Vitamix Recipes: 5 Genius Things You Can Do With Yours

For 5 genius Vitamix recipes, tried and tested by us, read on...

Never before has a kitchen appliance achieved this kind of cult status. All the cool kids have a Vitamix. Ask anyone who has one what they love about their's and they’ll wax-lyrical about it. It’s that good.

Here’s why we love it: the blades are practically indestructible and they’ll power through just about everything, you keep all the fibre (unlike a juicer) and it will heat food through sheer friction so you can go from a heap of uncooked veg to a steaming bowl of soup in five-minutes. Love.

So, in an ode to the Vitamix, here are our five favourite things we like to do with it:

Spring Green Smoothie From the Vitamix recipe book. It might not be spring but this smoothie is too good not to drink year-round.

You need: 60ml water 225 seedless green grapes 1 orange, peeled, cut in half and deseeded ½ cucumber, cut into large chunks ½ green apple, cut in half an cored 65g kale, central stem removed 50g romaine lettuce 60g parsley leaves 150g frozen pineapple chunks 2 handfuls of ice cubes

How to: 1. Put all the ingredients into the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure the lid. 2. Select the smoothie programme (the one that looks like two little teardrops). 3. Switch the machine to start and allow the machine to complete the programmed cycle, using the tamper (it’s the thing that looks like a baton) to press the ingredients into the blades.

Tomato & Basil Soup From Rawblend.com. The thing about the Vitamix is that not only does it blitz your veggies but it heats them up too. Five minutes makes a steaming vat of soup. Nom, nom.

You need: 2 cups of room temperature water 3 tomatoes 1 spring onion, with its root attached 1 stick of celery ½ carrot 1 handful of cabbage ¼ red pepper with its stalk and seeds 1-2 handfuls of cashew nuts (yes, this sounds odd but they make it so creamy). 1 handful of basil 1 garlic clove 1 vegetable stock cube

How to: 1 Put all the ingredients into the Vitamix container in the order listed above and secure the lid. 2 Select variable 1. Turn the machine on and then quickly increase the speed to variable 10. 3 Put it into ‘soup’ mode and allow it to complete the programme. It will take around 5 minutes.

Peanut Butter From the Vitamix recipe book. You don’t know peanut butter until you’ve had the homemade stuff. Whip it up and eat it with sliced apple. Mind.Blown.

You need: 600g unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts. Seriously, that’s it!

How to: 1. Put the nuts into the Vitamix container and secure the lid. 2. Select Variable 1. 3. Switch the machine to Start and slowly increase the speed Variable 10. 4. Use the tamper to press the ingredients into the blades. 5. In 1 minute you will hear a high-pitched chugging sound. Once the peanut butter begins to flow freely through the blades, reduce the speed to Variable 7. 6. Blend for a further 30 seconds. 7. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to week. The peanut butter can also be frozen for longer storage.

Almond Milk You don’t have to be lactose intolerant to drink almond milk – it’s just plain delicious. Have it plain – as it is here – or add some honey to it if you want it sweeter.

You need: 1. 1 cup of almonds (dry roasted or raw. If raw, be sure to soak them overnight and rinse them before blitzing) 2. 3 cups of water

How to: 1. It’s so easy. Add the water and almonds to the Vitamix. 2. Start on variable 1 and gradually increase it through to variable 10. Run until smooth. 3. Preferably strain the milk through a cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, or if you’re unequipped, like us, just pass it through a sieve.

Cranberry Lime Sparkle From the Vitamix recipe book. This cocktail is so delicious we can’t even explain.

You need: 120ml cranberry juice 120ml light rum 60ml vodka 25g sugar ¼ small lime, peeled and deseeded 25g cranberries 2 handfuls of ice cubes

How to: 1. Put all the ingredients in the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure the lid. 2. Select Variable 1. 3. Switch the machine to start and slowly increase the speed to Variable 10. 4. Blend for 15-20 seconds. 5. Serve immediately.