You can use Ninja blenders for more than just your usual milkshakes or smoothies. With multiple functions and settings, Ninja blenders enable you to experiment with a variety of meal recipes as well. Of course, to enjoy the versatility of these handy kitchen appliances, you’ll need to know how to work a Ninja blender first.
With this, the team at Ninja is here to help – and below, we’ll guide you through how to use a Ninja blender and the range of tasty treats you can look forward to.
What can you use a Ninja blender for?
You can use Ninja blenders to create a variety of flavourful condiments and spreads – whether that’s pesto, hummus, salad dressings, nut butter, and more – to complement your favourite meal or snack. You also have the added convenience of storing your creations in a range of accessory containers: whether that’s a quick To Go Cup, Nutri Bowl, Precision Pint, or Power Cup. This allows you to easily store or bring your treat – whatever its size – to your next gathering or event.
Read on to explore which Ninja blender-inspired creations will elevate your next breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Sauces
Whether it’s tomato ketchup with chips or a creamy avocado salsa in your tacos, homemade sauces deliver that special touch to a meal. When learning how to use Ninja blenders for sauces, you want to alternate between using the crush, smoothie, and pulse functions. This way you can quickly break down large ingredients, while combining, liquids, flavourings and thickeners to build out your sauce’s consistency.
Pesto
Create fresh pesto to use as a sandwich spread, for a zesty hemp seed pesto pasta, or to accompany grilled meat or vegetables. If you’re wondering how to work a Ninja blender for pesto, you’ll want to add your preferred mix of herbs, nuts, and oil, then choose the spread option. You’ll find this option on multiple Ninja blenders, including the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri Duo.
Nut butter
Everyone knows peanut butter, but not everyone knows there so many awesome alternatives that are only a blend away. With Ninja blenders you can easily make cashew, walnut, pecan and almond butter for your next slice of toast or healthy snack. Simply add your preferred roasted nut to your blender and select spread.
Salad dressings
By learning how to work a Ninja blender, you’ll become the master of salad dressings. Simply prepare a bowl of vegetables, fruit and nuts, then create a quick apple cider vinaigrette to bring everything together.
To create a smooth dressing, you can use the high-powered smoothie setting on any Ninja blender. If you want to maximise convenience, though, we recommend using the 30-second blend cycle on our Ninja Blast Portable Blender.
Hummus
You can use your Ninja blender to create delicious black bean or beetroot hummus. By learning how to use a Ninja blender like our Detect Duo Power Blender Pro, you can control the speed of the blades mid-blend. This function is especially useful when drizzling oil into your hummus mix, allowing you to tailor this delicious dip to your preferred level of smoothness.
Soups
The Ninja Foodi Blender Cold & Hot makes it easy to make soup. Simply add uncooked vegetables or protein to the pitcher, add broth and cream, select the hearty soup or smooth soup setting and return 30 minutes later to a warming meal. With the rest of our blenders, you can cook ingredients down separately, then blitz them in your blender to improve soup consistency.
What are the different modes of the Ninja Blender?
Ninja blenders all have their own unique settings, functions, and designs. Some are for blending alone, whereas others will have specific functions for specific recipes.
By learning how to work a Ninja blender, you can make a variety of dishes – no matter which model you’re working with. Below, we’ll explain the core settings of Ninja blenders to help you get the most out of yours.
Pulse
Pulse is a manual setting that chops and moves ingredients around your blender: allowing you to achieve your desired texture or unclog the blade before moving to another mode.
Blend (smoothie)
Blending powerfully breaks down the ingredients inside your Ninja blender. On Ninja blenders, this will be the preset smoothie setting. Simply choose the mode and let your blender create a flavourful sauce, dressing, hummus, or soup.
Extract
The extract function is a preset setting designed to draw as much flavour and nutrients out of your ingredients as possible. This mode is fantastic for any recipe where you want to turn the ingredients into a liquid, making it particularly useful for creating healthy soups or nutritious drinks.
Spread
This function allows you to make thicker recipes, such as hummus and nut butters. Sometimes these recipes need more movement inside the cup or pitcher. To ensure a productive blend, models like our Ninja Foodi Power Nutri Compact System have a twistable lid that can manually mix the food as it blends. You can also try using the pulse setting on your ingredients before selecting spread to finish the job.
How to use a Ninja blender?
Ninja kitchen appliances are intuitive to setup and use. Read on as we explain how to work a Ninja blender and begin making an assortment of appetising creations.
1. Set up your blender
Place your blender on a clean, dry, even surface – such as a table or your kitchen countertop. Plug it into the nearest power socket.
2. Add your ingredients
Add all your ingredients to the blender cup or pitcher. In terms of not only how to use a Ninja blender – but to maximise its lifespan, too – be sure to avoid adding any ingredients past the max fill line.
If using a cup:
- Place the blade assembly on the top of your cup.
- Turn the blade assembly clockwise to seal it.
- Flip your sealed cup upside down and place on the motor base.
If using a pitcher, the process is slightly different. In this case:
- Place the lid onto the top of the pitcher, gently pushing down to seal it.
- Place the pitcher onto the motor base, turning clockwise to secure it.
3. Blend
Turn on your blender and choose the setting to suit your recipe.
If using the Ninja Nutri Precision Blender or similar:
- push down on the cup for it blend; or
- perform short pushes to pulse.
If using a Ninja blender with many functions choose between the following functions:
- Pulse
- Blend
- Extract
-
Spread
4. Clean blender
Keeping your Ninja blender clean keeps your machine free of residue buildup, maintains consistent function and prolongs your blenders service life.
To clean a cup:
- place both your cup and lid in the top-rack of your dishwasher; or
- wash manually with warm soapy water.
To clean a pitcher:
- Partially fill it with warm soapy water.
- Select the 30-second blend cycle setting to clean.
- Pour the cleaned mixture out, rinse and set the pitcher down to dry.
Now that you’ve discovered how to use Ninja blenders for daily meals, it’s time to get started on dessert. Next, learn what you can make with the Ninja Creami.
