The Hack That Makes Cleaning a Blender So Much Easier
It’s fast and safe — you don’t have to worry about sponging off sharp blender blades.
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How many of us have used a blender to make a morning smoothie, only to the leave the carafe on the counter all day long because cleaning it seemed too annoying? Although you could throw it in the dishwasher, extensive dishwasher use will deteriorate the sharpness of blades over time. The best way to clean your blender is even easier: turn it on and let the machine do the work.
Let me explain. First, fill the blender with hot water as soon as you empty the contents. In other words, don’t leave the carafe on the counter for hours and allow food bits to dry on the walls. Once you’ve filled it with hot sudsy water, the carafe can technically hang out all day if you’re pinched for time.
Once it is cleaning time, pour out the water, rinse out the carafe with fresh water, then fill it up halfway with hot water and a few squirts of dish soap. Now put the carafe back on the blender base and turn on the machine. Blend away to get rid of the food on the inside of the carafe and underneath the blades. Now dump out that soapy water and add warm, soapless water and blend one more time. Dump that out.
Inspect the cleanliness of your blender. What if you made a salad dressing and the inside of your carafe is still a bit oily? There’s an easy solution. Fill the blender halfway with warm water again and add about 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar or a few tablespoons of baking powder and blend again. And just like that, the thin film of oil will be gone.
To get rid of any stickiness on the outside of the blender, wipe it down with a soapy sponge. Then dry off the surface with a soft towel.
For deeper cleans, some blender carafes can be taken apart — unscrew the blades where they attach to the bottom of the pitcher. At this point, you can clean the carafe more effectively by hand with hot soapy water without worrying about getting cut by the blades. The blade, then, can be soaked in hot soapy water and carefully cleaned.
Hopefully now that you know how easy it is to clean the carafe, you’ll be whipping up smoothies, soups and salad dressings galore.
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