7 best blenders for smoothies, soups and sauces

Best: Hand blender

This smart-looking 700W stick blender deserves a place in every kitchen, such is its versatility. With a sleek silver body, comfy ergonomic grip and set of useful attachments, Dualit’s blender is something you’ll turn to over and over again.

We find we use the standard stick blender most often – the deep beaker and long stick mean you can make quick work of blitzing soups, smoothies and sauces and adjust the power easily as you go along. A standard veggie soup was blended to silky smooth perfection in under one minute and did not require sieving as the recipe suggested.

The mini chopper attachment is a godsend for basic kitchen tasks – like chopping onions, chocolate, ginger, or making pesto – and is a good size for preparing baby food and purees. Keen bakers will find the whisk attachment handy too, allowing them to whip up meringues and aerate cream in two shakes. The blender also comes with a super-charged turbo option, though we didn’t find ourselves needing to use it. A good quality all round kitchen blender that will last.

Best: Multi-use stick blender

The multiquick 9 from Braun regularly features in round-ups of best blenders, and we can see why. The German-designed gadget claims to be Britain’s best performing and most powerful blender, with the world’s largest attachment system. It’s true that unboxing this blender is quite an undertaking: alongside the stick blender, this system also includes an XL food processor, a fine and coarse slicer, fine and coarse shredder, Julienne insert, French fry disc, kneading hook, mini chopper, ice crush knife, puree accessory, whisk accessory and a lidded beaker. Phew.

How much you’ll use of the kit remains to be seen, but we can’t fault the 1200W motor which allows for fine blending – though strangely not as fast or fine as the Dualit (£94.99, Dualit.com), we found – and tough performance on chopping hard foods like carrot and raw potato. We blended a soup straight in the pan with no suction problems and no sign of burnout, and whizzed up tough lemongrass, ginger and onion for a Vietnamese paste in double quick time.

It’s also easy to clean and store, so if you were kitting out a kitchen this would be a great buy. If pushed on negative points, we’d point out it’s quite heavy to hold the hand blender, and the unlock button is a bit annoying to get used to at first.

Best: Blender for soup

If you’re a soup devotee, this Morphy Richard machine could be the answer to your lunchtime prayers. Simply put your ingredients into the one litre jug-style machine, secure the lid and select your style of soup: smooth, chunky or just blend if all the cooking has been done already.

We made an impressive, velvety carrot and coriander soup in just 19 minutes, plus a rustic and filling chunky minestrone in under half-an-hour: both faff-free, healthy and hearty lunch solutions that make a minimum of mess and use the preset one-press automatic programmes. It’s quiet enough to work next to and alerts you to the time left using LCD countdown display which beeps once complete and soup is served piping hot. Once you’re done, the blades can be washed up with the lid, while the base can be rinsed with a soft soapy cloth (but not submerged).

While again, there’s no sauté option (which means that onions should be cooked through in a pan first otherwise there is an unpleasant rawness) this is still a brilliant machine, especially for the price. The non-heated blend function also allows you to make sauces and salsas as with any other blender, while the cold drinks option means you can make nicely chilled smoothies, iced coffees and refreshing juices on hot days.

Best: Budget blender

Not all of us have big budgets available, so may we point the more frugal of you towards this Gastroback blender that offers both power and quality for a purse-friendly price. It boasts an 850W motor and six super-sharp stainless steel blades within a 1.5l heat and cold resistant glass jug.

It’s made in the same style as the Vitamix (£549, Vitamixuk.com) and the Zwilling (£349, Zwilling.com) machine, so the jug is placed on top of the motor unit, filled and then you can select your function from the pulse and two speed manual options. Smoothies are ideal for this machine, and we had no problem whizzing up frozen fruit (with plenty of liquid involved), crushed ice and hard veg like carrots.

However, the blender was shown up more with trickier applications like hummus – it will get there, but be prepared to do a lot of scraping down and manual stirring in order to get a smooth, even result. Still, for the price, we really can’t complain.

The Gastroback is currently out of stock at the brand’s website, and while we hope to see it back soon, for those who can’t wait there’s the option to purchase this model from Wayfair if you’re willing to put down the extra cash.

