I test pricey kitchen appliances for a living but this gadget under £15 is the one I use every single day for food prep

As Ideal Home's Kitchen Appliances Editor, I've accumulated my fair share of kitchen gadgets. From my coffee machine to my air fryer, I'm pretty particular about what gets a spot on my worktop and as you might have guessed from my job title, I love cooking, so I'm always on the hunt for something to make chopping onions, peppers and garlic a bit easier.

In pursuit of that, I've tried many of the best mini choppers and food processors of all price ranges in the last few years to see which fit best into our guides. We even recently tested (and awarded 5 stars) the Sage Paradice 16, which will set you back a jaw-dropping £579.00.

And yet, despite all of the impressive and expensive gadgets I've tried, I keep reaching for one of the most affordable mini choppers I've seen. Yep, it's the Salter Press Chopper, available from Amazon for £14.99 that I go back to time and time again. Here's why sometimes you don't need to break the bank to find a genuinely useful addition to your kitchen.

Why the Salter Mini Chopper is my kitchen essential

I find a food processor is an important thing to have in a kitchen. I tend to use mine for making humus and sauces quite frequently, but having to retrieve it from its storage spot and plug it in sometimes feels more time consuming than the chopping task at hand.

That's where this Salter chopper is so handy. It's small enough for me to keep in a cupboard under my worktop, and has several blades inside to make chopping onions and other vegetables to a fine level easy. I've tried other types like this before, including one like this with a pull cord, but I find the press mechanism on this Salter less fiddly and prone to breaking. All you need to do is load it up and pull across the button, and you can chop to your heart's content.

Thanks to this gadget I never have to go through the painful experience of powering through the tears to chop onions by hand. It also makes quickly chopping up other veggies or herbs insanely easy.

The latest trend towards cordless appliances is one that I don't see going anywhere soon, but in a world of chargers, batteries and drawers full of mismatched cords (in my flat at least), I've been enjoying this simple little tool. It's on the small side for sure, and therefore best for chopping one thing at a time, but it's also perfectly functional. And for under £15, you can't say fairer than that!