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10 Unexpected & Genius Ways to Use Your Blender

A blender jar blending a berry smoothie.
Your blender: “Smoothies, smoothies, smoothies. If I have to make one more superfood smoothie, I’m gonna quit.”

I’m so excited, Rural Sprout Readers. I got a new blender for Christmas.

Okay, fine. I bought myself a blender the first week of December.

My old 70s Osterizer $5 thrift store find wasn’t cutting it anymore. (Yes, it was Harvest Gold, and I loved it.)

I got myself a spiffy Blendtec blender, and I’ve been using it for everything.

It’s a blender, Tracey; it blends stuff. You can’t use it for everything.

I know that, but when you get a new kitchen toy, you find yourself looking for every opportunity to use it. In fact, I’ve recently discovered ten cool things you can do with your blender.

Close up of homemade powdered sugar in blender jar.
No, seriously, I didn’t even know I could make this at home.

Don’t believe me? Read on, my friend.

1. Make Lazy Lemonade

I think we can all agree that the powdered stuff that comes in a can is just gross. Fresh-squeezed lemonade is always the best.

Well, what if I told you, you could have fresh-squeezed lemonade in minutes without the hard part – the squeezing.

A blender with lemons ice and water in it. There are fresh cut lemons on a cutting board next to a knife in front of the blender.
There will be lemonade here in ten seconds.

Grab your blender jar. Toss in your quartered lemons, and add your sugar or simple syrup, and away you go. You can make as little or as much as you want with this simple ratio for every one lemon use 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of sugar.

A blender with blended lemonade in it.
See? I told you.

To serve, pour your lemonade through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher; add ice and a few lemon slices for garnish.   

When you take it out to the porch, make sure you tell everyone how hard it was squeezing all of those lemons.

You can make the easiest strawberry or blueberry lemonade this way as well by tossing the fruit in with the lemons. This method works great for both fresh or frozen berries.

2. Almond Milk

Let’s be honest when you look at an almond, no one’s first thought is, “I’ll bet there’s milk in there.”

I’ve always thought there was some super, difficult process for making nut milk. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Almonds soaking in water in a blender jar.
It’s about to get tasty up in here.

All you do is soak almonds in water overnight. (Do that part in the blender jar as well.) In the morning, drain them, then toss them back in the blender with fresh water, a pinch of salt, and whatever other add-ins you want – vanilla, a sweetener, berries, or cocoa powder.

Blend the entire concoction for a few minutes, then pour it into a nut milk bag (several layers of cheesecloth will do the trick, too) in a large bowl and squeeze all the delicious goodness out of it.

A gloved hand squeezes a nut milk bag over a bowl making almond milk.
If you use cheesecloth, be sure to use 2-3 layers.

Just like every single thing we’ve ever handed over to manufacturers to make for us – the homemade version is infinitely tastier.

Oh, when you’re done making almond milk, save your pulp and make almond meal. Head over to Minimalist Baker to learn how.

3. Pesto Perfection

A close up of pest in a blender jar with a wooden spoon in it.
So lush and green, pesto = summer in my house.

For the best pesto, skip the food processor with all of its parts and go straight to the blender.

Am I the only one that gets their rubber spatula stuck under the blade in the food processor when you’re scraping the sides? Well, not anymore.

I use Meredith’s basil pruning practices, so in the summer, my basil plants are always pushing out massive leaves, week after week. I could easily make pesto by the gallon.

Mmm, a gallon of pesto.

A jar of pesto sitting on a folded tea towel next to two whole walnuts.
Did you know you can substitute walnuts, cashews and almonds for pine nuts?

Using a blender makes the whole process so much faster. It’s so much easier to pour from a blender jar than it is from the food processor too.

4. Peanut Butter

A ramekin with nut butter next to freshly baked peanut butter cookies.
Homemade peanut butter makes a killer pb&j, but where it really shines is in baked goods.

If you’ve never attempted homemade peanut butter, you don’t know what you’re missing. I started making homemade peanut butter with a drizzle of honey in it, and now my kiddos won’t even touch the stuff from the store.

And it’s easy.

As in – dump peanuts in the blender, drizzle in a spoonful of honey, hit blend, and walk away.

