It happens to the best of us; you get up in the morning to start your day with a delicious smoothie, but all you hear when adding your frozen fruit are mini war cries coming from the blender. What's the deal?
What to do if your blender won't blend frozen fruit? Well, it could have something to do with how you're adding the ingredients and not necessarily what you're adding.
Adding your smoothie ingredients to the blender incorrectly can cause the ice and frozen fruit to get stuck between the blades and the pitcher. Add a liquid first such as water, yogurt, milk, or juice first. This is typically the culprit.
We'll go over other reasons the fruit might not blend and hacks to help you get that velvety smooth texture you want. Additionally, we'll cover critical information on how frozen fruit can affect your blender.
The answer to this question primarily depends on the type of blender that you own. When making frozen fruit smoothies and juices, you need the right equipment for any frozen ingredient you choose.
Do you own a Magic Bullet or a Nutribullet Pro?
These devices are known for their powerful blades and high-powered motor to chop through most any food you throw inside.
If your blender advertises that it can crush ice and blend frozen ingredients easily, you should have no problems. While you may eventually experience issues with personal blenders like these, that will always be the case when you're using a motor-powered machine.
It's more about ensuring you're using the right blender to handle an ingredient like an ice cube before attempting to make smoothies or any other delicious drink.
Most Blenders Are Designed to be Able to Crush Frozen Ingredients
Here are a few other tricks to help break down that frozen fruit in your blender:
Frozen fruits can be damaging to the pitcher or blades in your blender. It's best to cut them into bite-sized pieces if possible.
When adding them to the blender, start with the smallest ingredients, such as diced pineapple, and finish with large ingredients like frozen strawberries.
That makes it easier on you because you won't have to move things around with a spatula if they get stuck on the blades. Sometimes, when you throw everything together haphazardly, the blades won't even start to rotate because the positioning prohibits their movement.
Also, despite the order, you could just be putting too many ingredients in the blender simultaneously. If you fill it to the top with frozen fruits and veggies, there won't be space for the contents to move around. It's better to use a mixture of fresh and frozen fruits for optimal results and a smoother texture.
Again, one of the main reasons your frozen fruit won't blend properly is that you didn't add enough liquid to the blender. You're risking jammed or bent blades if you're putting the equivalent of small rocks in a blender with no binding agent.
Consider getting a better blender with a more powerful motor and sharper blades if it seems like it's not standing up to a reasonable balance of frozen fruit and liquid.
A low-quality blender and frozen fruit is a recipe for disaster that could become costly if you continually buy new ones because they keep breaking.
Increase the Efficiency of Your Blender by Breaking Larger Ingredients Down Before Blending
Generally, a food processor performs many tasks related to food preparation. On the other hand, devices like the ninja blender will crush and blend dry and wet ingredients.
So, for example, most people want to use frozen fruit for fruit smoothies or to make a fruit sauce. In this case, the blender is to crush ice or puree fruit. You'd use a blender if your result is something to dip, drizzle, or drink.
Alternatively, aside from pureeing or crushing ingredients, a food processor can shred, slice, dice, grate, and do much more. Use the food processor when you can eat your final result with a spoon or fork.
You can add multiple liquids to make it easier for your blender to blend frozen fruit. Though it sounds counterintuitive, some of the choices won't add as much liquid as the others. Here's what we mean:
Water doesn't contain solids. Therefore, it's purely and wholly a liquid. Blending frozen fruit with water will give you a watery smoothie that might be lacking in thickness because the fruit will also thaw as you mix and continue once it reaches your cup in smoothie form.
Coconut water is perhaps closest to the viscosity of water, so you can also use it a lot as you would water. However, coconut water has additional minerals and is a better choice nutritionally. Lastly, coconut water has a subtle flavor and is full of electrolytes and minerals.
Of all the ingredients on the list, yogurt is the best, even though it's not very liquid. Adding yogurt to your batch of ingredients when making a fruit smoothie will help tremendously with the blending process when dealing with frozen fruit.
There can be a great deal of variability with nut milk. For example, a standard version, like almond milk, will have more liquid than cashew milk. Organic almond milk is a great choice, but be sure that it doesn't have additional chemicals or sugars.
Ice is an ingredient that you can add to the mix that often gets overlooked. Since it is solid, it won't work well when dealing with the blending process.
Although ice is a solid rather than a liquid, you can still use it to add a liquid element to a recipe. This is only helpful if you thaw your frozen fruit and forgo your normal liquids. Ice can be a viable option, adding more of a chilling element outside the frozen fruit.
Ice Can be Used Instead of Frozen Fruits
What to do if your blender won't blend frozen fruit and you've tried all the suggestions? Get a new one! Here's how to find the best smoothie blenders to break down that frozen fruit with ease:
Wattage is the best way to determine whether a blender is high-powered. Go for high wattage, as you can expect that the blender will be more powerful with more watts. That should also come with speed, making it easier to blend more challenging foods such as frozen ingredients and ice.
If you plan on using your blender differently, such as making multiple beverages and foods, you must look for blenders with various speed settings. A blender with built-in settings or a range of speeds gives you versatility and lets you create different textures.
If you are buying a blender to make fruit smoothies, for the most part, you should look for a blender with at least 600 watts. Also, make sure you can use your blender to crush ice and frozen fruit. Many blenders are incapable and will give you lumpy smoothies.
If you are looking for a budget-friendly blender, you shouldn't feel like you have to jeopardize quality for affordability. A blender that can stand up to the pressure of pulverizing and blending frozen fruit will be costlier because it will be made from high-quality, durable materials.
Having a blender with a higher capacity means that you can add more items to the device at one time. This is more so significant if you want to make a large batch instead of multiple smaller batches.
The best blenders for blending ice and frozen fruit will always have a powerful and strong blade, likely made from stainless steel. They're resilient and hard to break, even if you're constantly blending frozen fruit. You can save time and money by investing in a quality blender from the beginning.
