- When it comes to
small kitchen appliances my Vitamix blender ranks
at the top of the list. I think you guys know that
I'm slightly obsessed with it and I use it almost daily
for a variety of recipes that you can find both on my website and here on my YouTube channel. As you might imagine with extensive use I've learned quite a few
Vitamix tips, tricks, and hacks over the years. And, these are things
that not only make my life easier in the kitchen as a Vitamix owner, but they also help to
ensure that I'm maximizing the use of my blender which
is always a good thing. So, today I'm happy to share
these eight tips with you which also help to
answer some of your most frequently asked questions. And, Vitamix has graciously
sponsored today's video. Let's dive in. Next time you remove your lid
plug to insert your tamper take a closer look because you might have missed the fact that your lid plug is also a mini measuring cup with both half ounce and one ounce measures. This is great if you're
making a cocktail recipe or if you need to add a smidge more liquid to either a smoothie or
a sauce to thin it down. And, let's be honest it's always nice to not have to get another
measuring cup dirty. The order in which you load your container is more important than
you probably realize. Always load liquids closest to the blades followed by soft items and then
hard or frozen items on top. Having the liquids on the
bottom prevents air pockets from forming around the
blades and the weight of the frozen items on top helps to push the other ingredients
down into the blades. By loading your container in this order you'll also prevent your
blender from stalling or struggling with hard to
blend items on the bottom. So, remember this order
for both the 48 ounce and 64 ounce containers. Always put liquids first
which includes water, juice, milk, or yogurt. Then, dry goods such as grains,
seasonings, and powders. Then, leafy greens, fruits and veggies, and finally ice and frozen
ingredients are last. If you have the 20
ounce personal container or the eight ounce blending bowls remember to reverse this
order because you flip the container upside down
on the top of your Vitamix. Don't let the power and
noise of your Vitamix blender scare you because almost everything blends better, faster, and easier
when you quickly increase the speed to high. Of course, always start on
low but you wanna quickly ramp up that speed dial. When you blend on high
the motor also stays cool because the cooling fan is maximized. So yes, blending on
high rather than medium, especially with thick
items like nut butters actually prevents your
machine from overheating. It's blending too long
at too low of a speed that will overheat your machine and cause the automatic overload protection
to turn the machine off. And, if that happens just
let it cool back down before turning it back on. When you're blending thick
items like frozen yogurt and nut butters the tamper is your friend. The tamper can help
get things moving again and prevent air pockets from
forming around the blades. The tamper will never come
into contact with the blades as long as the lid is on the blender. So, feel free to use a little muscle and push those ingredients
down into the blades. The best way to do this
is to push the tamper down towards the four corners of the container until your recipes is
blending again smoothly. And, just remember never
to fill your container more than 2/3rds full when
you're using the tamper. One of the biggest problems
I've seen this community have with my own recipes
is when they've tried to cut my Vitamix recipes in half. The Vitamix blender needs a
minimum amount of ingredients in order for the blades
to do their job properly. With too few ingredients
the blades will just splat those ingredients to
the outside of the container. For instance, my almond
butter recipes calls for four cups of raw almonds. If you try to reduce this recipe and use one cup of almonds it will simply fail. There's just not enough
ingredients to create friction with the blades and turn the
almonds into almond butter. Now likewise, you need to
be careful with over filling your container as well
so always do keep an eye on the maximum fill line. For all of the Vitamix
recipes on my website I use the wet container. Though, I could have
used the dry container for my powdered sugar recipe. So, what's the difference between the two? Well, the blades on the wet
container blend things together and inward and the blades
on the dry container tend to blast things up and out. Another way to think about
it is that the wet container creates a super smooth
texture of your recipes with a vortex and the dry
container keeps things more granular with a reverse vortex. Because I predominantly
make smoothies, dips, soups, sauces, nut butters,
and other creamy items the wet container is perfect for me. But, if you plan on grinding
coffee, milling grains, or creating flours then
you might wanna look into the dry container as well. When you blend thick
ingredients like hummus or nut butter you absolutely
need the under blade scraper which is my favorite accessory. This is like a squeegee for
the sides of the container and gets under the
blades easily which means you're not wasting any ingredients. One of my other favorite
hacks after you've made a batch of almond butter and scraped out as much you can is this add
a cup or two of nut milk and a banana and then blend. You've now got an almond
butter banana smoothie to enjoy and a container
that's much easier to clean. So, speaking of cleaning
your Vitamix it's super easy. Just rinse out the container
then fill it halfway with warm water and a
drop or two of dish soap. Run it on high for 30
seconds or if you have a cleaning cycle on your machine you can press that button as well. (mellow music) Over time you may notice
that your Vitamix container has become cloudy. Now, as you can see my Vitamix container is not cloudy, but if your is it's usually from blending spices or
mineral rich ingredients or from hard water. But, here's how you can clean that film off of your container. Fill the container half
full with warm water and add one cup of white vinegar. Let the container soak for several hours or even over night then pour this out and use a soft scrubber to
clean the remaining residue. Just remember that
blending rough ingredients like sugar can actually
create minuscule scratches on the inside of your container
making it appear cloudy when it's really not. And unfortunately, that's not reversible. If you do plan to blend
rough ingredients regularly I recommend purchasing an extra container so that you have one container ready to go for rough ingredients and one container that's more of your everyday container for all of your smooth ingredient recipes. I hope you found these
Vitamix tips, tricks, and hacks helpful. And, if you have any
additional ones please do leave them in the comments below. I always love how this
community is so helpful to one another in the comments. Speaking of this wonderful community we also just hit 500,000
subscribers on this channel, which is amazing and I am so grateful for all of your support. In celebration of this
pretty awesome milestone I'm also gonna hold a little giveaway over on my website including
giving away a Vitamix. And, I'll have more details
in the description box below. All right, that's it for me this week and next time you see me I will be back with a tasty new recipe for you. If you're not already subscribed make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any new recipes or videos. And, I will see you guys again next week. (mellow music)