Homemade peanut butter will never be as smooth as store-bought peanut butter. Your homemade peanut butter will still have a slightly gritty texture when finished. If you’ve bought all-natural peanut butter before, you know what I’m talking about.

A close up of a blender jar with blended peanut butter.
You can see what I mean here about the finished peanut butter being slightly grainy.

The flavor will be so much better, though.  

The key to the ultimate homemade peanut butter is to let it blend for a solid five minutes. Be patient and let it go for the full five minutes, scraping the sides as needed.

For flavor that is out of this world, toast your peanuts slightly before you blend them and add a pinch of sea salt. Put them on a sheet pan in a 400-degree F oven for about five minutes or until you can start to smell them.

And peanut butter is just the beginning – almond butter, sunflower seed butter, cashew butter. Yeah, you make those the same way. Bye, Bye Jiffy.

If you want an actual recipe, The Kitchn has you covered.

5. Pizza Sauce

Close up of blended pizza sauce in a blender jar.
Get your kids to help with the pizza sauce. I find I can sneak veggies onto the pizza if they are the ones making it.

I’ve always thought canned pizza sauce was a bit of a gimmick. It’s basically uncooked spaghetti sauce, right?

Right.

Make easy and fresh pizza sauce that’s ready in minutes because pizza night is more fun when it happens at home. Toss the following into your blender and blend until it’s as smooth as you want.

  • 1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
  • 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 teaspoons of sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning (or 1 teaspoon each of basil, oregano, and thyme)
  • ½ a teaspoon of salt
  • Ground black pepper to taste

Spread the sauce on your pizza dough; no need to cook it first, that’s the oven’s job.

A spoon is spreading pizza sauce on pizza dough.
Don’t forget to sprinkle it with more garlic before you put the cheese on it.

6. Soup-er Creamy Soups

Butternut squash soup in a blender.
Your butternut squash soup will be exceptional if you blend before serving it.

Oh, come on, that pun was low-hanging fruit. I had to.

When it comes to a cold winter’s day, nothing beats a hot bowl of soup. Take your creamy soups to a whole other level by blending them in the blender before serving. You’ll end up with beyond creamy soup that will have you weak in the knees.

I made leek and potato soup the other night that was out of this world.
Are you thinking about growing leeks this year?

Hot liquids have a tendency to be explodey when covered. When processing soup in the blender, it’s best to do so in small batches, starting at the lowest setting and increasing speed slowly. If your blender jar is big enough, you may want to consider blending without the lid or with the lid on halfway, so the hot air has a place to escape.

Again, small batches, be careful. We don’t want another ’05 Cream of Broccoli Soup disaster. (I’m pretty sure there’s still soup on the ceiling at my old place.)

7. Easy to Pour Pancake Batter

Pancake batter being blended in a blender.
I love any kind of hack that makes my time in the kitchen easier.

If you’re cooking pancakes for a crowd, get your blender out. Even if you aren’t cooking pancakes for a crowd, get your blender out anyway because blender pancakes are so much quicker and easier. I’m lazy in the kitchen, I should know.

Put all of the pancake batter ingredients in the blender and blend.

A stack of pancakes decoratively arranged on a plate. The pancakes are drizzled with maple syrup, bananas and blueberries.
Yeah, we’re gonna need more maple syrup over here.

Ta-da! Now you’ve got perfect pancake batter in an easy to pour container.

8. The Fluffiest Scrambled Eggs Ever

No really, I mean like ever.

A plate of scrambled eggs with a fork. There is a blender jar behind them with raw eggs in the jar.
The truth about food blogging – I scarfed these eggs immediately after I took this photo.
And I have no regrets.

I learned this trick from Waffle House many years ago. They blend their eggs in a milkshake mixer before making omelets with them. Genius.

For the fluffiest scrambled eggs and omelets, crack your eggs into the blender and blend them on high for about 30 seconds before you cook them.

All the air you blend into the eggs makes them incredibly light and creamy. You’ll swear there’s cheese in them; they’re that fluffy.

9. Blender Hollandaise Sauce

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve made hollandaise sauce only to have it separate. It’s one of those sauces that’s relatively simple to make in theory, but theory and reality rarely line up in my kitchen.

