If you’re a smoothie girl or guy, you most likely wake up with your stomach growling for a good smoothie to start your day. Immersion blenders are excellent to whip them up with minimal effort. However, if you don’t use it right, you’re going to end up splashing and cleaning up a big mess on your kitchen table.
Here are 5 tips on how to use an immersion blender without splashing:
- Use a cylinder bowl or container.
- Activate the immersion blender once submerged.
- Start blending on low.
- Start blending from the top and work down vertically.
- Cut a center hole in a paper plate and use it as a lid.
If you battle with splatter and are tired of cleaning up after yourself, carry on reading. We’ll take a deeper look into these tips on how to use an immersion blender without splashing.
1. Use a Cylinder Bowl or Container
Perhaps you’ve been tossing your smoothie ingredients into the first bowl that you can find in the morning, ready to whip it all together with your immersion blender. Unfortunately, this may be your first mistake of the day, resulting in an unnecessary mess.
The ideal bowl or container to use with your immersion blender is one that is deep and narrow, or cylindrical in shape, like a jar. If you don’t have a jar or container that matches this description, you can purchase a Winco Bain Maries on Amazon.com. This Bain Maries is stainless steel and versatile, allowing you to use it as a mixing bowl or a product for holding tall utensils.
If you prefer using glass when it comes to food and want to store your mixture or smoothie in it once you’ve blended it, you can purchase the Accguan Mason Jars from Amazon.com. They come in a set of 15, along with labels and a pen. They’re dishwasher safe and will keep your contents fresh for longer with their airtight lids.
The depth of your container plays a huge role in preventing splashing because the high sides stop the ingredients from spraying over the top and onto you or your kitchen table.
Another trick to keep everything in the bowl or container is to keep the ingredients low. Don’t fill the container with ingredients higher than just past halfway; otherwise, it may spill out the top when you start blending.
2. Activate the Immersion Blender Once Submerged
Another tip for a mess-free kitchen table has to do with when to turn your immersion blender on and when to turn it off.
If you turn your blender on before it’s submerged in the food, prepare for a splashback. Your blender’s blades and hood need to be fully submerged before you turn it on so that the suction effect pulls the ingredients downward and not up and out.
The same is true for when you turn it off. If the blades are spinning when you pull it out of the mix, all the contents still sitting on the blades are going to go flying. Instead, turn it off before pulling it out. Knock the shaft against the side of the container to knock off the excess contents back into the bowl and then remove it completely.
3. Start Blending on Low
If you’ve got an immersion blender with speed settings, this tip will help you out. As thrilled as you may be to start drinking your smoothie or get your soup going, immediately blending on the highest speed isn’t the best option.
Once your blender is submerged, turn it onto the lowest setting. Once it’s sliced all the ingredients into more manageable and similar sizes, you can start to increase the speed until it reaches the consistency you desire.
You won’t have the needed control if you start blending at high speed. The blender may also cut up your ingredients unevenly if the speed is too high – leaving you with lumps – and you’ll encounter splashback.
4. Start Blending From the Top and Work Down Vertically
When using your immersion blender, focus on one “layer” at a time. Blending isn’t a race but rather a process. Start blending from the top of your ingredients, and as it blends, move lower.
Once you can move your blender through the ingredients with a bit of ease, work your way back up until you reach the right consistency.
Make sure to hold your blender with control when moving down because moving it loosely in your hand will cause splashing. Avoid blending in circular or horizontal movements, and rather stick to vertical movements only.
When you reach near the bottom of your container, don’t press the blender against it. The ingredients need space to churn, and if there’s no space to flow out from, your contents will spill out. Instead, hold it just above the bottom and angle the shaft slightly, allowing it to suck the ingredients into the blades and churn them out again.
If you don’t have a cylinder container and you have to move horizontally, once again start with the top layer, slowly moving horizontally and blending your way down.
5. Cut a Center Hole in a Paper Plate and Use It as a Lid
Some newer immersion blenders come with an attachable lid. You’re guaranteed a splash-free kitchen if you can get one of those. However, if you cannot buy one of those attachments for your model, all hope is not lost.
First, give the previous tips a go and see if you can master them. These tips will significantly reduce splashback and may prevent it entirely. However, if they haven’t worked out so well for you, make your own lid for your immersion blender. A cover is an easy and assured tip to prevent splashing.
If you have a lid with a center hole, slide your shaft through the hole. The lid will cover the container to trap the contents. If you don’t have something that resembles a lid, you can use a paper plate or kitchen towel.
Simply cut a hole into your paper plate and put the shaft through it. You’ll most likely have to throw away the paper plate after every use as it’ll get covered in food, but cutting a hole into a paper plate isn’t tricky and is relatively quick to do.
Another product you can use to prevent splatter is saran wrap. You can stretch it out to cover the jar, bowl, or container you’re using and then cut a slit into it for your blender to slip through.
If you don’t want to constantly throw paper plates away, then wrap a towel around your immersion blender when it’s in use. You can either hand wash the towel after every use or toss it in the washer.
Hi all! I’m Cora Benson, and I’ve been blogging about food, recipes and things that happen in my kitchen since 2019.