Kitchen Gadgets – Progressive Fruit & Vegetable Chopper

I finally got around to making the Turkey Carcass Soup that I’ve been meaning to make since Black Friday. It’s really not that hard to make, but I’m not a huge fan of dealing with the turkey carcass, and by the time I get around to making the soup I’m usually sick of turkey.

Oddly, that hadn’t happened this year. Despite the fact that we had a 24 pound bird, and only nine folks her for dinner and only eight in the house through the weekend, the turkey was gone by Monday. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled out the carcass and realized that I hadn’t finished carving it on Thanksgiving. I had gotten the majority of large carving done, but the meat closer to the bone was still there. Far too much for the soup. So I sat down and read a couple other bloggers posts while I sharpened my filet knife. I guess I read for longer than I had planned, because when I got to to the turkey to carve it I was holding a really, really sharp knife. Don’t worry, no Hectic Cooks were injured in the production of this post, but I had to be really careful with that knife. I guess it just goes to show that I can actually manually sharpen my knives…as long as I take the time to do it.

So, after removing nearly two pounds (907 grams) of turkey from the carcass I got to work on the actual production of the soup. I don’t really pay that much attention to the preparation of ingredients when I select a recipe, but this morning I was thinking about writing a blog post and it dawned on me that time-saving devices might be a good topic. Lo and behold, the first couple of steps involved chopping ingredients. So I pulled out my Progressive International GPC-4000 Fruit and Vegetable Chopper that has saved me so much time in the past it’s not funny.

 It’s not the cheapest chopper out there, but it’s the best I’ve used for the price. It can be operated by younger kids and it can withstand the over-exuberance of teenage helpers who have trouble judging how much food to chop at a time. It’s also fast. Ridiculously fast. I had to chop two onions and two cups of baby carrots. I had to peel and quarter the onions (you have to do that anyway, regardless of the chopping method), but the entire process took under four minutes.

I could have chopped carrots for days. I hate cutting them on a cutting board. I end up with carrots scattered all over the kitchen, uneven pieces, and a level of frustration from lining up carrots only to have them disalign themselves that makes me rethink my sanity. With this chopper none of that happens. That bit alone was worth the price of chopper.

The other advantage is that I was done with the onions so quickly, that even these bitter winter onions didn’t have the chance to make my eyes water. I don’t tear-up very readily when chopping onions, but lately I’ve been having all sorts of crying issues while chopping without the Progressive chopper. What’s even worse, is the combination of dry sky and my inability to not rub my eyes after handling onions. When I rub my eyes I’ve rekindled the eye-tearing-up process. Since I’m not used to being bothered by onions I just can’t seem to get it through my head. So the less handling of onions the better right now. This chopper really helped.

If you’re intrigued by a chopper like this for yourself or as a gift, but the price puts you out of the market, a model with just one grate (for chopping only) is also available. It’s the Progressive International Onion Chopper. I had one of these for years, until  we managed to drop a cutting board on the base container and shatter it. A really heavy cutting board will do that. And a bit of really bad luck that ensured perfect aim to the base container. The dice blade and pusher lid fit the GPC-4000, so I now have two of those.

The other cool thing about either chopper is that the base container has measurements on it, so when a recipe calls for two cups chopped carrots you don’t have to get another kitchen implement dirty. You chop into the measuring device. Amazing…I know!

So chopping becomes fast and easy. It’s actually kind of fun. If you have kids involved they can get some real work done, helping out a ton. But…there’s got to be a catch, right? I know what you’re thinking…if it’s fast and easy to use it’s got to be horrible to clean. That seems to be the rule, doesn’t it? Make the item easy to use, and save a ton of time…but karma bites you in the hand and you spend a big chunk of the time savings in cleanup. But this chopper is different. It cleans up in a breeze. If you have a dishwasher, it’s dishwasher safe and actually comes clean in there (unlike our blender parts and several other gadgets). If you have to wash this guy by hand, no problem. If you do it before the food dries on, it’s fast and easy to cleanup. Like two minutes fast…maybe faster. I stink at washing kitchen gadgets, so I’m really, really slow about it. There is a super-ultra-convenient cleaning tool that’s included that extracts the bits of food that get into the pusher lid. It’s actually pretty fun to use. It’s hard to explain why, but getting the bits of carrot out of there today was fun. And I don’t like kitchen cleanup, so that’s saying a lot.

The Progressive International GPC-4000 also comes with a Recipe Booklet and User Guide. The Features and Benefits section takes a page (but the pictures are really pretty), the What You Get page provides all the names for the parts (so you don’t call the pusher lid the smashy top thingy) and has pictures for when you can’t find a piece and have to show pictures to the entire family, finally the To Use section is one page long. Honestly, it’s so easy to use I never actually read that page. Ever. And I read instructions, read maps, follow my GPS, and don’t stop for directions when driving nearly as much as more normal men. So if I don’t never read the instructions are, chances are you won’t need to either. The remaining 33 pages have some really good recipes. I’ve made quite a few of them and have yet to be disappointed.

Having used both the Progressive International GPC-4000 and the Progressive International Onion Chopper for a number of years, I can highly recommend them. They make one of the most time-consuming tasks of food preparation an ease without the negative of increased clean-up time. I know I love my chopper!