1. Adjustable Nut Butters
Nut butters are easy to make as long as you have a great blender. All you need are the nuts you’re planning on turning into butter and a bit of salt. Then put them through the blender on high.
There’s a catch: you need a good blender to handle breaking down the nuts sufficiently and it needs to have a powerful high-speed setting. As long as you have that, however, tasty treats like almond butter or cashew butter are easily within your grasp.
It may take some time, over 10 minutes is relatively normal. You’ll also need to keep pushing the nuts down the side as they break down or you’ll end up with a chunky nut butter. Of course, that can be delicious in and of itself so your results may vary.
2. Homemade Nutella
If you’re anything like us, you adore Nutella. It can get a bit expensive, however, and many people don’t realize that it’s possible to produce your own at home.
Just like the nut butter above you need a high-quality blender with sharp blades but as long as you’ve got that going for you it’s relatively straightforward.
You’ll want to grind hazelnuts into butter using your blender, it’ll take a good bit of time but it’s definitely doable. In most cases, it’ll be quite warm once it comes out of the blender, if not you may need to run it for longer.
Afterward, just stir in some chocolate chips and let them melt.
Most people find that it needs to sit overnight to reach the consistency of the store-bought stuff but it’s a lot easier than having to run to the store to buy the spread!
3. Make Herb Butter or Infused Oils
You can make some excellent homemade butter without a butter churn. Just grab your handy blender, some cream, and a bit of sea salt and you’re ready to get started.
How long it will take depends largely on your blender but most will have you ready in about ten minutes. Just keep it going until it thickens and you’ve got it.
Even better: if you’re looking to impress you can add spices, garlic, or other ingredients to make your butter something truly special.
You can do the same with olive oil and any ingredients that you think will go well with your cooking. It’s foolproof and a great way to add that extra je ne sais quois to your next meal.
4. Grinding Spices or Coffee
You don’t need an expensive coffee grinder to get varying grades of coffee for your home. You just need a blender and a bit of care.
With a good blender on your side, you’ll be able to break down the coffee beans so that you’ll have fresh coffee on demand. As long as you’re careful about things you can make the grind as rough or as fine as you’d like which allows you to also use it for things like espresso or Moka pots.
You can do the same with hard spices like nutmeg. Fresh spices have a higher volatile component content which means you’ll be able to get a cleaner, fresher taste after putting them through your blender instead of being forced to make do with the pre-ground stuff.
5. Make Scraps Into Instant Compost
Compost heaps take up a lot of room in the garden and they can be a pain to turn constantly.
They’re also one of the clearest ways forward to healthier plants.
You can meet in the middle by taking your table scraps and putting them in a blender. The resulting mixture will be broken down quickly in the soil and release the same nutrients as normal compost, although it will lack some of the worm poop and anaerobic bacteria that make compost a standout option for lusher plants.
Still, it’s a time-saving way to get some welcome fertilization going.
6. Make Almond Milk
Almond milk is easily made in a blender. Just add some almonds, water, a bit of maple syrup, and a touch of salt to the blender and hit the button.
You’ll be able to produce quick and easy almond milk this way. The freshness also means that it will generally taste better than anything which is pulled off of store shelves. Some people have even experimented with smaller batches and adding fruit like strawberries to make flavored nut milks.
If you’d like, you can even use other nuts to do the same thing. Homemade cashew milk? Yes, please!
7. Presto-Pesto!
Pesto is usually made using a food processor but people often claim you can get a better texture when using a blender. Some take it a step further and say that the very best comes from juicers.
The overall process is the same: just add your favorite recipes ingredients to the blender and hit the button until it’s at the consistency you find to be the best. It’s a foolproof and easy way to do it and it’s even handier since not everyone wants to keep a larger food processor around the kitchen. During summer, both juicer and blender can hang around your backyard pool setup, making them more accessible during those hot summer days at your pool parties.
Always Be Open for Experimentation
Your blender may not be a centerpiece in your kitchen, but there are many more uses for it than most people realize. If you spend a bit of time getting familiar with it then you may just have found a whole lot more uses than you ever dreamed of.
So which are you going to try out tonight?