EJ123

I received a Vitamix the other day and WOW that sucker can blend. It's just a lower end model, but still has a 2 HP motor that demolishes anything you send its way. Been an easy way to get more fruits/veggies in the diet.

Any good recipes? Hoping to use try more veggies in the smoothies also. Addition of cashews has helped with other fruit mixes. Apparently you can make hot soups too when the blender is at full speed for ~5 minutes due to the friction of the blades.

zandoval 

Old Vitamix story...

Here in Central Texas we have Chile Piquines growing all over. Being of long standing TexMex decent we gathered a quart jar full of pequins and poured them into the Vitamix to make a chili juice for cooking. Gaging, Choking, and Blind, we all ran out the back door like a bunch of inmates dusted with Bear Spray. Luckily the garage door was open and I was able to get back into the house using my M-17 Gas Mask. I took the Vitamix into the back yard where we cleaned it with the hose and froze the juice in a small plastic bag. When ever we wanted some heat added to our cooking we just broke off a small piece of the juice and added it careful to the pot. That bag lasted for years. In retrospect we should have juiced it outside with respirators on.

noisebeam

Noisebeam's 800 Pequin Salsa Recipe:
800 pequins (~1+3/4 cup) lightly toasted under broiler
coarse chop large onion & six garlic cloves & sweat in evoo
fine chop above in processor, avoid the fumes
add 28oz canned tomatoes
1/2 cup evoo
1/4 cup vinegar (50/50 white wine/balsamic is nice)
a bit of salt
process till smooth

I make batches of this every year from the many volunteer's that grow in my yard from TX seed planted 20yr ago. Some larger bushes are nearing 10yr old. Super hot stuff that one needs to acclimate too to enjoy.

veganbikes

I have had a Vitamix for years love it. I blend all sorts of stuff with it. Not having to blanch cashews and just being able to blend them is so nice.

A favorite smoothie of mine is frozen pineapple and vanilla almond milk super easy and two ingredients though you could add bananas or other frozen fruits and it would be quite good. However it is fine as is and a fun dessert treat.

My general go to is frozen kale, frozen strawberries or other fruits, banana and either almond milk (or maybe raw nuts and a little sweetener like agave or sugar is fine) or some orange juice or your favorite fruit juice.

I also make a lovely cheesy sauce with raw (or roasted cashews), almond milk, nutritional yeast, a clove of garlic, and some salt and pepper along with a little onion powder or maybe half a small onion that has been sautéed in a little olive oil.

. Cranky .

The soup that shall not be named

2 10oz Packs of Cherry Tomatoes
1 English Cucumber
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Packet of fresh Chives
2 Packets of Basil Leaves
1 10oz Jar of Piquillo Peppers
1 Orange
2 Cloves of Roasted Garlic
4tsp Olive Oil
4tsp Balsamic Vinegar
2tsp Worcestershire

Remove the seeds, stem, and white pith from the bell peppers, and then slice the flesh into pieces about the size of tortilla chips.
Juice the orange.
Stain the Piquillo Peppers and discard their syrup.
Slice the cucumber into 1” sections.
Mince the basil and chives, reserving half the basil for garnish.
Divide all ingredients into batches, blend, and combine in a large bowl.
Garnish individual servings with reserved basil.

The soup that shall not be named will taste refreshing and slightly sweet and keeps for about a day and a half in the fridge.

Hondo Gravel

Wild Chile Piquines grow on my place. Very hot will burn your mouth lol. Don’t handle Chile Piquines and go take a P or your thing will burn like fire. I know

Darth Lefty 

Will It Blend? That Is The Question!

My favorite thing to put in a blender is Jeremy Morgenthaler's eggnog recipes. I usually reduce the sugar by a third.

I'll try that V8 recipe. Fresh V8 sounds pretty good.

RubeRad

I have a Ninja (poor man's vitamix), but we hardly ever make smoothies. We should make more.

Whenever bananas go overripe, we peel and freeze them. And buy bags of frozen mixed berries once in a while. So when we do make smoothies, no ice cubes are necessary, we throw frozen banana chunks and berries in, add yogurt (plain or vanilla) and milk and blend. If we have any kale we'd throw that in too.

If the yogurt is plain it's a bit tart for me, I might sweeten it with some honey. Vanilla yogurt is pretty sweet though, that's usually enough.

I like to sometimes blend in some chocolate chips as well, since it's cold, you get nice hard flakes like in some ice creams.

Mostly what I use the blender for though is hummus. I work from this recipe, except I use the Instant Pot to pressure cook the garbanzos straight from dry, and don't mess around with all that dripping in ice water business. I always make it spicy, sometimes blending in canned chipotles + adobo, or sometimes tossing 3-4 de-seeded habaneros or 1-2 de-seeded ghost chilis into the pressure cooker with the beans.

EJ123

Oh wow these recipes are great, thanks everyone! Looking forward to trying them. This may be placebo, but I quit alcohol a few weeks ago, started a plant based diet for the last week, and now supplementing with these smoothies...man talk about sleeping and feeling 1000% better.

RubeRad

One time I powdered whole dried chipotles in our little electric spice grinder, we were also all gasping from those fumes, but it sounds like yours was even worse!

veganbikes

Congrats, hope it all works out. if you do find yourself wanting a drink Lyre's is my go to these days for non-alcoholic spirits you get the flavor without the alcohol. I have been making Ameretti Sours a lot and they are quite tasty. Smoothies are good as well but if you are having a craving this may help!

Also that soup that shall not be named sounds really delicious I might have to try that.

Kat12

Curious to hear about the hummus. I often have times I regret not having a food processor because I can't use my blender for things like this (but there's no room in my tiny kitchen to store more appliances); the first few garbanzos (or whatever the thing is) gum up the blade and the rest never get to it. It's great as a blender but not for this kind of job (basically anything without a lot of liquid involved). If your machine is like a VitaMix, I assume it's super-turbo and that's why it works? Or do you have a trick I don't know about?

RubeRad

The Ninja I think is either a cheap clone of the vitamix, or at least it steals most of its design principles. I do think it has a more powerful motor than a regular blender. The pitcher is rectangular rather than round, I think that must help create turbulence/irregularity in the paths of all the food particles, to give everybody a turn on the blades. And also there's not just a tiny propeller of tiny blades on the bottom, there's a shaft going all the way up with maybe 8-12 large blades on it, so it's chopping through the entire volume very efficiently.

A regular food processor should do a decent job too though, that's what the recipe mentions to use. They also make miniature food processors I've seen.

I'd recommend something like a Ninja or Vitamix, even for a small kitchen, since it does the job of both a blender and a food processor. You could ditch your blender and this would take up only a little more space.