The Ultimate Blender Cookbook Review

Much like Jenn’s experience with this Paleo slow cooker cookbook, my experience with this book of blender recipes wasn’t quite what I’d expected it to be. When you open up a blender cookbook, you probably expect to see smoothies, soups, maybe some juices, salsas and dressings, right? So you can imagine my surprise when I cracked open The Ultimate Blender Cookbook and found recipes for waffles, chicken, cupcakes and salad. How does that work?
The deal is that, while there are quite a few healthy soup and smoothie recipes in there, there are also loads of recipes that call for the use of a blender in part of the preparation — say, to blend the batter for some Chiaseed Pancakes or to combine the sauteed vegetables and spices to make the sauce for Spinach Chicken Enchiladas.
And once I read a bit, it totally made sense — the author, Rebecca Miller French, encourages using your blender for all kinds of things, from creating your own coconut, almond or oat flour to chopping veggies for salads in just moments. There’s even an entire chapter devoted to burgers! Considering I just dropped a pretty penny on a refurbished Vitamix (because my HealthMaster? Well, you can read the update on that originally glowing review here), I’m kiiiind of into using my blender for ALL THE THINGS right now.
I really like that this book not only provides recipes and inspiration for new ways to use a blender, but also really specific tips on how to best use it for different things. The No. 1 piece of advice offered? Don’t overblend. It’s a lot like cutting your hair — you can always go back and do more, but if you’ve blended something beyond the desired consistency (or, say, cut your bangs a little too close to your hairline — SHUT UP, I KNOW YOU’VE DONE IT, TOO), it’s generally impossible to go back. And no amount of hairspray will help your overblended good. Trust me.
I love making prep easier almost as much as I adore facilitating clean up, and this book provides ways to do both.
What’s your favorite unconventional use for your blender? —Kristen