Magimix Le Mini Plus

Summary:

• + Small footprint
• + Workhorse (mine is now seven years old)
• + Reasonably priced and easy to obtain spare parts
• + Quiet motor
• + Easy to clean
• – White, stainable plastic now updated to black
• – Mini bowl not always useful and leaks a bit

Before I bought the Magimix Le Mini Plus (affiliate link) I had a small food processor that came with my Philips stick blender. It served me well but the design wasn’t the best and the lid got water stuck in it so after a while it felt unhygienic. I’m glad I got to use it though because it was about 6 inches in diameter and I found its size really useful; it showed me that for most of the food I cook I wouldn’t need a full sized food processor.

Kitchen worktop space is a precious commodity in most kitchens and wherever possible I keep my appliances on my countertops because if I have to pack and unpack something then I won’t use it. All of my gadgets are researched to a ridiculous degree because I want to be confident that they won’t sit around unused, collecting dust and taking up much needed space.

I bought the Le Mini Plus over the Micro as I wanted more power and extra accessories like the mini internal bowl and graters. The Le Mini Plus also has a longer warranty; at the time of my purchase it was 10 years for the motor and now it’s an impressive 30 years.

The good bits

Space saving

The Le Mini Plus has a really small footprint (H37 x L15.5 x D21cm) and can sit on a countertop that has cupboards above it meaning that it doesn’t need a huge amount of clearance, unlike my bread maker.

Workhorse

I purchased the Le Mini Plus in 2013 and have probably used it a couple of times a week on average, sometimes more. I haven’t had to replace a part yet (see update) although some parts, like the main bowl and blade, are getting tired but are just about hanging in there. I put my food processor through a lot and I think it would prefer to not have to deal with tough ingredients like almonds, cashews and dates but it manages. Mostly I use it to:

• Make pesto, tapenade and other sauces and dips
• Make vegetable mash using peas or broad beans
• Process bread into breadcrumbs
• Grate cheese or carrots
• Make Raw Brownies (consisting of almonds, dates, cocoa and honey)

The Le Mini Plus really doesn’t like processing the dry and sticky ingredients for Raw Brownies and I have to physically hold it down or it would vibrate its way off the countertop. I think it was this recipe that caused the plastic notches on the main bowl to eventually break off so now I have to hold the bowl in place to engage the motor and blade. To be clear, this isn’t a complaint, because Raw Brownies should be processed in a more powerful food processor and despite making them fairly regularly, the Le Mini Plus is still going strong after seven years; it’s an absolute workhorse.

The main blade has collected a few burrs but still manages to process most of the food I throw at it and the graters are brilliant if I need vegetables for a slaw or a large amount of cheese (I’m looking at you, Nigella’s Mexican Lasagne).

Spare parts

Spare parts are easily obtained from BBS Ltd and they ship quickly; I ordered a 4mm grater and spare mini bowl. If I were to replace my main blade and bowl then my Le Mini Plus would likely be as good as new but I’m holding out until they give up completely.

The main Sabatier blade is incredibly, ridiculously sharp and when it was brand new it managed to cut Colin through a tea towel so treat it with caution.

Quiet

If you’ve ever owned a Nutribullet you’ll appreciate the Le Mini Plus’s quiet motor. It depends on what you’re processing (nuts are loud) but it never makes me reach for my ear defenders (I’m serious; I wear ear defenders when I’m using my Nutribullet, which Col has dubbed “The Bone Grinder”).

Easy to clean

All of the bowls and blades are dishwasher safe; the bowl has been dishwashed hundreds of times on the top and bottom rack and has yet to turn cloudy. Pleasingly, none of the parts take up much room in the dishwasher.

The bad bits

White plastic

Magimix has now updated all of the internal plastic parts from white to black (sadly after I bought my food processor), which was a good move as the white plastic can get stained.

The mini bowl

After purchasing an extra mini bowl, thinking that I would use it often, I rarely do. The mini bowl has its own blade which is understandably less powerful than the main blade but I find that it doesn’t have quite enough reach and foods like olives, garlic or ginger tend to stick to the sides of the bowl where they can’t get processed. Sauces don’t have this problem as gravity pushes the liquid back down towards the blade.

I’ve found that the contents of the mini bowl can sometimes leak into the main bowl when the food is being processed. It’s to be expected, with food being flung left, right and centre, but I lazily assumed that I’d be able to use the mini bowl and not have to wash up the larger one. Because of this I rarely use the mini bowl unless I need to keep my ingredients separate.

Overall thoughts

The Le Mini Plus is one of my most used and loved kitchen gadgets. It’s still going strong after seven years despite occasionally being mistreated. The motor and main blade are powerful, quiet and have provided years of reliable service although heavy usage has meant that foods like crusty bread and nuts now take longer to process. The only small con I have is that I don’t use the mini bowl that much as I find that the main bowl covers most of my needs.

I love that all the parts fit easily in the dishwasher and the overall build quality is impressive; the bowl and blade still look good and function well despite their age.

The size of the Le Mini Plus is perfect for our household of two and while I find that I need to process certain foods (like a whole cauliflower) in batches, I wouldn’t change it for a bigger model because its compact size is one of its biggest selling points.

Would I replace it if it broke tomorrow?

Yes, immediately.