, you will need to put stuff in it between steps 1 and 2. I roughly cut the veggie pieces into manageable sizes and filled the container to a little less than half, put the lid on and ‘started the engine’ (pulled the rope). I checked the contents after each pull to gauge the size produces and was amazed on how fine this little dude could chop… with no effort. So fascinated was I with the performance, I kept pulling and pulling and ended up throwing the first batch out because I’d turned it into a watery mush.Keep in mind that something slender, like slaw strands, will produce much finer pieces. I now combine like-size items in one batch and adjust the rope pulls accordingly. Also, if you are going to make a salad to stick in fridge for a while use veggies with as little moisture as possible and chop the wet stuff right before serving. I found that three pulls, then a little shake and three more pulls is perfect for my ‘dry’ chopped salad. One of the pictures on the listing shows the unit being hand held, which I am sure would work great, but as I seem to be channeling my internal landscaper when I ‘start the engine’, I prefer to sit it on the counter (the non-skid rubber ring keeps it from slipping), keep a hold of the lid and pull, but not too hard. After all, it really isn’t a power tool.I made a lime salsa in about three minutes and of course it chops garlic and ginger with ease. I have not chopped nuts and probably won’t unless I buy another one for just that purpose.I would like to mention how great the free pdf cookbooks are. There are a lot of recipes in both of them. One covers salads and the other salsa. Download them. They are good.Bottom line… the Brieftons Manual Food Chopper is a slick and well thought out kitchen gadget. It is fun, simple to use, easy to clean and very time saving. I am using the free recipes and making things I would never have dreamed of. Oh, and not to sound like an infomercial, but it does make a great gift.You should buy one.Happy chopping!

EDIT: Just wanted to add, the Brieftons Food Chopper is still going strong and I've been using it almost every day. I still haven't washed it in the dishwasher, but it's dead easy to clean by hand, just be careful of the sharp blades! :)Today, I was adding brown sugar to a recipe and discovered a brick of sugar! I broke it up into small pieces and then chopped it with the Briefton...a few short pulls to get it started then quite a few long pulls to break up the small pieces and I ended up with a nice fine sugar with only a few pea sized pieces. Pea sized was fine. I washed and set the Briefton aside because I'll be using it later to chop some potatoes, carrots and cabbage to go into a Cottage Pie. Man, that's going to be good!The only thing I can say bad about the Brieftons Quick Pull Food Chopper is that you have to be very careful of the blades, as they are just as sharp as the company says they are. Yes, I nicked the tip of my index finger when I accidentally touched one of the blades...and I was trying to be careful at the time.The chopper has successfully chopped onions, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and cooked ground beef. Carrots and potatoes have a tendency to jam/stick, so you sometimes have to pull a chuck off a blade...watch out for those sharp blades!...but that's only on the first pull or two. The carrots, onions, lettuce and cabbage chopped down to 2 or 3 mm bits cleanly and with little or no liquid being drawn out, great for coleslaw and sandwich toppings, or just rough chopped. The ground beef, which had formed big clumps when I cooked it quickly and easily broken up into a medium, then fine mince. The beef was still hot, although well drained, so I didn't even have to let it cool. The potatoes were par-boiled and I wanted to mince them for hash browns, but not mash them, and that worked perfectly!I have found that I need to pull the cord more times than recommended, but maybe that's because I wanted the cabbage/carrots/etc. chopped down to smaller bits, even so, that's no problem. I removed the top and check the items every 2 or 3 pulls just to make sure I don't get too fine a chop at the beginning. Now, if I want a fine chop I only check every 5 or 6 pulls.I have only hand washed the Chopper, but that is quick and easy. I put a drop of dish soap into the container along with an inch or two of hot water and then pull the cord a few times to spin the water and soap around and then rinse and hand dry...careful of those blades! I wipe the inside of the top part with the pull cord with a damp cloth and then dry it as well. Now, I can put the Chopper away for the next usage or immediately use it for another chopping job.A mixer comes with the Chopper, but I haven't used it, so I can't comment on how well that works.I highly recommend this Chopper. I don't know how long it's going to last, as I've only had it a couple of weeks, but as long as I take reasonable care of it I expect it to last a very long time.Just be careful of those very sharp blades! :)