Tool: Immersion Blender

I suppose it’s not technically an essential tool, but it is one I use all the time: my immersion blender.

I put off buying one for years, though my friends mentioned using theirs regularly. After I bought one, I knew I would never be without one again.

How do I use my immersion blender?

Let me count the ways

To puree some soups, like roasted root vegetable, butternut squash, and pea soup.
To thicken up some other soups, like bean soups, I give it a few quick pulses so some – but not all – of the veggies and beans are pureed. This thickens up the texture of the soup without using rouxs or cornstarch.
To make a milkshake.
To make peeling fruit for sorbets, jams, or sauces unnecessary! After the fruit is simmering away, I just stick in the immersion blender and whir until it’s all smooth, peels and all.
To make simple, quick tomato sauce with excess tomatoes: boil quartered tomatoes (no peeling!) with seasonings of choice, blending as it cooks until it’s the level of chunkiness you like.
To make a fast fruity salad dressing: olive oil, vinegar, sugar, and a handful or two of berries, pureed in the measuring cup with the immersion blender.
To quickly whip just a couple small servings of whipped cream, I add cream, sugar, and vanilla to a Pyrex measuring cup or a tall drinking glass and whip it with the whisk attachment.
To make homemade hummus and similar bean dips.
To make sure my gravy is lump-free.
To make batches of homemade, single-ingredient baby food.

My immersion blender is one of the handiest tools in my kitchen, and I never would have guessed how much simpler it would make food prep before I owned it. Particularly when you are making a lot of your own ingredients – like jams, dressings, sauces, ice creams, and sorbets – the immersion blender means you can pull out a small tool, with one small and easy part to wash, instead of hauling out the blender and getting a whole other container dirty, with pourings back and forth.

So, if you see “with my immersion blender” on a lot of my recipe posts, don’t be surprised.