Just the thing for puréeing a soup or knocking up a smoothie, hand-held blenders have advantages over traditional benchtop styles. They're convenient, cleaning is easier and they take up less room in your cupboard. They're much cheaper, too. All stick blenders can blend or puree soft foods and some also have attachments to chop, grind and process hard foods. Benchtop blenders are the workhorses of the kitchen – for our test we pureed soup, crushed ice and chopped carrots. We've recently added two new tests – making a green smoothie and blending kale. This means you can’t directly compare our latest test results with our previously tested models. Benchtop blenders come with a jug, useful for whizzing up smoothies and drinks. They can tackle heavy-duty tasks such as crushing ice or frozen fruit. "Super" blenders can do more than a regular benchtop blender – they can process raw ingredients into a hot soup, process nuts and seeds into a paste, make sorbet from frozen fruit, and mill grain into flour.

Our tests for super blenders included making nut butter, sorbet from frozen fruit, and dough. Compare all types of blenders we've tested Which blender for the job? For crushing ice or frozen berries, a benchtop is the best bet. But a hand-held may do the trick if you're mainly pureeing soft foods or chopping vegetables. With a hand-held you can put the blender directly into your soup pot and puree the cooked ingredients. vitamix 5200 blender 220vIf you go for a model with a processing attachment you can also chop, grind and process hard foods – great for making curry pastes and chopping nuts.cuisinart powerblend 600 reviews The best benchtop blenders in our test could easily crush ice (but not all could do this satisfactorily). vitamix 5200 costco australia

And all the benchtop blenders did an excellent job of pureeing soup – although they're not as convenient as a hand-held: you need to wait until the soup has cooled before transferring it to the blender jug and then you have to put the soup back into the pot to reheat it. The super blenders were excellent at making nut butter and sorbet but didn’t do a good job making dough. breville kinetix blender myerWe think you’re better off making bread or pizza dough by hand or with a benchtop mixer.kitchenaid stand mixer kp26m1xpm If you're choosing a new benchtop blender, here's what to look for.cuisinart csb-77 hand blender smart stick parts You want a lightweight and stable jug that's easy to lift, comfortable to hold and stays firmly on the bench.nutone in counter blender parts

Check the lid is easy to remove – the suction on some lids can make them tricky to remove. Sealed controls help keep food out of crevices. A good-sized chute helps add ingredients without spills while the blender is on. Cleaning is easier when the blender has a removable blade. If you're thinking about buying a hand-held blender, here's what to consider. Comfort: The blender should be easy to hold – so try out the grip to make sure it fits your hand. A non-slip grip makes it less likely the blender will slip from your grasp. Controls: These should be large, easy to operate and clearly labelled. The on/off button should be within easy reach. A seal over the controls will stop food from getting in. Cleaning: The motor unit mustn't be placed in water – so look for a blender with a detachable blade or shaft. Dishwasher-safe attachments make cleaning even easier. Safety: The blender should have a stop-release mechanism so that it will stop whenever you take your finger off the control button.

Blade guard: There should also be a guard around the blade to prevent accidental contact - but you need to take care because the guards could damage bowls and saucepans. A pan guard prevents this scratching. Some models have extra features Whisk – for whipping cream and beating eggs. Processor – good for chopping raw vegetables or grinding nuts (but only small amounts at a time). It's a separate unit similar to a small food processor. A rubber base on the attachment will provide stability while you're using it. Pulse – useful for small quantities of dry food. Activating the pulse button gives you short bursts of power that help to distribute the load and ensure the food is uniformly chopped. Wall mount – for easy and accessible storage. A jug is useful for blending. The Top Brand award recognises brands that perform consistently well across product testing, reliability and customer satisfaction. We have awarded Breville our 2016 Top Brand award for blenders.

