What do you need to know when you’re shopping for the best blender to puree food? Maybe you’ll be relieved to know that finding an amazing blender to make puree food is actually quite easy.
That’s because any puree, whether it’s made from vegetables, legumes or fruits, is made by blending, sieving, grounding or pressing cooked ingredients.
Since we’re dealing with completely cooked, soft ingredients when we’re making puree, that means that even a not-so-powerful blender can transform their texture from solid food into a dish that has a smooth, sort of like a pudding texture with no lumps.
Thus, the whole point when making puree is to achieve a smooth texture and to leave no lumps behind.
The consistency of the puree is up to you. You can make it thicker, denser or you can make it to have the consistency of a creamy paste or even liquid.
Most purees will be made in 30 seconds of blending, that’s really all it takes.
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Best Blender to Puree Food Reviews
I told you that even not a very powerful blender can handle turning cooked ingredients into puree. That still holds true.
However, as always, my focus will mainly be on powerful machines because they can ensure that we get no lumps in our purees. I have an obsession with smooth, creamy textures and that’s what I’m looking for when I’m purchasing a blender, whether it’s a countertop, personal or immersion blender.
No matter which type you’ll end up choosing, you can be sure that you’ll achieve a fantastic texture for your dishes and drinks.
Making a smooth smoothie is just as essential as making a smooth puree. Therefore, a bit of power is necessary.
Of course, if you buy a blender that is good enough to puree food without lumps, then you should also know that you can use the same appliance to make hummus, as well.
I’m saying that because hummus is a puree, too. Just like applesauce is.
1. Ninja SS351 Foodi Power Blender & Processor: Overall the Best Blender to Puree Food
I absolutely love the Ninja SS351. It has everything we need in a system and much more. It’s a complete package and that’s why it’s my favorite for basically anything we want to do.
It’s one of my top recommendations, whether you’re looking for a blender to make smoothie bowls, smoothies, pureed food, pureeing/grinding raw meat, and everything else.
This Ninja is also a favorite of mine when we’re looking for the best blender for making ice cream. It’s highly versatile and it can replace a food processor or even a stand mixer for some tasks.
It’s also one of the best blenders for nuts and seeds. However, if you want a separate small appliance for grinding seeds, you can also check out my reviews for the best flax seed grinder.
I’m aware that it’s not the cheapest machine we could buy but it’s also not the most expensive in the market. At a price around $200 or a bit less, I think it offers the best value.
However, if your budget is more in the line of $50, I recommend checking out my review for the Hamilton Beach Blender to Puree, which is written below. It’s the cheapest model you could buy.
In the $100 price range, we have the Breville BSB510XL Control Grip, which is an immersion blender, and the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro, which is a personal blender.
Components
Let’s see what the Ninja SS351 includes as a complex system:
- 1400-Watt unit
- 72-oz power blender & processor pitcher
- total crushing and chopping blade
- dough blade
- 24-oz nutrient extraction cup with spout lid
- 14-oz smoothie bowl maker with storage lid
This is certainly a beautifully powerful machine. A 1,400 watts motor is more than enough whether you want to blend frozen fruits, crush ice, grind spices or you want a delightfully smooth texture for your purees.
The 72 oz pitcher is big enough for large families. I love big pitchers because I make smoothies and dishes for a family of 4.
The 24 oz nutrient extraction cup with spout lid can be perfect if you want to drink a homemade smoothie away from home, although there are other smoothie cups we can buy. It turns this countertop blender into a personal blender and it comes with its own set of blades.
Last but not least, we have a 14 oz smoothie bowl maker. This is fantastic if you want to make smaller portions of pureed food. Most people also prefer using this one for making hummus.
However, if you want to make bigger quantities, use the 72 oz pitcher.
It comes with a total crushing and chopping blade that looks like nothing we’re used to. It transforms the Ninja SS351 both into a blender and a food processor.
