I never - well, almost never - met a kitchen gadget I didn’t like, so recently got an immersion blender. I’ve used it twice and it seems handy, I suppose, in that you don’t have to use and clean a regular blender. Also, I have a cordless one, so there is more mobility than there would be with a plugged in blender.
It was nice with the cream of spinach soup I just made; I cooked all the vegetables in chicken broth until soft, stuck the immersion blender straight into the pot after the soup cooled a little, blended til it was smooth, and stirred in some cream. Voila!
But is that … it? Am I missing some cool thing that people use it for?
Mine is a Kitchenaid and has a mini chopper attachment/canister as well as several types of blades and such. To be perfectly truthful, I use it most for whipping eggs for omelets.
No flecks of white or pieces of broken shell in my eggs.
You can make mayonnaise! In tall container, an egg yolk, some dijon, add in your favorite oil (1/2C or so) and start the stick at the bottom of the container and slowly draw it upward. It will emulsify the oil & egg yolk and make a mayonnaise (or “aioli” which seems to be the trendy name).
I don’t have a conventional blender or a mixer so I use one to make whipped cream for a particular recipe. And like you using yours to blend the cream of spinach soup, I use it for blending the ingredients in a curry base.
I use mine - which is fairly heavy duty - to puree soups. Otherwise, I’d have to pour the pot contents into a blender, or ladle it in, or whatever and then have to clean up the mess.
Wife and kid don’t like tomato chunks in their sauce, so the most common thing I use mine for is making spaghetti sauce. My wife uses it for squash, and other, soup.
Step-up use is this hollandaise sauce. It is incredibly easy to make, though I use a bit more lemon than it calls for. Bonus tip: store it in a thermos before serving.
I have an immersion blender. I agree that it gets used only occasionally.
However, in a circumstance where an immersion blender is needed, it’s unquestionably the best, and in some cases, the only, tool for the job. As others have noted, we’re talking about certain sauces and soups.
So I keep it around, despite the fact that it comes out of the cupboard only three, maybe four times a year. If you have the room, it doesn’t hurt anything sitting back there. I wouldn’t worry about making up new uses for which it’s not suited, just to have an excuse to pull it out.
I’ll add- the mayo idea is from an infomercial back in the 80’s when I first saw a stick blender, called “The Daily” being used. The lady made mayo, peanut butter, whipped cream (from very cold skim milk using a special disk blade), “hamburger”, and some other things I can’t remember.
Conventional wisdom is to use the stick blender for things too big or too hot for the Oster, basically sauces, soups, shallots. I don’t mind sime chunks and usually go for a finer dice to cook down better anyhow.
I got one as a gift a year ago but haven’t got around to using it. Almost all of my blending is single batches of salsa or hummus and the regular old glass pitcher is good enough.
Speaking of that, one trick I’ve been using for salsa is to let the cooked ingredients cool before blending so that the raw cilantro doesn’t cook. I didn’t always do that and has the side benefit of skipping the hassle of blending scalding soupy salsa.
I make a lot of soups and sauces, too, and I use mine for those. It’s also useful for anything I want to mix in its original container, as long as there’s enough headroom. I’ve used it to blend large jars of natural peanut butter, for instance.
It’s a lot easier to clean than a whole blender, and I’m a klutz, so any time I can avoid pouring things from one vessel to another, it’s a win.
Yes, often in batches. Sure, that’s “all it does,” but it’s such a time saver.
It’s also got a tiny footprint. A lot of unitaskers take up much more space than they’re worth but you can just toss the immersion blender in a drawer.
Love mine. Maybe my favorite kitchen gadget of all time.
We have one of those as well; no extra blades, though. The canister is the perfect size for instant pudding; one box of pudding makes a total of three cups.
The blender itself gets used virtually every morning. My standard breakfast is SlimFast in a large mug with a couple other powders mixed in and the best way to combine everything properly is the immersion blender.
Using a blender and having to do it batches means more cleanup, also. Yours may fit in a drawer, but mine is fairly long. It does come apart with a twist, however, so doesn’t take up a lot of space.
Mine is very similar. I suppose it only fits in the drawer once detwisted. Still counts!
I got mine after agreeing to make borscht for something like 20 people (I don’t like super chunky borscht). By the time I finished blending everything one batch at a time the kitchen looked like a murder scene. Never again!
My immersion blender also comes apart. The bit with the motor and power cord is plastic but the lower portion is metal so it’s safe to lower in a hot pot and can also be cleaned in the dishwasher. My mother’s immersion blender is one piece and all plastic. I don’t know if it can be used in a hot pot but I would hope so?
Same here. Great for salsas. I use mine at least once a week, whereas my actual blender I may use twice a year. Along with my instant pot, it is my favorite kitchen gadget.
I have a plastic Braun model that twists apart. I use it mostly for smoothies since I have a soup maker for smooth soups. But if I’m making a big batch of smooth soup, or something that just needs a bit of blending I use it since I don’t have a stand-alone blender.
