Equipment review: Robot Coupe R2

I give this food processor 9 out of 10 acorns.
I want to be upfront and say that we love ours and I wanted to share an example of how a commercial machine can be a winner in the home kitchen.

The Robot Coupe R2 is a commercial food processor. It is very simple, there are just 3 buttons on it, but what it does it does really well.
It is much larger and heavier than a home sized machine but it also is much easier to set up and clean since it doesn't have many fiddly bits and everything can go in a dishwasher.

There are lots of specialty additions you can buy but we manage just fine with the basic 2 options kit. The first is a big tank and lid with an interior cutting blade for chopping/purée. The lid has an open centre so it easy to add things as it's running. The blade is very sharp and it can handle pretty tough fibres. I've used it for making red curry pastes and it just powers through lemongrass, ginger, galangal and other spices with no issues. Our machine was used to grind nuts for a gluten free bakery so it can handle that sort of work as well.


It makes fast work of softer stuff and the simplicity of the plain lid means you can run several batches through very quickly and easily. I prepped a bunch of green tomatoes before making jam and it was about 5 minutes to do all of these.

The second option it comes with is the slicing/grating top. This one is bit more work to set up but it's big bonus is that the finished product comes out a back chute, rather than building up in a canister. This means you can do as much as you want without having to stop. You just have to keep swapping in containers below it.
The basic set includes one slicer and one grating attachment and they are all I've needed but there are many different ones you can buy separately.
There are 2 imput ports in the top. One large one that means you don't have do too much prep before cutting and a smaller one that makes sure things like cucumbers or carrots can go in for perfect vertical slicing.
I should also mention that while this also for seriously fast processing, it is a bit messy since it can shoot stuff out at fairly high speeds and juice can drip from the chute edges as well. I mostly just keep a damp dish towel over the end of it to reduce flyways.
If you want to do any sort of pickle or need to prep for dehydration this machine can save a huge chunk of time and hassle.

The biggest drawback to this machine is the price. They retail new for around $2000 and the replacement blades and additional cutting options are in the ballpark of $400 each.
We got lucky and picked up our machine second hand for under $500, but if you are doing enough processing it could easily be worth it to buy one new. ( one aspect of these being such a simple and heavy duty machine is that they hold up well so they can often be found in good used shape) I have found that the ease of use, set-up and cleaning means that not only do I save a ton of time on my processing but the extra time and reduced mental load means more of my harvest gets prepped. They are one of those buy-it-for-life things!