The dough blade is another interesting component for those who want to make dough for bread, pizza and all sorts of desserts.
Features
The first thing you’ll notice is that the Ninja SS351 comes with one-touch buttons. Written on the blender you’ll find 6 preset Auto-IQ programs: extract, smoothie, bowl, spread, chop, dough.
You can use the spread program for making pureed food.
Or you can use the manual knob for selecting whatever speed works for you. Generally, we start on the lowest and quickly spin the wheel until we reach the top speed. In a few seconds, we’re done.
There’s also a pulse feature, as it’s always the case with countertop blenders.
2. Vitamix E310 Explorian
The Vitamix E310 Explorian is certainly not the most powerful Vitamix that we could buy. It also doesn’t have the biggest pitcher.
So, why did I decide to recommend this Explorian from all the other Vitamix blenders?
Because it’s among the cheapest. I mean, the cheapest among all the other Vitamix models because, by some people’s standards, it’s still too pricey. Even by my standards because it costs around $300-$350.
If you have a budget around $500, I recommend checking out the Vitamix 5200 if you want a bit more power and a bigger pitcher.
Even if the E310 Explorian is not the most powerful, it’s still good enough to even help us make our own flour. That’s how powerful it is.
It can really handle anything, including making smooth pureed food that won’t have any lumps.
You can truly become addicted to using blenders for drinks, foods and so many other actions, especially when you use one as capable as this Vitamix or the Ninja I mentioned above.
Furthermore, my next 3 recommendations as the best blender to puree food will focus on people who have a budget under $100 or even around $50.
Features
Vitamix E310 Explorian is a very easy to use blender. Even complete beginners will have no problem figuring out.
There are 10 speeds.
And the pulse feature.
That’s all you need to make pretty much anything.
If you want a smooth texture, you’ll go up to the highest speed. If you want a chunkier texture, you’ll stop lower. And if you want to grind meat or crush ice, you’ll use the pulse button.
It’s really that easy.
We also get a 1,200-1,400 watts motor base.
And a 48 oz container, which is not the biggest but it’s big enough for medium batches.
How to make puree with Vitamix E310 Explorian
There’s a Vitamix cookbook that has a lot of interesting recipes. Among them you’ll find: pumpkin puree and mixed berry puree.
Besides that, we can also puree a whole tomato with skin and seed and make soup or a hearty tomato sauce.
If you don’t have a tomato juicer for canning, you can use a blender to make tomato sauce. If you use juicy tomatoes, it will almost be as liquid as a juice. But the difference is that we also get the pulp and seeds.
That’s why we can also use it as one of the best blenders for carrot juice, among many other models.
When we make pumpkin puree we need to roast the pumpkin and then blend it with vegetable broth, ginger and cinnamon. Turn the machine and slowly increase the speed to the highest level for 30 seconds.
You can use the pumpkin puree to make pumpkin bread and a bunch of other recipes.
The mixed berry puree is made with frozen raspberries, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, water, fresh lemon juice and sugar. Obviously, you can also use fresh fruits if you have and you can add honey instead of sugar.
3. Hamilton Beach Blender to Puree 58148A: Cheapest Blender to Puree Food
In my opinion, this is the cheapest blender to puree food if we want to achieve a smooth texture without lumps.
At a price of about $50, it’s really affordable. It also has plenty of negative reviews from buyers but it has a lot of excitingly positive ones.
If you’re on a tight budget, it deserves a more in-depth look to see if this could be the model for your household.
Features
You won’t get the most powerful motor base. Frankly, I wouldn’t have expected that considering its price tag.
Still, a 700 watts motor base is quite capable of delivering smooth textures. It’s also very versatile so you won’t feel like you’re missing out just because you bought a more affordable machine.
The 40 oz glass jar is thermal-shock tested to withstand extreme temperature changes. It’s not the biggest pitcher but I’m glad that they paired a smaller jar with a 700-watt motor, it’s a good match. And I love that it’s made of glass.
