What Type of Blender is Good For You?
There are basically three main types of blenders: Hand blenders, traditional stand mixers and professional grade stand mixers. Hand blenders are often quite portable and easy to carry around with their slim and long but compact structures that make them easy to be carried around and as they’re also known as immersion blenders you can chop and mix directly inside the container. You can make milkshakes, smoothies, purees, powdered protein drinks and you can stir and mix a variety of soft ingredients so they are more suitable for smaller tasks and have the advantage of being simple to manage and manouver, the mobility factor and ease of storage as you can just hang them on your kitchen wall and the accessories and blades can go into a drawer conveniently. They are easy to clean as you can just wipe the main handle when you’re done with the task at hand and wash the removable parts in the sink. However you will not be able to perform heavier chopping, mixing or grinding of solid ingredients or in large amounts. No doubt a simple hand mixer is rather easy to use but there will be some splashing of foods and liquids along the way.
Conventional Stand Mixer has sharp blades rotating at the bottom inside of the container and soft and hard stuff including ice get processed- ground, crushed, mixed, pureed and blended efficiently and quickly with often a much more powerful motor than the hand mixers. All the ingredients in the blender will be mixed and liquified so it is a good idea to remove the stems and seeds before putting the ingredients in. Blades are usually safe to be placed in dishwasher, you need to wash the container and the removable parts and this is easy enough to do. You can juice fruits in the stand mixers and the blended ingredients will have all the dietary fibre in. They can be a little noisy and to make the blended ingredients smoother you may need to add milk, fruit juice or water to make them smoother and the smoothies or juices you make with these units should best be consumed quickly as the shelf life is not very long. The main difference between a conventional and a professional stand mixer is that the latter tend to have heaps more power and more resistant blades so it has the capacity to be more of a multifunctional food processor and juicer with different speed settings that allows you to make frozen beverages, ice cream, hot soups, dressings by mixing a variety of dry and wet ingredients.
You can also grind things like coffee beans, dried fruits and nuts and seeds and make baby food, different sauces and make dough for bread or pizza. With a Professional Stand Mixer there won’t be as much prep work involved and the yield will be higher from the same amount of ingredients. All removable parts tend to be dishwasher safe and you will just wash the container so it is easy to clean. They are often better looking with their sleek stainless steel finish than the regular stand mixers so they will improve the look of your kitchen. They are not suitable for juicing wheat grass and you will often need to add an appropriate liquid to make the mixture smoother. You will see different models on the market with up to 16-17 different speed options and do not be misled by this feature or we may call it marketing hype as you often will not notice much difference in speed and will not have a great impact on your recipes. You have the option of getting plastic (not the healthiest and can absorb the smells), stainless steel (looks great but you can’t see how the blending is going) and glass (lets you see the progress, is healthy and easier to clean). Make sure the removable parts are dishwasher safe and whether you choose dial knobs or smart touchpad is up to you but whatever features you think will let you make accurate measurements, choose that one.