Until now.

I give you the quickest, easiest, non-separating hollandaise sauce ever, my friends.

Close up of hollandaise sauce in a blender.
Separated hollandaise sauce? Not in this kitchen. Just add the butter and we are ready to go.

No double boiler, no whisking until your arm comes off. Just easy, tangy, creamy hollandaise sauce ready to be drizzled over everything.

Like any other hollandaise sauce, prep this right before serving.

Toss the first four ingredients into your blender jar:

  • 3 large egg yolks
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper or white pepper
  • 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Cut up ½ cup of butter

Heat your butter in a small saucepan over low med-low heat until it’s foamy. Blend the contents of your jar on high for 5 seconds; while the blender is still running, very slowly drizzle in the hot, bubbling butter. Almost immediately, it will thicken into the delicious yellow sauce we all know and love.

If you aren’t serving it right away, keep the sauce hot and creamy by immersing your blender jar in a bowl of hot water.

Three eggs benedict on parchment paper on a wood background.
With hollandaise sauce this easy, you could have eggs benedict on a Monday morning before work.

10. Homemade Confectioners Sugar

A blender with powdered sugar in the jar. A mason jar with powdered sugar in it and a spoonful of powdered sugar on a wooden top, a white tea towel is laying in the background.
Did you know you could make powdered sugar at home?

Maybe you won’t stop buying confectioners sugar from now on, but this comes in handy when you’re baking and realize you’ve run out.

I had no idea that this was even something you could make at home. I have no idea why, but there you go. It just goes to show how incredibly reliant we have become on having things made for us.

To make homemade confectioners or powdered sugar:

In a blender, pour 2 cups of white granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons of corn starch. Cover and blend for 5 minutes. You’ll want to stop it occasionally to stir the mixture.

Close up of a blender jar full of powdered sugar.
You definitely want to make sure the lid is on securely for this task.

Once you’ve finished, pour some of the sugar into a bowl and run your fingers through it. It should feel smooth and powdery, not grainy. If it feels grainy, pour it back into the blender jar and blend for another 2-3 minutes.

Store your fancy homemade powdered sugar in an airtight container.

And finally, you can easily do your dishes in under five minutes with your blender. Yeah, I know – wishful thinking. Still, the rest are pretty great blender hacks. If you’ve got a new blender, give them a try. If you’ve got an old blender, blow the dust off it and give it some love.


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Tracey Besemer

Hey there, my name is Tracey. I’m the editor-in-chief here at Rural Sprout.

Many of our readers already know me from our popular Sunday newsletters. (You are signed up for our newsletters, right?) Each Sunday, I send a friendly missive from my neck of the woods in Pennsylvania. It’s a bit like sitting on the front porch with a friend, discussing our gardens over a cup of tea.

Originally from upstate NY, I’m now an honorary Pennsylvanian, having lived here for the past 18 years.

I grew up spending weekends on my dad’s off-the-grid homestead, where I spent much of my childhood roaming the woods and getting my hands dirty.

I learned how to do things most little kids haven’t done in over a century.

Whether it was pressing apples in the fall for homemade cider, trudging through the early spring snows of upstate NY to tap trees for maple syrup, or canning everything that grew in the garden in the summer - there were always new adventures with each season.

As an adult, I continue to draw on the skills I learned as a kid. I love my Wi-Fi and knowing pizza is only a phone call away. And I’m okay with never revisiting the adventure that is using an outhouse in the middle of January.

These days, I tend to be almost a homesteader.

I take an eclectic approach to homesteading, utilizing modern convenience where I want and choosing the rustic ways of my childhood as they suit me.

I’m a firm believer in self-sufficiency, no matter where you live, and the power and pride that comes from doing something for yourself.

I’ve always had a garden, even when the only space available was the roof of my apartment building. I’ve been knitting since age seven, and I spin and dye my own wool as well. If you can ferment it, it’s probably in my pantry or on my kitchen counter. And I can’t go more than a few days without a trip into the woods looking for mushrooms, edible plants, or the sound of the wind in the trees.

You can follow my personal (crazy) homesteading adventures on Almost a Homesteader and Instagram as @aahomesteader.

Peace, love, and dirt under your nails,

Tracey
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