Hi Friends!
If you follow me on social media or have been reading the blog lately, you’re probably familiar with my newest kitchen toy:
That’s right! A (FREE) new blender! The amazing folks at Blendtec were kind enough to send me one of their amazing blenders (free of charge) to review and now that I’ve had some time to play with it, I’ve gathered my thoughts to share with you!
You may recall that I first came across Blendtec back in October when I went to FNCE- The Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo! Kristina and I spent about an hour at their both learning all of the cool things it could do. (I wrote about it here).
We devoured the nut butter they made, were totally amazed that you could make ICE CREAM and also saw them make rice flour, soup and a few other things!
I was sent the Designer Series Wildside with the touch screen display to review, along with the Twister Jar.
A few things I was initially impressed by:
- The touch screen- Easy to use, easy to keep clean and pretty to look at!
- The dull blades- I’ve cut myself on blender blades before and it’s amazing that these are dull to the touch but blend so well.
- The handy cleaning tips- ie, just put a little dishsoap and water in the blender and blend to clean, then rinse!
- The recipe books it included- TONS of great recipes and inspiration.
- The blender itself- love that the jar is BPA free, it’s the perfect height to fit under a kitchen cabinet and considering how powerful it is, it’s fairly lightweight!
Some of the first things I made:
- A smoothie- It blended up the ice, yogurt and frozen fruit mixture with no problem.
- Soup- This is probably my favorite feature. No more cooking a huge pot of soup on the stove if I don’t want to….just throw a bunch of veggies into the blendtec, select the soup option and voila! I made Sweet Potato Bisque first and then later made Chicken Tortilla Soup.
- Nut butter- A no brainer! I was so excited to try out the twister jar to make some homemade almond butter.
- Banana froyo – delish
- Brownie batter!
A few things I didn’t like:
- When I made the first batch of almond butter, I used raw almonds and although it blended, it didn’t get nice and creamy like it did when I watched at FNCE. However, the second time I made it, I roasted the almonds first and ran through the 50 second blender cycle 4 times instead of the recommended 2 and it came out perfectly.
- It’s loud…but that’s to be expected for a blender.
- When you make nut butter, the jar gets HOT. Not a huge deal but definitely need to be careful when touching it.
- The wildside jar is easy to clean. The mixer jar is a little more challenging. If you make nut butter, it’s a little hard to clean under the blades. It can be done by cleaning and then sliding a paper towel underneath the blades…it just takes a little while.
Still on my to-make list:
- Hummus
- Pizza dough
- Their famous Popeye’s ice cream
- Salsa
- So.Much.More
My overall impression:
This Blendtec is definitely worth the money. It’s easy to use, well made, powerful and extremely versatile. There are so many different things you can use it for that it can replace the mixer and food processor in many situations. I can’t wait to try out a few more recipes and let you know how they turn out…and of course develop some of my own!!
And the best news…I get to give one of you guys coming up here in a couple of months so stay tuned! Can’t wait until then? Buy one now by clicking here. (affiliate link).
Let’s chat: What’s your favorite thing to make in your blender besides smoothies or nut butter?
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
I received this product free of charge. I was not compensated for my time. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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I’ve heard great things about this blender. I also have made raw dessert or pancake mix with my blenders.
What an exciting product to review!! I have the Ninja, which I think is pretty awesome and I love doing smoothies, banana softserv, nut butter, and hummus, but I have yet to do salsa or soup!!! OR any sort of baking. Thanks for the good ideas 🙂
Wow I’ve heard this blender is pretty awesome. It sounds like it’s worth the money. Our blender broke about a month ago and although I’m not making smoothies now, I know I will be and it needs to be replaced before spring or summer.
Thats so cool! Looks like a great product! My food processor gets really hot when making nut butter too, and it steams….sometimes I worry about it!
I love to make sauces and dressings for my food in there. Makes it lovely and creamy!
This looks like a great blender! We have a Ninja and since I don’t use it near as much as I should I think it does great for the price!
I use my blender for soups as well!
And this blender looks jazzy!!
I couldn’t find my food processor last night so I used my blender to prep cauliflower “rice.” It worked just fine. I would like a blender that I could cook in (soups). That would be crazy amazing!!!!!!
You have an upgraded model to the one I have, but I can say I love my Blendtec!!! I need more time to get creative, but I LOVE the consistency of the smoothies I make. 🙂
I love to make my roasted red pepper hummus in the blender; too bad mine is broken:(!! I’d love the chance to try a blendtec, I’ve heard amazing reviews!
Thanks for your honest review! I need to buy a better blender one of these days. I pretty much only use my blender for smoothies, but I’ve been thinking about buying one of the fancy models that will do soup and all the fun stuff. I’ll keep an eye out for your giveaway!
I don’t have a blender so waiting for that giveaway!!! I have heard good things about this blender & some that like it better than Vitamix…
We have the Blendtec and it’s awesome! I have yet to make anything besides smoothies and ice cream in it, but hummus, soup, and pizza dough would definitely be on my list. Ooo creamy salad dressings too!
This blender looks pretty fab! My favorite thing to make in my blender (other than smoothies) is definitely either hummus or salsa!
Wow! I’m afraid to ask how much it is because I would LOVE one!!
SO glad you love your Blendtec as much as I do!:) I adore the Twister jar!:) I notice if I add a bit of coconut oil to the blender with almonds I can still blend them raw, and only 45 seconds so it’s not hot when you’re done!:) Just a thought! I also noticed if I use the ice cream setting when making a smoothie with ice, it’s much colder and thicker too! I have to say my first issue with it though was that if you don’t get the lid on good it goes EVERYWHERE. I’m not used to that versus the Vitamix, but the Blendtec is SO much more powerful than the Vitamix, it’s a little crazy. Anyway! Glad you’re loving yours!! ENJOY!<3
I’m digging that it has a soup option! When I make soup it’s hard for my husband and I to finish a batch! I’m super curious about making pizza dough on it; that’s cool!! I’ve never made my own nut butter so I would probably make that. I would also be interested in making ice cream!
Oooh, I’ve been coveting a Blendtec (love that they have dull blades) since visiting them at FNCE 2 years ago. Smoothies and nut butters would be the main foods I’d make but would use for pestos and spice blends too.
Great review! I’ll keep it in mind for my next blender purchase.
I really only make smoothies in the blender these days. Soup and hummus sound like a good idea though so maybe I’ll be doing that soon!
LOVE my Blendtec – it’s honestly my favorite kitchen appliance (aside from the dishwasher!). I’ve used it to make soups, dips, cauliflower rice, brownie batter, smoothies, etc.
African Peanut Soup!
I love making protein froyo and lately I’ve been using it for cauliflower rice. It gives me that rice consistency every time. This blender sounds awesome by the way!
Hummus for sure and I have always wanted a blender nice enough to make my own nut butters 🙂
I want it!! I do smoothies, soups, dips, pesto…I
I love making banana ice cream and pestos! This looks like a great blender 🙂
Blendtec also has a pretty good blog with recipe ideas. They email every Wednesday. Today’s email had a recipe to make your own Herbed Vegetable Broth Powder that I’m pretty excited to try. I was buying Rapunzel Vegetable Bullion and love it but it’s pretty expensive so if I can make my own and to our tastes, that will be great!
I do not have a great and powerful blender, so I do most things in my food processor. I’d love to make creamy raw food desserts and soups!
Hummus and pumpkin soup for sure!!
I just got my blendtec mostly to make homemade butters. Its so easy compared to when I was attempting it with my old ninja.