A juicer, blender, food processor or immersion blender?
Well… There you are at the kitchen equipment aisle with your healthy intentions. Should you get a (slow) juicer or a blender? Or can an immersion blender suffice? And what is the difference between the appliance that costs a few tens and the one that costs a few hundred euros? We use kitchen equipment for many recipes and have done quite a bit of research to see what works best. Over the years, quite a few appliances have been reviewed. These are our preferences and recommendations. We hope it helps you make a choice that suits you!
Juicer
If you opt for a juicer, choose a slow juicer. Because this machine presses very slowly, you not only get a lot more juice out of your vegetables and fruits, but you also retain more nutrients than with a centrifugal juicer.
Juices and smoothies are both super healthy. A smoothie, made in the blender, is more like a liquid meal. All fibers stay intact while in juice you retain the pure juice. Fibers are important for good bowel function, a steady absorption of sugars from fruit, and they ensure that a smoothie oxidizes less quickly than a juice. In a juice, you can process a lot more vegetables and fruits than in a smoothie. A juicer is very good for vegetable juice! Be aware that when making fruit juice, you quickly consume a lot of calories and sugars.
Blender
Opt for a blender with a powerful motor and a sturdy pitcher. An immersion blender also gets you a long way, but certainly, when you want to make smoothies and soups regularly, a blender is really nice. The absolute top among blenders is the high-speed blender. This has such a powerful motor that you get super smooth smoothies or soups in no time (think 1.5 minutes). The motor is so powerful that with 4 minutes of blending cold, raw ingredients, you make a lukewarm (raw) soup and you can more easily pulverize nuts and dates. It breaks down the cells of the plants even better, allowing nutrients to reach your blood and cells faster. The price of a high-speed blender is higher and is therefore especially worthwhile if you also intend to use it regularly. We ourselves use the Bianco di Puro blender and we are completely in love with it.
Food processor
A food processor is especially useful for coarse, dry ingredients. Think of grinding oats, dates, sun-dried tomatoes for burgers or a cake base. This is also possible in the blender, but it’s a bit more challenging. On the high-speed blender we have, there is a special pitcher that allows this to happen super fast.
For every appliance: cheap is expensive.
Invest in a good appliance! They are often more expensive, but you can enjoy them for a lot longer. Especially when you’re hooked after blending or juicing a few times, you’ll be so happy with an appliance of good quality. We can tell you from experience that a cheap blender may seem like a good idea at first, but if you go through three of them in a year, the expensive version suddenly doesn’t seem so expensive anymore. And it saves you quite a few frustrated moments. Our favorites that we can wholeheartedly recommend can be found in the shop.