15 Surprising Things You Can Do With A Blender
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If you only use your blender to make smoothies and for the occasional margarita night, then you aren’t making the most of that magical appliance. There are likely tons of appetizers and drinks and treats you enjoy store-bought or off of your favorite restaurant’s menu that you don’t realize are made in a blender. Between the puree, liquefy, chop, and other settings on a blender, this appliance gives you several ways to experience the textures and flavors of ingredients. Keep in mind that some foods release more flavors and aromas when diced or cut up a certain way. Doing that by hand can take 30 minutes. But a blender lets you get the job done in a matter of seconds. I used to think that getting a blender as a gift was a little cheesy – it’s almost like being told that you need to be handier in the kitchen – but I straight up asked for and received a blender as a recent engagement present. It’s the lazy chef’s best friend. There are so many tasks I’ve moved from the cutting board to the blender. I highly recommend you do the same. Here are things you didn’t know you could do with your blender.
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Make perfect pancake mix
When everybody wants a big pancake or waffle breakfast, you’re put to work whisking the lumps out of batter. Your wrist is exhausted, and by the end of it, you still find dry ingredients that somehow didn’t get mixed in with the rest. Just throw your mixture in the blender for perfectly smooth batter.
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DIY nut butter
Store-bought nut butters can get quite expensive, especially when you get into the more gourmet stuff like cashew or hazelnut butter. But it’s not like the store has anything you don’t. You just need your nuts, your preferred amount of sugar and/or salt, and a really good blender.
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Herb-infused oils
You ever wonder how bakeries have that delicious rosemary-infused olive oil brushed over their focaccia or basil and olive oil dipping sauce for your bread? They just blend up their favorite herbs and oil in the blender. It’ll work to perfectly spread out the herbs throughout the oil. You can get creative, too. Add jalapeno, or olives, or sundried tomatoes.
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Mince garlic
When a recipe calls for finely minced garlic, you’re stuck dicing it away, getting pieces stuck under your fingernails, and never quite getting the food as fine as you want, anyways. A blender will mince it up very finely for you, so you don’t have hands that smell like garlic for days.
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Powdered sugar
If your recipe calls for powdered sugar – maybe you want to sprinkle the stuff over crepes or you’re making homemade donuts and want to powder sugar them – you can make the stuff, even if you don’t have the stuff. Just blend up 1.5 cups of granulated sugar with one tablespoon of corn starch.
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Make soup
Gazpacho. Butternut squash. Cream of mushroom. Broccoli and cheddar. Butternut squash. If you like a creamy, pureed soup, your blender is the way to go. Most of these soups just require your cooked veggies, milk and cream of choice (dairy or non-dairy), and a bit of seasoning.
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Homemade mayo
Making a sandwich or deviled eggs and realizing you’re out of mayonnaise? If you have certain common ingredients and a blender, you can make it. Just blend up two egg yolks, two teaspoons of white wine vinegar, ½ a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, ¾ a cup of olive oil, and a pinch of salt.
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Homemade pizza sauce
You don’t have to buy the jarred stuff to have a DIY pizza night at home. All you need is four cloves of garlic (which you now know to mince in your blender), a 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes, two tablespoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of sugar, one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of pepper.
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Almond flour
All you need to make almond flour is almonds. The stuff can be a godsend for those with gluten sensitivities or those on Paleo and Keto diets. However, it can also be pretty expensive when purchased from the store. Just put your blender on the finest setting, blend up those almonds, and you’ll have almond flour.
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Herb and spice mixtures
Herb and spice mixtures from the store charge quite the markup, when all they did was combine some of the same herbs and spices you have at home. But you can make the stuff yourself. And when you make it at home, you can use any combination of herbs and spices that you want.
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Yummy sorbet
It’s always nice to be able to make your own frozen treats at home during the summer, like homemade popsicles you make with juice and fruit in molds, and homemade ice cream. Using your blender, you can make homemade sorbet. All you need is your frozen fruit of choice, plus some sugar.
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Light pudding
If store-bought pudding is a little heavy on the sugar and artificial ingredients for you, just make your own at home. Blend up five ounce of semi-sweet chocolate (which you can chop using your blender), two tablespoons of sugar, 1/8th a teaspoon of salt, one egg yolk, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 3/4th a cup of heavy cream. Garnish with fresh fruit and whipped cream.
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Dips
White bean dip. Spicy bean dip. Artichoke and spinach dip. Cheese dip. Hummus. Babaganoush. Whatever dips you like to make, you can likely make them in your blender. And you can avoid all the salt and preservatives added in the store-bought stuff.
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Apple sauce
All you need to make apple sauce is the apples of your choice, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Boil about five pounds of chopped apples (chop in the blender), with two tablespoons of lemon juice and two teaspoons of cinnamon. When the apples are fully softened, blend up the mixture.
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Nutella
Ah Nutella. Some of the most addictive stuff in the world. You can put it in pancakes, on sandwiches, and on waffles. You can smother it on bananas. It doesn’t call for much more than some vegetable oil, cocoa powder, hazelnuts, and a few other common ingredients.
