What are Blenders used for?

Blenders are usually very handy tool in the kitchen and used to make icy drinks, smoothie, chopping vegetables or pureeing soup, sauces, pureeing vegetables and sometime meat. Blenders comes in various colors and great look to show it off on your kitchen counter as well.

Blenders have two basic part, a motor on bottom part and glass, and steel or hard plastic container on top with blade inside. It may have a various speed and features and functionality depending on brands and prices.

• Icy drinks, and ice crushing
• Ice-cream shake
• Smoothie
• Alcoholic drinks such as margaritas or Mississippi mudslide drinks
• Soups
• Sauces
• Pureed vegetables and meat for burger etc.
• Baby food
• Mixing oil and liquid type food
• Grinding meat
• Making Hummus, Pate and Meat loaf etc

Depending on what you will use your blenders for look for those features such as ice crush, if you want to make special drinks. Also check for noise level, types of pad control features can make a difference in quality blenders.

There are two types of blenders and many household cooks both type of blenders to do various tasks.

1. Hand held Blender

Hand held blender are usually thin and long piece with open blade at at end. Usually you hold the long curved part in your hand, while bottom part submerged in food that needs pureeing, mixing or grinding. Sometimes it is easy to puree the soup in the pot they were cooked in. Hand held blenders are good for small tasks and mixing in smoothies, milkshakes and other drinks.

Our Recommendations:

KitchenAid KHB300WH Hand Blender, White

Click here to learn more about Hand Held Blenders

2. Counter top Blender

Counter top blenders have much powerful motor and can do bigger batch of pureeing, crushing ice, chopping and more. Blender container comes in varied sizes to handle larger batches of food. Usually container is made of steel, glass or hard plastic and they are easy to clean and dishwasher safe. Bottom motor part needs to be wiped clean with moist sponge or towel and should not be in water. There are varied speed machine such as 3 speed to up to 16 speed blenders are available.  Some blenders are powerful enough to food processing tasks.

Some of the popular brands make a good quality counter top blenders are Oster, Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, Kurps, Sunbeam, Vitamix , Bruan and Black and Decker to name a few.

See our detailed review of : Vitamix 1363 CIA Platinum Blender

Our Recommendations:

KitchenAid KSB560OB 5-Speed 56-Ounce Blender, Onyx Black

Click here for Counter Top Blenders

Our recommendations:

We found that 300-400 wattage blenders have plenty power, and do not need higher wattage blenders for most tasks. Some blenders have flip switches and other have touch pads, touch pads are easier to clean but you may have to push button twice, for example, once to turn it on and second to do whichever task you want to do.

Glass and wide mouth container are best as you can see what is going on inside, and easier to clean. Pulse setting and number of speed is another feature to look for when you are looking to buy a blender. Some blenders also offer easy cord storage for safety from pet and small children.

Magic Bullet MBR-1701 17-Piece Express Mixing Set

Blendtec TB-621-20 1,560-Watt Total Blender, Black

Cuisinart BFP-10CH PowerBlend Duet Blender and Food Processor, Chrome and Black