Best: For frozen fruit

This is almost identical to the vitamix machine (£549, Vitamixuk.com), with a similar sized jug (1.8l) sitting atop an extremely powerful blending unit. Known for its high-quality knives, it’s no surprise that Zwilling’s new foray into blenders boasts lethally sharp blades – including a winglet blade with specially serrated piranha teeth to ensure no bits, pesky fibres or lumps remain.

The enfinigy power blender uses an impressive 1600W motor to decimate the hardest-to-blend ingredients into one of the six programmed settings – smoothie, cocktail, ice cream, sauce or soup of your choice. Or you can select your own speed from a range of 12.

We whipped up a delicious blueberry ice cream (after a bit of trial and error – do refer to the recipes available on the downloadable app to save yourself the trouble), ground our own coffee beans in seconds and made a super-silky hummus to rival our favourite shop bought brand. This blender makes quick work of blending ice cubes and frozen fruit, and healthy frozen yogurt is sure to become a staple in your house if you opt for this machine. Cleaning is a doddle too – there’s even a pre-set cleaning function.

Aside from how noisy it is, and that it’s possibly not one for a tiny space, it’s hard to fault this machine.

Best: For smoothies

We really rated this Ninja blender. If you’re a smoothie addict then this is the machine for you, no question. With a large 700ml capacity, all you have to do is screw on the blades and select the blend function. This clever machine will then blitz up your frozen fruit, tough kale stems or claggy avocado to perfection, intelligently knowing when to pause and pulse in order to achieve a smooth result.

We found this far superior to our much-loved Nutribullet for preparing smoothies for this reason, with the programmes eliminating burn-out and ensuring that the top of the blending cup is incorporated into the blended mixture.

Once blended, snap on the handy drinking top and throw the leakproof cup into your bag for an on-the-go treat. We liked the Mix function and Power Nutri Cup for preparing tasty smoothie bowls (the Nutella smoothie recipe provided is delicious). For crushed ice recipes or tougher ingredients, choose the Auto-iQ Crush or PowerMix function and let the machine work its magic. It’s noisy, yes, but it doesn’t move thanks to super-grippy feet and at 1100W is so much more effective than a NutriBullet.

Best: Mini blender

You might not think you need one of these, but you’re wrong. Our mini chopper is one of the most used items in our kitchen, and the fact that this Cuisinart version is cordless is an extra bonus. Plug in the USB charger (two hours for full charge) and once the three lights turn a solid blue you’re good to go for 15 minutes. Choose from pulse and blend buttons and move the lightweight unit around the kitchen to prep breadcrumbs, grate cheese, chop onions, blend curry pastes and whip up aioli, pesto and hummus.

The blades are extremely sharp and the motor is powerful, so we didn’t struggle with any of our test subjects but do take care not to overfill as it won’t blend as effectively. Ok, it’s not the machine for soups and smoothies but if that’s not your lookout, it’s quiet-ish, idiot-proof, portable and extremely easy to clean and store. We also thought that this blender is perfect for preparing for baby food and introducing texture on the go. Baby or no, the Cuisinart mini prep is so versatile we could all use one.

Best: Premium blender

Vitamix has long been recognised as the market leader in blending. We’ve never found a more powerful motor, stronger blades or more impressive performance: it can whizz up soups and smoothies to a truly incredible smoothness in a few minutes, ice cream can be made in seconds and dry goods like nuts, coffee beans and cheese are no match for this machine. For such a high-performing machine it is refreshingly easy to assemble: just pop the 2l blending jug on top of the base unit. The dial is self-explanatory with blending speeds 1-10 alongside automatic programmes for hot soup, ice cream and smoothies.

We love the hot soup function which allows you to add raw ingredients and be presented with a steaming, perfectly smooth cooked soup in under five minutes (though it doesn’t sauté the ingredients first, like a Thermomix will). Make nut butter, crush ice for daiquiris, and pulse chunky salsas to your heart’s content: we thoroughly enjoyed making our way through the recipe book provided. It’s expensive, yes, but this is surely the best blender around and the 10-year warranty helps soften the blow. One to put on your birthday list.