1. Fresh Pesto
You can of course make pesto in a food processor but as much bigger machines than blenders, they’re often stowed away rather than out on your countertop. Blenders are far more likely to be close-to-hand, plugged in and ready-to-go. Arguably, cleaning a blender is also a whole lot easier.
2. Delicious Soups
An immersion or hand blender that goes directly into the saucepan will reduce washing up but if you only have a jug blender to hand, soup is absolutely doable. The key is to allow a little time for the cooked soup to cool as most blenders are not designed to work with liquids above 80°C. Pop in a couple of ice cubes before you decant from saucepan to blender and your soup will be safe to blend in a jiffy.
3. Cool Cocktails
You don’t need cocktail waiter skills to shake up some Tom Cruise-worthy blends! Blitzing cocktails in your blender is particularly useful when entertaining a crowd, as you can produce bulk orders with speed, ensuring nobody is left empty-handed. Recipes that feature crushed ice, like daiquiris, margaritas and mojitos, are perfect thirst-quenchers in the summer months, but make sure you add at least a cup of liquid to the ice cubes to ensure a smooth, non-lumpy adult slushy!
4. Pizza Sauce
The ingredients in our pizza recipes by Alice Hart can be blended first to achieve a smooth base for pizza toppings. Blending pizza sauce is also a good way to sneak if a few ‘hidden veg’ like chopped onions and cooked carrots to boost your family’s five-a-day without alerting fussy eaters.
5. Pancake Mix
A simple and quick way to ensure silky smooth, lump-free pancake batter is to harness the help of your blender. This indulgent pancake recipe uses an immersion blender, aka stick blender, to ensure perfectly combined liquids but you could also use a traditional jug-style blender.
6. Speedy Ice-Cream
With no laborious custard base or cooking required, ice cream recipes made in the blender really couldn’t be easier. All you need is an equal amount of any frozen fruit and double cream, adding sugar to taste.
7. Salad Dressings
Any salad dressing that’s best served super smooth is prime fodder for your blender. A quick vinaigrette can be whipped up in about 30 seconds and will taste far fresher than any shop-bought dressing.
8. Almond Milk
You don’t need to be dairy intolerant to appreciate the velvety creaminess of almond milk, which tastes amazing in your morning coffee, on cereal or just on its own.
9. Breadcrumbs
If you’ve been throwing out bread that’s gone dry up to now, and you own a blender, you’re missing a trick. A blender is ideal for making breadcrumbs that can be used to top mac and cheese, for fish and other seafood, in gratins, and to bread cutlets of chicken, for example.
10. Salsa
Chips and salsa is a classic combo, but salsa is the perfect addition to a whole host of other foods from hamburgers to grilled fish, salads, and scrambled eggs. And salsa is easy to make in a blender by chopping ingredients into chunks then blending to a smooth texture. A word of caution here though. Many salsa recipes call for garlic. There is the possibility that strong flavors like garlic can linger even after the blender is cleaned, so our advice is to use recipes that don’t include it to avoid any possibility of flavor taint.