It had the best test performance backed up with good reliability and owner satisfaction. We received information on 1927 blenders in our 2016 appliance reliability survey. To see which brands are trustiest, become a paying Consumer member or log in. How about a single-serve blender? We've tested 11 single-serve blenders, including the NutriBullet 600W and 900W. How about a food processor? A food processor can chop, slice, grate, blend, puree, mix and knead - and they're great for bulk food preparation. We've tested 19 models. We’ve had a quick try of these blending and processing gadgets. First Look: NutriBullet RX 1700 First Look: Nutri Ninja First Look: Kambrook Blitz2Go First Look: Vitamix blender First Look: Sunbeam Slice + Ice Check out more of our tests, articles, news and surveys in our Appliances section. Blades don’t lock in place Justifying the space in a kitchen for a blender and food processor can be tricky.

Fortunately, the Compact Kitchen System has both areas covered, acting as a smoothie machine and a general kitchen helper in one.As well as the Auto-iQ "intelligent" blending function that features on the standard Nutri Ninja machine, it also has a Smooth Boost button, for creamier results, and pre-programmed speeds and settings to help it make dough, cake batters, pastry, purees, dips and sauces.A panel of clearly labelled buttons on the front of the Compact Kitchen System leaves you in no doubt that this machine is all about function. It’s finished in no-nonsense black and silver, but fortunately, its diminutive size helps to offset the overall heavy-duty effect.Design hasn’t been completely overlooked, however, since there are some helpful features. Handles at the base of the machine remove the temptation to pick it up incorrectly.As well as two cups for smoothies and the Pro Extractor blade unit for blitzing them, it has a processor bowl with two attachments. There's a chopping blade with four knives protruding from it – so sharp they sliced a cloth when it was gently hand-washed – and a dough blade for kneading and mixing.

Neither lock into the bowl, which is something to be aware of when pouring out the contents.Each button on the front of the base unit corresponds to a particular function or programme (all of which can be paused). There’s Start/Stop, a manual setting that runs at high speed for 60 seconds and will stop any programme, Pulse, Smooth Boost, and a setting for creamier results (which is the default for the Auto-iQ Extract and Blend programmes).You'll also find Low for 30 seconds of slow mixing, Auto-iQ Extract for blending leafy or hard fruits and vegetables, Auto-iQ Blend for softer foods and milkshakes, and Auto-iQ Chop, a programme of pulses and pauses for ingredient prep and ground meat.While there are recipes provided with the machine, they’re mostly focused on making smoothies and drinks, with only a handful provided for the food processor element.We started by making a Power Ball smoothie using the Auto-iQ Blend programme with Smooth Boost activated. This combined banana, coconut milk, cocoa powder and blueberries – a fruit that’s often difficult to completely blend in smoothies.

After the programmed blending time had elapsed, the smoothie was of a noticeably creamy, consistent texture. There were only a few particles of blueberry skin remaining, which was impressive. It’s quite noisy during operation, however, so some recipes may be better prepared the night before.Next, we tried a recipe with more fibrous ingredients: Ginger Pear Defense. This included pear, fresh ginger, honey, lemon juice and water. Using the Auto-iQ Extract programme, it blended and paused for around 45 seconds to leave a frothy liquid with a relatively smooth consistency. The pear – which can often be gritty – was thoroughly blended, but there was some fine sediment in the drink. Left for a few minutes, this separated out.Swapping the cups for the food processor bowl and dough blade, we attempted pizza dough. Unfortunately, this recipe wasn't suitable for the capacity of the bowl – the flour required for it alone filled the bowl past the maximum mark.Once the required liquid was added and the lid put on, this caused the contents to overflow onto the worktop.

Using the Low setting for 30 seconds the machine struggled, even when some of the contents had been removed. The dough wasn’t properly mixed and required a second mix using Low, plus some kneading by hand afterwards. The dough rose well, but once baked the pizza base was heavy and thick.We finished by using the chopping blade to dice leeks using Auto-iQ Chop. This programme worked incredibly well, delivering evenly chopped vegetables in a matter of seconds.All the parts could be popped into the dishwasher, making clean-up straightforward. However, washing the chopping blade by hand is hazardous since it's very sharp and awkward to wash safely. A dedicated cleaning brush would have been useful.While it will never completely fill the gap of a full-sized blender, the Compact Kitchen System is a workable compromise. It brings a lot to the table – but there are shortcomings in terms of capacity and capability, and it’s a shame that adjustment is required for a basic recipe, such as pizza dough.