The Russell Hobbs Desire Range

In a household with two small children I always seem to be short on time when it comes to preparing and cooking family meals.  In addition I also have to shop within a budget, therefore, it would be great if I could get more out of the food I buy.  With the Russell Hobbs Desire Mini Chopper and Desire Slice and Go, I think I’ve found two appliances that can help me spend less and reduce food waste.

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This here is the Desire Mini Chopper, a great little device that takes up very little cupboard space and is a doddle to clean.  The hubby likes this new toy because he can chop lots of onions without getting the same tearful experience.  The girls and I love it because we like our vegetables cut to the same consistency throughout.

I would have so liked to have had this worktop wonder when the girls were babies, as you can easily turn left boiled veg or cooked meat into a tasty purée.  At present though it has earned it’s place in our kitchen when making my healthy mango and pineapple salsa, which assists me greatly in losing weight after the Christmas splurge.  I also use the Mini Chopper for preparing salads to have at home or when I’m out.

I appreciate the fact that this item doesn’t come with too many accessories (only one rotary blade), which can be a pain to store, especially in our kitchen’s cosy cupboard space.

It’s really easy to use and set up.  Like a normal blender you place the blade in first and then add your food, place the transparent lid on top followed by the one touch motor and voilà!  You’re not only limited to salsas, you can also try pestos, pasta sauces or even a bread crumb mix for chicken goujons. In fact if it needs dicing or more then this is perfect!


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Next up is the Desire Slice & Go, which is essentially a precision slicer and grater in one small appliance.  Our first use of the device was for a Sunday roast and we immediately noticed that we didn’t need to slice as many carrots like we usually do.  So that was a big plus to us.  We’ve also tried courgettes, cucumber, sweet potatoes, and found they all go a little further than if we were to chop them by hand.

The Slice & Go comes with 3 different attachments, one slicer and two graters, which I do prefer to a conventional grater.  The hubby informs me that when doing the washing up it was a pleasure washing the graters compared to a normal grater.  Another clever idea is the housing at the back of the device for two of the attachments when not being used.

There are two power settings, a continuous power for those moments when feeding certain vegetables requires two hands, and a pulse setting for controlled short bursts to obtain the optimum speed.

To use the Slice & Go prep your desired veg into slices so they can be fed into the top funnel, which then becomes sliced or grated and sent out of the serving spout.  The girls especially enjoyed using this device and I felt a lot more comfortable letting them use this than chopping vegetables with a knife, so it’s a child friendly way of them helping me with preparing dinner.  In turn it should hopefully maintain their love of eating vegetables.


So to sum it up, my family loves using these appliances in our everyday cooking.  The hubby loves them because it makes washing up easier.  I also think it’s because simply… he’s geek and it’s another gadget to play with.  I love how the two compliment my healthy eating lifestyle. And finally the girls enjoy being more involved in cooking the food they eat.