Blender for small amounts of puree

[David Sundstrom]

I know there are topics for blenders, immersion blenders, etc., but my search-fu is failing to answer the specific question I have.

I often times want to puree a small amount of herbs or vegetables at home, for example, a parsley or carrot top coulis, for our meal, or maybe just a small amount of vegetables for my infant daughter. I have a good blender, but it takes more then two cups for it to work properly. My immersion just doesn't work when starting with foods in their solid form. The small food processor bowl can get things started, but it still needs more blending to finish.

What I am looking for is a good little blender I can throw a bunch of parsley leaves and a little water into and get a puree. Ideally it would be powerful enough to make nut butters as well. I want a solid unit with a good motor, not a little screeching thing.

Any suggestions for me?

[dcarch]

A small coffee grinder may work.

dcarch

[Darienne]

Perhaps the Magic Bullet would do the trick. There might be some copycat appliances now which are less expensive even.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Bullet_%28appliance%29

[blue_dolphin]

Years ago, I had an Oster blender and loved how well the mini blend jars (or Mason jars) worked for blending small amounts. I've got a Blendtec but keep thinking of picking up an old Oster for this purpose.

[ojisan]

Iwatani Millser -

[David Sundstrom]

Iwatani Millser -

http://forums.egulle...-millser-800dg/

Looks perfect. Now I just need to find a new egullet friend in Japan to ship one to me for a reasonable commission.

If anyone has gotten one shipped to the US please send me a message and let me know how you did it!

[Keith_W]

If you have a Bamix stick blender, you can buy a food processor attachment like this one. It works really well for puree'ing small amounts of liquid. I can use mine for all sorts of things, but it is also very good for making small quantities of sauces when I can not be bothered to drag out my large food processor.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Keith_W (log)

[Lisa Shock]

My stand mixer has an attachment that's a tiny blender with a glass jar, sold as a baby food maker. I also own a Braun multi-mix, a device that's a hand mixer, immersion blender and tiny food processor -you just swap off attachments.

[Paul McMichael]

The Waring laboratory blender is expensive, but they have small blender jars (500 ml.) and the semi-micro stainless jar holds about 40 ml. for a full batch.

[Shalmanese]

If you have the right blender, you can attach a mason jar to your blender which can help with smaller quantities.

[Emily_R]

David -- until you get someone to mail you the Iwatani, I find that using an immersion blender inside a small-mouthed mason jar works pretty well for small amounts of puree as you describe. It can take a little while to get it going (I lift the immersion blender up and down onto the food to help get things started), and it does require a little liquid, but for something like the parsley puree you describe, or a little baby food, that's what I use.

[jrshaul]

The mason jar attachment is a neat idea. Vita-Mix also sells some smaller carafes, but I remember them all as too large for your purposes.

[David Sundstrom]

If anyone comes across this thread, I ended up ordering a Millsner from amazon.jp and using tenso.com as a forwarding service. It doubles the price, but I'm happy with the machine. Basically a water tight coffee grinder with different jars for different volumes. Works well, wish they sold it here.

[Ienulai]

Sorry for bumping...

 

I tried a few different gadgets over the years and by far the most useful was a braun stick blender, available in any electrical shop. Easy to take a small amount of what we were having before any salt was added and blend it. Lets you vary how much you mush the food up as well so you can start making the texture more lumpy as your baby gets bigger. We also had a baby mouli food mill, think got it on Amazone https://www.evababygear.com/best-baby-food-maker/ which was quite useful but more of a faff to clean. A full size electric blender is fine for making big batches of food to freeze but we didn't have room to keep it out on the worktop and I find if it's not readily accessible there I don't use it as much.

 

We also use a normal food processer we bought at an electrical goods store at Vivo city. Then I pour into the ice container molds and freeze. Once they are solid I put them into different containers in the freezer which have labels and I have different veggies. Then I just mix and match a few cubes and heat in the microwave, add a bit of boiling water with rice grain to thicken to a suitable paste as if its too thin and its too hard to feed. Ive noticed she likes to have this with a bit of toast and this teaches them to feed themselves and hand coordination as well. Just dip it in the food to make it a bit less dry. 

 

Here is one video for you, hope this helps!