5 Things to Know About Your New High-Powered Blender
I resisted buying a high-powered blender for a long time, but when I finally succumbed to the lure of a Vitamix, I was amazed at all the things it could do! Yes, they make great smoothies at a touch of a button or flip of a switch, but here are some other convenient things these blenders can do that may help justify the sizable investment.
If you found a sleek hunk of blender under your Christmas tree this year, here are five things you should know as you get acquainted.
1. It can blend and heat at the same time.
The motors on these high-powered blenders are so powerful that they create enough heat to warm foods up. Basically, you can throw a can of tomatoes and some sautéed onion into the blender, let it run until there’s steam coming out, and voila! Tomato soup. It’s also a great way to blend and heat baby food. While blending and heating does mean that a blender is noisily running for a while, the convenience can’t be beat.
2. It can make nut butters and nut milks.
High-powered blenders make quick work of nuts and can turn them into nut butters with whatever consistency you want (and you can even mix different nuts together to change things up). You can also process nuts with water to make homemade nut milk.
Read more: How To Make Almond Milk at Home
3. It can grind flours.
There’s been a rise in popularity of alternative and gluten-free flours, but these flours can be expensive. Use your blender to grind up oats, coconut, or even quinoa into flours that can be used in baking and cooking. The best part? You don’t have to worry about any cross-contamination with other products because you’re making it yourself. Some brands of blenders even make a separate dry grains blending container that have a more efficient blade for processing.
Read more: Vitamix Dry Grains Container Product Review
4. It can double as a spice grinder.
Turn whole dried chiles or spices into ground spices and custom blends without having to buy a spice grinder. Now you can buy whole spices (which last longer), and get the taste of freshly ground spices whenever you want — just by throwing them into your blender.5. It can be cleaned without any scrubbing.
To clean out your new blender, just squirt some dish soap into the jar, add enough warm water to fill it up halfway, and then run the blender on high speed. This sends the soapy water into all those nooks and crannies to clean them out, and all you have to do is give it one final rinse. This method works beautifully with almost all foods, with the exception of nut butters, which can be a bit sticky and stubborn.
Read more: The Best Way to Clean Your Blender