Blenders are small kitchen appliances that most people have. While they may get used on occasion, the average user doesn’t typically utilize their blender enough to know what each of the settings on their unit does.
That’s where we come in. Explore these seven must-know settings your blender may be equipped with and the uses of each. Once you find out how versatile your blender is, you’ll want to use your blender for every recipe you whip up in your kitchen!
1. Pulse
When you have a very particular texture you want to achieve or don’t want to overblend or overheat your ingredients, use the pulse setting. Nearly every blender has this setting. It’s designed to provide a high-speed blend that the user manually operates for a short period of time. This is great for dessert crumbles, breaking up cheese, or chopping soft foods like eggs.
2. Ice Crush
If you’re going to be adding frozen fruits, frozen vegetables, or straight ice to your blender, ice crush is the setting you’ll want to use. This setting ensures that any thick, icy ingredients are properly broken down and blended until smooth to give you the perfect texture. The ice crush setting is ideal when making smoothies, protein shakes, and other frozen drinks or desserts.
3. Puree
When you need a slightly runny texture for baby food, soups, or sauces, the puree setting on your blender is the right choice. This setting allows you to go for a smooth, creamy consistency or a slightly chunky texture, depending on your preferences.
4. Stir
The stir setting on your blender can gently combine ingredients to create a uniform consistency. This comes in handy when working with sticky foods, thinner batters, or salad dressings. It can also be useful to refine the texture of a milkshake, cocktail, or mocktail.
5. Chop
Need a chunky salsa or want to transform ingredients into smaller bits, like vegetables for a soup or stew? The chop setting on your blender will come in a clutch, saving you significant time in the process. This setting is also ideal for grinding meat for meatballs, coarsely chopping nuts for baking, or breaking vegetables for stir-fries.
6. Batters
Batters is one of the signature settings on Blendtec blender models, perfect to use when mixing together wet and dry ingredients. Use this convenient setting to whip up pancake, waffle, tempura, or cake batter. With a slow, gentle pulse, the batters setting successfully combines thicker ingredients without over mixing in the process.
7. Grind
Plan to blend together dry ingredients to make nut butters, pastes, ground coffee, or flour? The grind setting on your blender, if present, can get the job done. If your blender doesn’t have this feature, start out on a low setting before increasing to a medium-high speed. Aim for short bursts, preferably blended in small batches so as to not overload your blender.
Just when you thought your blender was a boring kitchen appliance, it turns out it’s much more versatile than you thought possible. With many blenders offering a variety of settings from ice crush to puree, it’s evident that your blender may be more of a necessity than you expected.