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Blenders are the real Swiss army knife of the kitchen, capable of whipping up soups, smoothies, nut butter and even taking care of chopping during food prep. If you’re short on space in your kitchen and wondering which appliance is going to cover the most ground, we’d recommend a blender above anything else.
The term blender is actually a bracket for a great number of appliances. There are stick blenders for whizzing around a pan of soup, or in a jug – although these more often than not come with other attachments for greater versatility. There are also jug blenders and food processors.
When choosing the right blender for you, start with space. What will fit in your kitchen? Then look at the real estate space a blender will take up – remember to take into account all those attachments. Many blenders are designed to slot into cupboards, and some offer lots of different attachments.
Also, it’s important to think about what you’ll be mostly using the blender for. If you do loads of food prep – be that chopping or grating, especially on a big scale – a food processor-style blender might be better as it has a powerful motor and tends to have more food-prep attachments.
If you want to make soup and cannot face pouring soup from the pan into a jug to blend, a hand blender is the answer. These often have chopping bowl attachments and whisks too, which are great if you want to chop an onion quickly or whisk up a sauce. Jug blenders are best for nut butter and making curry pastes, as well as smoothies and soups. They can be heavy to lug out of cupboards though.
How we tested the best blenders
We tested in a busy family kitchen, where we make big batches of food on the regular and need something powerful and versatile, but that ideally doesn’t take up loads of space. During testing, we used blenders for food prep – trying out chopping functions on soft and hard veg like onions and carrots. We also tried our hand at nut butter and smoothies, soups and pastes. We looked at how easy the blenders were to operate, and also – vitally – clean. We wanted the perfect balance of versatility without being fiddly. And we also looked at value for money, testing products across all price points.
The best blenders for 2024 are:
Best blender overall –Ninja foodi power blender three-in-one: £149.99, Amazon.co.uk
Best budget blender –Judge glass blender: £39.99, Amazon.co.uk
Best hand blender –Dualit 700W hand blender: £77.99, Amazon.co.uk
Best blender for smoothies – Bosch vacuum blender: £199, Ao.com
Best blender for soups –Braun powerblend 9 jug blender: £145, Amazon.co.uk
If you're looking for the best blender for making smoothies, shakes, frozen drinks, nut milk, or soups, you can't go wrong with Vitamix's E310 Explorian model. For a smaller personal blender with cups made to take on the go, we recommend the Nutribullet Pro 900 for its power and portability.
If you're looking for the best blender for making smoothies, shakes, frozen drinks, nut milk, or soups, you can't go wrong with Vitamix's E310 Explorian model. For a smaller personal blender with cups made to take on the go, we recommend the Nutribullet Pro 900 for its power and portability.
Many smooth and creamy soups will need to be blended after cooking, and while any blender will theoretically work, a power blender with a stronger motor will create the smoothest soups.
As long as your blender's owner's manual states that the jar is made of heat-resistant plastic and can handle hot liquids, then you should be able to blend hot soup.
The Vitamix 5200 outperforms every other blender time and time again. It excels at every task, turning hard, sticky, and fibrous ingredients into creamy purées. It's powerful and can handle extended blending sessions without overheating.
Immersion blenders—sometimes called stick blenders or hand blenders—allow you to blend right in a pot or mixing bowl, making messy, splatter-prone cooking tasks (like puréeing soup) a little more contained.
It is important to start on the lowest setting and gradually increase the speed. To achieve a silky-smooth texture, keep the blender running for at least 1 to 2 minutes in order to fully break down the solids. A common mistake is to not run the blender long enough. This results in a grainy-textured soup.
Both types perform well but the former offers more versatility, as you can use it as a blender too. Most models can also blend cold foods. As well as cooking your ingredients, soup makers can blend them into a smooth or chunky soup, so you can get just the texture you like.
Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.
Soups, sauces & bisques: When you want to make a creamy tomato soup, a smooth lobster bisque or a unique spiced cantaloupe gazpacho, use your blender for silky smooth results.
Meanwhile, a jug blender works well as a permanent fixture on the countertop and can house a lot more liquid than a standard personal blender. These traditional designs work best for puréeing vegetables for sauces and soups, but also give you a lot more flexibility when cooking.
You can make soup in any nutribullet but it's important to remember that you should never add any hot liquids or foods to your nutribullet cup. Prep all food and allow it to cool to room temperature BEFORE blending. Then blend to the desired consistency and heat in a pot on the stove before serving.
A: If you follow the instructions in the Vitamix cookbook, the Vitamix will heat soup to a temperature just below boiling, between 175°F and 200°F. Typical raw diets try to maintain temperatures below a range of 92°F to 118°F. (Variations in the raw-food diet set different temperature limits.)
However, Vitamix blenders are generally significantly better-built and more versatile than NutriBullet models, so if you're looking for a multi-purpose machine, you might want to look at the best Vitamix blenders.
A blender stands a lot taller than a smoothie maker and the base is always bigger because it holds a much bigger motor. Smoothie makers are usually quite compact and small and the cups are usually around 1-2 servings.
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