This Kitchen Tool You’re Not Using Will Make You Eat 5x More Veggies (And Actually Enjoy It)
by The Candidly Team
Like an elegantly perfected skincare routine, vegetables are something I just thought I’d have down by the time I turned 40. Like suddenly they’d be snuck onto my plate by some conscientious mom who seamlessly runs my household. Then it hits me, I am the mom in my household.
And while I like vegetables (I buy them. I feed them to those whose lives I value. I even write about their superpowers), I frequently fall embarrassingly short of what would scrape by as a suitable amount for an adult human to eat in a day.
And I don’t think I’m entirely alone here. Because eating “enough” vegetables is hard. On top of whatever amount of time and effort it takes to prepare them, there’s also the plain reality of how much we eat in a day period. Unlike rabbits, we can’t sit there chomping celery every minute of our lives, much less diversify our nutrient intake by switching to carrots, then peppers, then kale, then watercress.
So while I didn’t think at my age I’d have to treat myself like a literal child and create all kinds of dumb hacks for putting more nutrients into my body, I’m very happy to say I found one that has completely changed my life. And it’s so stupidly simple, you will probably laugh at me. But then you should still do it, because it truly works.
The trick is to use an immersion blender. And not just any immersion blender. This immersion blender.
Breville the Control Grip™
Price: $130
I know. Blending isn’t exactly a novel concept, but blending in this way is a game changer. Why?
1. It’s a beyond easy handheld device that magically swirls all your soups, smoothies, sauces, etc. into a smooth, creamy, delectable blend without you having to lug out all the big clunky kitchen tools that somehow are always missing a piece or still smell like garlic from when you last made salad dressing.
2. Forget all the annoying disassembly and scary blades of washing a blender, because it takes all of 36 seconds to clean the minute we’re done with it.
3. It takes up precisely zero counter space.
4. You can leave your recipes right there in the pot or whatever receptacle they happen to be in when you’re ready to get blending. So you don’t have to worry about transferring piping hot soups and sauces into a plastic blender and creating 700 more dishes.
5. It does such a beautiful job of turning your hodgepodge recipes into silky smooth spoonfuls (or strawfuls) of dishes that are packed with uncanny amounts of nutrients… but also flavor.
6. Unlike something like a juicer (and we honestly envy those who have the patience to juice), we don’t have to baby this device with hours of upkeep or clean up a great big mess. It’s truly a one-and-done object we pick up and put down with the same ease of a stirring spoon.
This particular immersion blender is just the gold-standard with fancy things like an ergonomic grip and a non-scratch base to protect your precious cookware. But mainly it just blends with all the power and lack of fuss you could possibly want from a life-altering kitchen gadget.
This is one of those things that because you’ll use it SOOO much, a strong, powerful model matters, because you don’t want to wind up with some sputtering knock-off you have to replace every year.
Just look at some of the dreamy things you can do with it:
And here are just a few examples of things we’ve made with ours that have been heavenly.
Creamy Black Bean Soup
Black bean soup is one of the richest, creamiest, most incidentally dairy-free comfort foods in which to store a slew of hidden vegetables. Take any recipe you like - we like this one - and then wildly toss in spinach, broccoli, jalapeno, cilantro and pretty much any green vegetable your heart desires. It has the spicy richness of something like a tray of saucy enchiladas. You won’t believe all you ate was a purely veggie soup.
Mayo (or aioli if you’re fancy)
If you ever wonder why your sandwich or wrap tastes better at pretty much any restaurant than when you make it at home, it’s usually because of an aioli. We know aioli is just a fancy way of saying a mayo with some added herbs or flavor to jazz it up. But the point here is, it will make every other thing you eat taste a million times better. AND we have a foolproof one-minute way to make your own. Use an immersion blender to make it the most creamy, whipped, and dreamy mayo imaginable.
Casseroles
My biggest trick for quadrupling my veggie per bite ratio is to make a foolproof sauce packed with veggies that you pour over, indeed, more veggies. This can be done with an eggplant parmesan where you add things like roast zucchini to the layers and carrots to the tomato sauce. You can also add lentils or legumes for added sauce-absorbing heartiness. A sprinkle of cheese on top. Then when the whole thing is baked, it tastes like pasta or lasagna or some indulgent thing that couldn’t possibly be good for you.
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
We have to eat.
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