One appliance that chops, stirs and cooks at the same time, all in the same bowl. The best-known one is the Thermomix.
Soup, sauce, risotto or rice pudding: the machine stirs and heats at the same time, and you no longer have to stand at the stove. It chops onions and vegetables first in the same bowl, and with many models you weigh the ingredients right in it too. Afterwards you mainly wash the mixing bowl instead of a board, a knife and a pan.
The machines I would recommend (Moulinex ClickChef, Moulinex Companion XL and WMF Avantgarde) are not available on amazon.co.uk at the moment, or only from other sellers at a much higher price. As soon as a machine I can recommend is available there at a normal price, you'll find it here. Until then, the calculator and the questions below help you choose.
Set it to how you live. Everything recalculates instantly.
Vorwerk sells the Thermomix only itself, through its sales advisors and its own online shop. That's why it isn't on Amazon. It is good, though: at Stiftung Warentest the Thermomix TM7 was rated good (issue 2/2026). At Test-Achats the Moulinex Companion XL achieved a similar overall result.
The Bosch Cookit was the test winner at Stiftung Warentest (good, grade 2.0, issue 1/2024). But it isn't available on Amazon, so it's missing here.
Lidl sells the Monsieur Cuisine Smart itself. At Stiftung Warentest it was satisfactory (grade 2.8, issue 1/2024), and at Test-Achats it is a best value tip. If you can get it at Lidl, it's an affordable alternative with built-in scales.
Only to a limited extent. According to Stiftung Warentest, roasted flavours only develop from 140 degrees. The ClickChef only reaches 120 degrees, so nothing really browns. For steak, schnitzel or crispy onions, you're better off sticking with the frying pan.
Easily, yes. At Stiftung Warentest almost all machines slipped up when chopping onions (issue 1/2024). It's best to chop onions with a few short presses of the pulse or turbo button and check in between.
Not for the Companion XL: the recipes are in the free Moulinex app. For the ClickChef they are in the cookbook, and according to the manufacturer the WMF comes with just over 300 recipes on the machine. With the Thermomix you need the Cookidoo subscription for most recipes; without it, according to Vorwerk, you have around 200 recipes on the machine.
Honestly, no test has measured that. The machine doesn't necessarily cook faster. But it saves you standing next to the pan and stirring, and you don't have to chop onions and vegetables by hand. In that time you can set the table, tidy up or simply sit down. The calculator shows how much that adds up to for you.