12 Recipes to Make in Your Vitamix that Arent Smoothies

What if you could make a perfect, silky hollandaise sauce using your Vitamix? (You can.)

New and longtime Vitamix owners alike tend to, at some point, fall for the gadget so hard that they look for any excuse to use it more often. Maybe smoothies were your gateway recipe, but you quickly found yourself moving to homemade nut butters, pestos, sauces, dressings, and even raw chocolate tortes. The power of the mixer means you can completely transform a sturdy vegetable such as kale into a silky soup. Here are a few of our favorite ways to give the Vitamix a workout.

1. Hollandaise Sauce

The power of the blender means that the sauce shown here is somewhat less likely to break on you, and it sure makes it a breeze to make. This recipe is a twist on the classic French croque madame, swapping in Parmesan for Gruyre and adding springy asparagus, to boot.

2. Green Goddess Dressing

The best green goddess sauces are delicious on salad, alongside roast chicken, and in dip or dressing form. Bright, packed with herbs, with a luxe character thanks to buttermilk or mayonnaise, they’re also quite flexible. If you don’t have the green herbs called for, experiment with more cilantro and less parsley, for example. A blender gives the dressing in particular a lovely viscosity.

3. Raw Chocolate-Orange Torte

A thing to keep in mind when you’re feeling stuck on new ideas is “which foods have I always wanted to pure but have feared to pure? Enter: soaked cashews. Spun with cacao powder, agave, orange juice and zest, and a few other ingredients, they make a creamy, dreamy filling for this raw chocolate-orange torte.

4. Dutch Baby Pancake

If you’ve never made a Dutch baby pancake before, know that there’s almost nothing in the world so delightful as watching one weeble and wobble to life in a hot oven. This one, laced with the berries of your choice, is ready in just 40 minutes. The Vitamix helps the batter aerate fully, producing a bigger puff in the finished product.

5. Pesto

Whether you’re making a basil, parsley, or kale pesto, nothing will make it creamier and silkier than a top-notch blender. Use it (plus a little pasta cooking water to help the sauce come together) to completely douse noodles. Or make this knockout pizza layered with paper-thin potato slices and blue cheese.

6. Nut Butter

Peanut butter, such a simple thing, is a game changer when it’s homemade. Completely smooth and emulsified, it’s so much better than most of what you can buy in a jar. This homemade nut butter guide gives you a few options for using your Vitamix to its fullest capacity, and includes a chocolate-hazelnut spread you might just end up obsessed with, too.

7. Pudding

Vegan, tropical pudding is as simple as adding fruit and tofu to a blender and folding in bright bits of pineapple. This Mark Bittman recipe is as smart as it is simple, requiring 35 only minutes. The toasted coconut garnish adds welcome crunch.

8. Almond Milk

The better the blender, the creamier and more delicious the homemade almond milk. If you’ve been buying it at the store, consider making your own. With a bit of patience, high quality raw almonds, and a splash of agave if you like yours a little sweeter, you’ll be delighted by the results.

9. Gazpacho

Perhaps the very best thing about Vitamix-ed gazpacho is how much it reduces mess. Say goodbye to a watering cutting board full of chopped tomatoes; with this recipe, you can simply get rid of blemishes and seeds in a big bowl, then blitz the fruit with cucumbers and bell peppers. (For the silkiest texture, do take the time to blanch the tomatoes and get rid of their skins.)

10. Hummus

As is true of nut butters, once you’ve made your own hummus in a blender, there’s almost no going back. Silky as can be, with a kick from whatever spices you choose to add, it’s delightfully smooth. Pro tip: Make it in smaller batches, as it’s best the day you make it.

11. Carrot-Coconut Soup With Fresh Ginger

As long as you put safety first when making soup (make sure those roast veggies are no longer piping-hot), a Vitamix makes them restaurant-worthy. Think: parsnips, carrots, and tough vegetables that you wouldn’t imagine could ever be quite so luscious and pured. This carrot-ginger soup takes advantage of the fact that you can “cook” the veggies right in the blender; it’s that strong. Keep the oven off, use the stovetop to saut aromatics, and go to town.

12.Cauliflower-Kale Soup

If we had to pick a favorite aspect of the Vitamix beyond smoothies, it might be what it can do to kale, as in this soup. It completely breaks down the green, and look at that color. Cauliflower lends a robust quality to the texture, chicken broth helps everything go a little farther, and you’ve just snuck the kids a vegetable on St. Patrick’s Day without them being the wiser. Everyone wins.