What is a potato ricer?
Potato ricers make short work of whipping up a creamy mash. You can use it on cooked root vegetables, too, which is helpful if you have a baby that’s weaning.
Potato ricers operate using a hinged movement to press cooked ingredients through small holes, making your mash lump-free.
What is the difference between potato ricer and a potato masher?
For rustic mashed potatoes with texture, a masher not only provides a bit of a workout but will also help you maintain some texture. A ricer will produce smoother and creamier mash.
Both of them operate using a manual plunge action. A potato masher is a simple T-shaped utensil that applies pressure to ingredients in a pan or bowl. With a ricer, the ingredient is added to a chamber, and the hinge is closed to feed the ingredient through the pressing plate.
Best potato ricers at a glance
- Best overall potato ricer: Chef’n Fresh Force potato ricer, £32.99
- Best looking potato ricer: Joseph Joesph helix potato ricer, £20
- Best potato ricer for ergonomics: Oxo Good Grips potato ricer, £32.49
- Best potato ricer for sturdiness: ProCook stainless steel potato ricer, £26
- Best value potato ricer: KitchenCraft chrome plated potato ricer, £16.80
- Best potato ricer for versatility: Judge potato ricer, £20.99
- Best cheap potato ricer: Ikea Idealisk potato ricer, £10
- Best cheffy potato ricer: Hotlike stainless steel vegetable ricer, £20.99
Best potato ricers to buy 2023
Chef’n Fresh Force potato ricer
Best overall potato ricer
Pros:
- Beautifully engineered, making for effortless ricing
Cons:
Star rating: 5/5
The solidity and excellent engineering of this ricer made it one of the best in the test. It’s easy to press; the vegetables flew out of the pressing plate with hardly any food left behind.
The clean design means there’s nowhere for food to hide, and with its removable stainless-steel basket, it’s easy to wash. The Fresh Force is slightly heavier than the other ricers, but it’s easy to use and makes excellent purées.
Available from:
Joseph Joseph Helix potato ricer
Best looking potato ricer
Pros:
- Smart appearance
- Easy to use
Cons:
Star rating: 5/5
The simplicity of the design and soft colouring of the Joseph Joseph ricer is lovely. There’s no style-over-substance here, though – this one works like a dream.
The two-part ricer has a stainless-steel chamber and an inner, solid plunger. The helix design means the plunger slips into the barrel and, with the gentlest twist of the handles, it pushes the puree through the bottom. Nothing comes out of the top and the inside is clean when untwisted, so washing it is easy.
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Though the ricer is small in size, the pressing plate holes are large enough to create light, fluffy purées – even fibrous parsnip was smooth.
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OXO Good Grips potato ricer
Best potato ricer for ergonomics
Pros:
- Great soft grip
- Non-slip knob
Cons:
Star rating: 4.5/5
The OXO Good Grips is one of the smaller ricers on the test, so we could only use a small handful of vegetable chunks at a time. It was very easy to use, and gave silky, soft purées, except for the parsnips, which left a little veg in the chamber.
The real benefit of this product is the soft silicone on the handle, which allows a really good grip for ease of use. On the opposite side of the handle is a sizeable, silicone non-slip hook, which sits extremely well on the side of the bowl.
This ricer may be small, but it’s well-formed.
Available from:
ProCook stainless steel potato ricer
Best potato ricer for sturdiness
Pros:
Cons:
- Nooks and crannies harbour food
Star rating: 4/5
The ProCook is a sturdily built stainless-steel ricer. We especially like the hook, which helps to rest the ricer on the edge of a bowl or pan, adding to the ease of use.
There’s an extra-long handle with secure finger grips, which is easy to hold and gives good leverage, so you can squeeze the vegetables through easily. We had smooth purées, except for the parsnip, which clogged up.
Our only consideration was that there are crevices in the plunger and around the barrel where food can hide, so thorough cleaning is needed, but it is dishwasher proof, so that helped.
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KitchenCraft chrome plated potato ricer
Best value potato ricer
Pros:
- Great details at a budget price
Cons:
Star rating: 4/5
The KitchenCraft is a budget-priced ricer that delivers some surprising details. We liked that the basket is removable as it’s easy to wash up. The soft-grip handle is a great bonus as pressing the vegetables takes little effort.
It’s a small touch but a useful one; the plunger has small indentations in its base, which prevent the vegetables from sticking to it. This was the only ricer where the spinach had to be scraped off.
The plunger is quite loose in the handle and swings around a little furiously, which makes a clanging noise, but at this price, it can be forgiven!
Available from:
Judge potato ricer
Best potato ricer for versatility
Pros:
- Great versatility for the price
Cons:
Star rating: 4.5/5
The Judge potato ricer impressed. Though plastic, it’s solidly built and very light. There are three grooves for resting the ricer on a bowl or pan, which were especially useful for adding even more stability. The smooth edges make it so easy to clean.
There are two interchangeable, stainless steel pressing plates – one with large holes, which proved great for the parsnips, and a smaller one for silkier purées. And, though chunky, the handles had a really good spring to them, making it even easier to press.
Our only gripe was that removing the chamber for washing was difficult – it refused to budge and took several goes to get it out. Hopefully, that will become easier over time.
Available from:
Harts of Stur (£13.50)
Amazon (£15.99)
IKEA IDEALISK potato press
Best cheap potato ricer
Pros:
- Bargain at the price
- Great for small amounts
Cons:
Star rating: 4/5
The cheapest and smallest on the test, but this one stull delivers. It’s good-quality stainless steel, and the setting of the plunger is precisely balanced, so no swinging around and clanging.
Though the diameter of the chamber is small, we liked that the holes come a third of the way up the sides. The advantage of this was that more purée comes out of the bottom and sides and less from the top. The purées were great, and only the parsnip was a problem, with the fibres and stuck to the bottom.
There really is nothing to dislike about this ricer, and if you only need to make small amounts, this is the one.
Available from:
Ikea (£10)
Hotlike stainless steel vegetable ricer
Best cheffy potato ricer
Pros:
- A classic design
- Strong sturdy construction
Cons:
- The bottom handle falls off
Star rating: 4/5
This ricer is a classic design. This cheese-wedge shape is still a favourite of professional chefs as it holds more than others of the size, and the shape stands up to heavy pressing and banging around.
We found it heavier than others and harder to press, but with holes on two sides and a large surface area, it gave great results, and even the parsnip passed through easily. Vegetables did tend to catch into the corners and needed scraping out.
Annoyingly, the ricer tends to come apart as it is only slotted together, a design fault that for some reason, has never changed.
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How we tested potato ricers
We looked at the sturdiness and quality of each ricer by pressing cooked potatoes, carrots, celeriac and parsnips through the ricers.
The texture and quality of the purée, how easy it was to press, what was left behind and how easy was it to clean them after use. We also wilted spinach and used the ricers to squeeze out the water. All the ricers performed this well.
What we look for when buying a potato ricer
Potato ricers get can become messy and difficult to clean, so look for those that come apart, or at least are dishwasher proof (most are).
Weight is a factor as it can make it harder to squeeze the handles.
Size matters if you have lots of people to feed as you will only be able to put a few vegetables through at a time. Consider what your day-to-day use will be.
Quality is important. As the ricer comes under a lot of pressure, it needs to be robust and sturdy to stand up to the rigours of pressing and cleaning.
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This review was last updated in January 2023. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.