Even if it’s a countertop model, it’s pretty compact to fit even smaller kitchens with limited free space. Its dimensions are 14.69 H x 6.5 W x 8.66 D.
Hamilton Beach also informs us that it was life-tested to blend 8,000 frozen drinks. That’s great and I hope it lasts that long for every buyer.
Frozen drinks put a bigger strain on the motor and on the blades than boiled, baked, cooked ingredients that are then transformed into delicious purees. I’m glad that the manufacturer performed their test with frozen ingredients.
If we were to make one frozen drink per day, that would mean that this blender will last 8,000 days, which amounts to more than 20 years. I’m sure that there are blenders who last for 20 years but don’t expect that to be the case, especially for a model that costs no more than $50.
It’s backed by a 3-year warranty, which is a good amount of time.
How to make puree food with Hamilton Beach 58148A
I love that the name of this Hamilton Beach contains the words Blender to Puree. It’s offering us obvious hints to include it in a discussion focused on finding the best blenders to puree food.
The Hamilton Beach 58148A is a bit different from other blenders.
It doesn’t have a knob to control the speed manually.
What we get are 12 blending functions spread out on 4 buttons. The fifth button is Off button.
The blending functions are:
- mix, milkshake, easyclean
- puree, smoothie, icy drink
- dice, chop, salsa
- grind crush ice, grate
Frankly, we get all the functions we need in the form of 4 simple to use buttons, which is quite awesome.
You can even grind raw meat, just press the button with grind, crush ice, grate.
For purees, we’ll have to press the button for puree, smoothie, icy drink.
4. Breville BSB510XL Control Grip: Best Hand Blender to Puree Food
If personal blenders or countertop blenders aren’t the right picks for you, there’s a third type we can choose: an immersion blender.
One of the best is the Breville BSB510XL Control Grip. It’s not the cheapest since it has a price tag around $100 but I believe that it’s worth the price.
However, there are plenty of hand blenders that cost around $30-$50 so you can pick a cheaper appliance, too.
Components
First, there’s the immersion blender that has an 8-inch immersion depth for large quantities or tall pans and pots. You can cook as many ingredients as you want and then you can quickly puree them.
There’s also a 42 oz jug. It’s a good accessory, whether you want to make smoothies, whip egg whites, make dressings and sauces or make whipped cream.
A 25 oz chopping bowl is always an awesome accessory, especially for those who don’t have a bigger food processor. It works for chopping raw vegetables but you can also make your puree or hummus with it. The chopping bowl has its own mini blade system.
Last but not least, we get a whisk attachment. It’s not a very sturdy whisk but, as long as it holds up, it will work as a replacement for a hand mixer or stand mixer.
All these components are powered up by a 280 watts motor. It’s not the most powerful but it really handles everything we want it to do.
There are 15 speed settings so there’s a lot of variety to obtain whatever texture we want.
How to make puree food with Breville BSB510XL
If you’re boiling ingredients, you can use the hand blender to puree the food in the pot where the ingredients were cooked. Make sure to empty most of the liquid and keep enough to create the consistency you want.
One the other hand, if you roast the ingredients you can add them to the processor accessory to mince them out first. It will only take a few seconds. Remove the ingredients from the processor, add your liquid and other condiments and use the hand blender to finish achieving a smooth texture for the whole mix.
When we’re using this Breville set, we have plenty of options to explore when we’re making puree food.
5. Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro: Best Personal Blender to Puree Food
We’ve gone over countertop blenders for all budgets with Ninja, Vitamix and Hamilton Beach. We’ve also seen what a very good immersion blender can do for us.
Now, let’s review a personal blender as the best blender to puree food. I didn’t want to recommend any personal blender. What I wanted was to review the most powerful among these smaller appliances.
While I believe that the Nutribullet Personal Blender 600 can also be wonderfully capable of pureeing all kinds of foods, I prefer the Ninja BN401 Nutri Pro a bit more for these kinds of tasks because it’s very powerful, even if it’s slightly more expensive than the original nutribullet.
