Was It Worth It: Fancy Blender Edition

This week we are starting a new series on kitchen appliances I’ve bought since my kid was diagnosed with allergies and trying to decide WAS IT WORTH IT?!

Today:

Ridiculously Expensive, Professional BLENDERS

 

Oh-la-la, she's a fancy lady

Is it helpful in the kitchen?

Why, yes, yes, it is. My kids love smoothies and my old small blender really had trouble breaking down frozen fruit. If you turn this guy up to full speed, it sounds like a jet engine and eviscerates that frozen banana into creamy goodness. It’s made the smoothest hummus I’ve ever made at home (though, let’s be honest, without garlic, is it really “hummus”?). It’s helped me make salsas and pasta sauces. It’s a must for mixing up a vegan ice cream base. And, while I haven’t made any tree nut butters yet, if that’s in my future I know this guy is the way to go.

Go Dairy Free claims that while blenders are necessary for making things creamy without milk, you don’t actually need an expensive professional one. But you can’t deny it’s fun seeing your blender on Food Network and thinking “Hey! Now I can make that 5-star restaurant cauliflower puree…. I just need a tub of butter and some real cream.”

Downsides?

It’s giant.

I don’t mean like oh, wow, that’s bigger than my tiny, cheap blender. I mean, we got out of the box and laughed, literally laughed, because we didn’t know how it was going to fit in our cabinet. We had to reorganize our entire kitchen, but there was no way we could just leave it out on the counter! There would be no room to make a sandwich much less prep a meal.

It's also loud.

You also cannot use it if anybody is sleeping. Or watching TV. Or in the same room as you. I always give a warning “It’s going to be loud!” before cranking it up. A warning mitigates at least some of the surprise of an airplane in your kitchen; though nothing can save the tears from streaming when it’s on full blast. It doesn’t help my older kid loves to run around screaming, “Ahhhhh!” whenever it’s on which gets the dog barking and the toddler crying.

What allergies is it helpful for?

• Milk- It’s extremely helpful if you are allergic to milk. As stated previously, you need it for vegan ice cream bases and if you are going to try to make some “cheese” products on your own. You can also make your own almond and rice milk with it??? That’s not necessarily on my to do list as I have another job that doesn’t involve milking dry goods, but I guess it’s good that that’s an option.
• Eggs- it helps get the consistency of vegan ice cream bases and aioli/mayo sauces
• Peanuts- If you are allergic to peanuts, but can have tree nuts, it’s much cheaper to make nut butters at home.
• Tree nuts- I guess the inverse is true as well? If you are allergic to tree nuts but can have peanuts, homemade peanut butter is pretty amazing.
• Wheat- You can make oat flour out of oat meal for pancakes, waffles, and more.
• Garlic (not one of the top 9, but important to this household)- I have used it for making my own salsa, pasta sauce, curry paste, hummus, black bean dip, vinaigrettes…. Honestly it makes making things from scratch a lot more fun.

SO: IS IT WORTH IT?

Yes? It was expensive. But according to the propaganda, I mean introduction manual, that came with it, it’s going to last forever. And, now that I have it, I do use it a lot. Not daily but a few times a week. I guess, if your blender just isn’t cutting it and you want to alert the neighborhood whenever it’s smoothie time, a "high performance" blender is definitely the way to go.