Is your blender lonely and neglected in the cupboard? Is it limited to just making you smoothies? Read ahead for inspiration on how your blender can diversify your culinary skills.

Preparing a healthy homemade smoothie for breakfast or frozen margaritas for a party are fine uses for a blender. But there are many more things you can make. Here are 8 creative ways to reignite the love for your blender and give that forgotten kitchen equipment some meaning and purpose.

Nut Milk and Nut Butter

You don’t need to spend a bomb on artisanal nut milk and nut butter. It’s really easy to DIY with a blender using minimal ingredients. To make your own nut milk, soak your favorite nuts overnight before blending. Drain the nuts and grind them in a blender with fresh water. After straining, you’ll get a fresh, silky and subtly sweet nut milk. 

For nut butter, grind your chosen roasted nuts for 10-12 minutes until it forms a smooth butter. Add a little salt to your taste if required. You can drizzle some oil to loosen the consistency if needed, but feel free to experiment. You can add other ingredients or flavorings to enhance the butter, like honey, chocolate, etc.

Whipped Cream

Whipping up cream can be a tedious job but the blender is a real life saver. Just pour whipping cream into the blender and blend for a few seconds until it achieves a thick consistency. Feel free to add in some honey, or vanilla extract to enhance the taste of the whipped cream

But be warned… Don’t do it for too long. If you over-whip the cream it will become actual butter! But if you do accidentally make butter, just add a little salt to taste and it will be ready to put on your toast.

Soups

So your soup is simmering. It doesn’t really matter what the ingredients are. It could be mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, or anything else. It’s piping hot and ready to serve.

However, before dishing out your soup, you can blitz it in the blender for a smooth and creamy texture.

Pancakes and compotes

Do you struggle to get the perfect consistency for your pancake batter? Mixing the ingredients with a blender will ensure that the batter is smooth and lump-free. The pitcher will also be handy for pouring the batter instead of using a ladle.

You can drizzle your stack of pancakes with a fruit compote by mixing your favorite fruits, in the blender, with some icing sugar. 

Salad Dressing

Homemade salad dressings are delicious and you can experiment with ingredients until you find the perfect formula. Pulverise herbs, garlic, spices and other ingredients and then puree until smooth to get a nice creamy salad dressing. 

If you want a vinaigrette, you can blast olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a blender.

Salsa

Take a can of tomatoes and add cilantro (coriander), onions, garlic, lime juice, jalapenos, depending on your preference for spiciness, and salt to taste. Then blend it all up. 

If you prefer your salsa chunky, pulse it a couple of times, otherwise blend till it’s smooth. Taste the salsa and tweak the seasonings if necessary. Serve it immediately with nachos or refrigerate it to let the flavours combine.

Sauces

Pasta sauce, hollandaise sauce, pesto: All these and more can be prepared with a blender. For a tomato based pasta sauce, put tinned tomatoes into the blender with some salt and herbs like oregano or basil and blend till you reach perfection. For a tasty pesto, blend basil, garlic, salt, cheese and olive oil. Use it as a spread on bread, as a pasta sauce or a salad dressing. 

You can prepare your own eggs benedict brunch by mixing egg yolk and lemon juice in the blender and whipping the mixture. Slowly add cooled melted butter and let the ingredients mix to create that perfect hollandaise sauce.

Compost

Did you know you can use your blender to complete the food eco-system? Breaking down all your food waste in the blender means it will compost much faster. Just toss it into your blender and blend everything together.

Add it to the top of your compost bin, bucket or heap. Add the fresh compost from the bottom to the soil in your garden and it will feed your plants! Imagine growing your herbs and vegetables with homemade compost, and then blending that food and eating it, and then blending the waste and growing more food from the compost it makes.

This blender cycle is getting me into a spin!