What That Blender Do?: 9 Foods You Probably Didn’t Know You Could Finesse With That Appliance

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We’re all guilty of buying appliances that we just let sit on shelves, gathering dust. We buy them with the best intentions. There are aspirations of making all sorts of gourmet things seen on cooking shows and Pinterest and Instagram. We tell ourselves that we will break out of the mundane menus we are used to and we will make culinary creations. But then…life gets busy and it’s back to the usual dishes. The special appliances get forgotten, or given away to friends, or sold at yard sales. The kitchen appliance sections of most thrift stores are like graveyards for these forgotten items. While you maybe will never need a fancy spiralizer or that thing that makes mousse, don’t give up on your blender just yet.

Your blender can actually do a lot more than make smoothies. So just because you’re over your brief liquid diet phase, doesn’t mean that your blender is no good. It can make a lot of the things you already eat regularly, and it can make the process of creating them easier and faster. You just have to think outside the box (or inside the blender). You might just realize that loud, whirring machine is the most valuable tool you have. Here are things you didn’t know you could make with a blender.

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Guacamole

Mashing the chunks out of guacamole always feels like a lot of work. But if you don’t like chunky guacamole, you just have to do it, and your wrist is in shambles at the end. Creamy guacamole is easier to lift on a chip than the chunky stuff – when guac is too heavy, it can break your chips. So how do restaurants get it so creamy? They use their blender. Blend just your avocado in there. Add that into a bowl, and then mix in the other ingredients by hand. You don’t want to put things like your onion and tomato in the blender because then you won’t have guacamole – you’ll have more like a zesty avocado spread with an off-putting color.

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Pancake and waffle batter

If you’re mixing up a big batch of waffle or pancake batter for friends and family, your wrist will get tired fast. But if you don’t have an electric whisk (which few people do), you’re stuck doing it by hand. Unless you use…the blender! You can lightly pre-mix the batter in a bowl just a little before putting it in the blender just to spread out the egg. Once in the blender, set it to the liquid setting and you should have perfectly creamy batter, ready to go in pans and waffle irons. A blender can also help you make perfect peanut butter or chocolate pancakes, as you can add those ingredients in for smooth dispersion, too.

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Pesto

You may have noticed that pesto sauce is somehow four times as expensive as tomato sauce. But sometimes, it’s just what you crave so you’re stuck buying tiny jars for six dollars that barely cover one batch of spaghetti. You can save money by making your pesto at home, and your blender is the perfect tool to help you do it. The raw ingredients are actually quite affordable and a little will go a long way in having you make several batches. Try blending these ingredients in your blender: 1/3 cup raw pine nuts, two cups of basil leaves, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, one tablespoon of lemon juice, two cloves of garlic, ½ a cup of extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. You can leave out the cheese for a vegan variety.

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Mayonnaise

If you ever find yourself out of mayonnaise but desperate to have some for a sandwich or a homemade aioli, you probably have the ingredients at home for a homemade mayonnaise. And while whipping this condiment into fluffy perfection by hand would make one of your arms far more muscular than the other, a blender can do the thing for you. Try blending up this zesty mayo recipe: 1 egg, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 garlic clove, 1 cup canola or avocado oil, salt to taste. It’s much tastier than the store-bought variety and easy to play with if you’d like to add things like avocado or paprika.

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Nut butters

Nut butters seem to be priced like gold at health food stores. The only affordable ones left are also the highly-processed ones with ingredients lists longer than a CVS receipt. Maybe that’s not what you want to feed your family. But you do appreciate the convenience of nut butter. It’s a quick, easy way to get tons of protein and healthy fats in a small serving and it goes so well with just about anything from apple slices to toast to cereal. So, save yourself some cash and make your own nut butter at home. You definitely cannot blend this stuff by hand. But, again, your blender has your back. Roast about three cups of raw nuts of your choosing in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender. Chop it up in the blender and start adding grapeseed oil very slowly – just drizzling – until you get the desired consistency. Some add cinnamon or maple syrup for sweetness.

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Hummus

Really good hummus is another food that health food stores have begun to realize people will pay a small fortune for, but you don’t have to fall for that. Hummus is really easy to make at home in your blender, and it’s also easy to customize as you go if you want special flavors. All you need to make hummus at home is a handful of ingredients. Try this for starters, and you can customize as you like: 2 cans of chickpeas, 2 garlic cloves, 6 tablespoons of lemon juice, 6 tablespoons of tahini (you can use peanut butter if you don’t have tahini, but cut the amount in half as it’s very sweet), salt to taste, and ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil. You can later add paprika, chili flakes, or other spices to your liking.

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Soup

If you want to look like an expert chef in front of guests, use your blender to make soup. It’s especially good for cold soups like gazpacho soups of various kinds because you can add in chunky ingredients like corn or watermelon. It’s also excellent for squash-based soups because it breaks down this thick, stringy food into a smooth consistency. You can use your blender to make tasty carrot soups, too, by simply adding tons of boiled, chilled carrots and other ingredients like olive oil and spices. If you have an excess of any farmers market vegetables you don’t know what to do with, experiment with your blender in making cold soups.

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Apple sauce

Apple sauce can be a surprisingly refreshing treat when you want something sweet that doesn’t contain too much sugar. It’s also a snack that kids will often accept without fuss. When you need to add moisture to baked goods but don’t want to use butter because you want to cut calories or are feeding a vegan, you can swap in apple sauce. But what happens when you don’t have apple sauce on hand? Not many adults keep it on their regular shopping list. No problem – your blender can whip you up a batch of homemade apple sauce in minutes. Simply add several chopped apples (cores, peel and seeds removed) to a sauce pan with sugar and cinnamon to taste until the mixture is soft. Then blend it up in your blender. Chill in the refrigerator, and enjoy.

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Pizza sauce

If you love having a DIY pizza night at home where everyone chooses their different toppings and creates their own pies, you should learn to make your own pizza sauce. This is especially important for those who haven’t found a store-bought one that’s quite to their liking. The core ingredients of a good pizza sauce are as follows (you can increase ratios if more is needed): 3 tablespoons tomato paste, one 15-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, 1.5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. The following you can add to your liking but will likely just be one or two teaspoons: minced garlic, dried oregano, fresh or dried basil, salt and pepper.

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Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Your Blender