Features
The first amazing feature about this Ninja BN401 is the 1,100 watts motor base. That’s very powerful for a personal blender.
For example, the Breville Boss To Go Sport is a lot more expensive than this Ninja, while having a 1,000 watts motor. That’s why the Ninja BN401 is one of my favorite personal blenders.
Furthermore, another great feature is that we get 2 cups. Each measures 24 oz so they’re a nice size. And each comes with a spout lid for drinks on the go.
Since we have 2 cups, even if someone takes one cup to go, we’re still left with the second cup to make our pureed foods.
There are 2 Auto-IQ programs that do the work for us: crush and smoothie.
There’s also a pulse button.
If you don’t want to use either of the 2 programs, then we can use the START/STOP button. If we press it once, the blender will run continuously for up to 60 seconds. Press it again when you wish it to stop.
For puree foods, you’ll usually need about 30 seconds until you get a smooth texture so you should press the START/STOP button when you have the desired smooth texture for your purees.
To further demonstrate that the Ninja BN401 fully works for purees, there’s a classic hummus recipe included in their inspiration guide. You can make hummus and so much more.
What are pureed foods?
A puree is when we change the texture of ingredients from solid food to a creamy texture, a texture similar to pudding, a smooth dish that has no lumps.
The easiest way to make purees is in a blender or with a food processor.
However, since we’re here talking about the best blenders to puree food, I’m going to say that most of us prefer blenders. I prefer them because they’re easy to use, easy to clean, they take up less countertop space, and blenders are truly capable of creating a very smooth texture.
Purees can be made from vegetables, legumes, and fruits.
Pureed foods are not only a good option for those who have trouble chewing or swallowing. And they’re not only for children. Although, blenders are excellent appliances for making baby food.
If we take hummus as an example, you can clearly see that it’s a great dish for a meal or a fantastic appetizer.
Mashed potatoes can be used to make a number of dishes and they pair beautifully as a side dish to a variety of meats.
Applesauce is another example of pureed food that is an important ingredient for a lot of savory and sweet recipes. It’s an extremely useful ingredient for baking that can be easily made with the help of a good blender.
How to puree foods in a blender
The first step is to cook the raw ingredients according to your recipe. It will be a lot easier if you cut up the raw ingredients prior to cooking them.
That way, once they’re cooked, all you have to do is to pour the chunks into the pitcher.
If you’re using an immersion blender, you can do the puree directly in the pan where you’ve boiled your ingredients.
As always, we need a liquid base.
You can use some of the liquid in which the ingredients have been boiled in.
Or you can use juice or broth.
We can also use water, milk or gravy juice as our liquid base. It depends on the recipe you’re making.
How much liquid you add is up to you. It depends on how thick you enjoy your favorite pureed foods.
Some might enjoy a more liquidy texture, while others will prefer a more solid one.
It’s best to start with less liquid and then add some more if the puree is too thick. If the puree is too thin, you’ll need to add more ingredients.
Foods that can be pureed
In theory, any vegetable, fruit or legume can be pureed.
However, we can do more than that. We can puree whatever ingredients we’ve cooked well enough.
That includes cooked pasta, rice, oatmeal, cereals, cooked meats and fish, dairy products, canned fruits, etc.
We also puree meats, fish and chicken if that’s what your diet demands.
How to clean a blender after pureeing food
Cleaning a blender is very easy and quick if you follow a few steps.
Pour some warm water into your cup/pitcher/jug, add a few drops of dish soap and turn your blender on for a few seconds. Rinse it and that’s it. The whole secret is to do the cleaning immediately after making your food.
You can also add it in your dishwasher but I prefer this quick cleaning by hand because the blender does most of the work.
All in all, once you find the best blender to puree food, everything become so much easier, no matter which food or ingredients you want to turn into a smooth texture.
