After you use your blender, simply fill it with water and a drop or two of dish soap, cover the blender with the lid and tamp, then turn it on medium-high speed. The blades will swish the soapy water around, effectively cleaning the sides of the blender and each blade.
When I tell people how much I love my blender, I’m often met with groans. While some people don’t feel like pulling the appliance out in the first place, the biggest complaint I hear is that blenders are just too annoying to clean. You have to get the sides, the spout, and deep into the nooks and crannies around the blade without cutting yourself, then take care of the tamp and lid. You could chuck the jar of the blender and the other parts into the dishwasher, but that doesn’t always remove caked-on residue—and if you use the dry setting on your dishwasher, you risk fusing the gunk to the blender even more firmly. Luckily, there’s an easy, foolproof way to clean your blender thoroughly—and it involves zero scrubbing.
Like many home cooks, I used to scrub my blender by hand. When I cooked professionally, though, one of my colleagues showed me a simple way to clean a blender out: After you use it, simply fill it with water and a drop or two of dish soap, cover the blender with the lid and tamp, then turn it on medium-high speed. It’s like a dish soap smoothie: The blades will swish the soapy water around, effectively cleaning the sides of the blender and each blade. Once you’re done, simply rinse your blender with clean water, then let it dry—no scrubbing required.
Keep in mind that this works best immediately after you’ve used the blender; if you let the remnants of a smoothie, batter, or soup sit for too long, it will inevitably dry up, making the blender more challenging to clean. Yes, it’s a simple tip, but if you’re still cleaning your blender the old-fashioned way, it’ll save you time and frustration. This trick makes blender cleaning so easy that I don’t think twice about making a peanut butter–banana smoothie on a busy morning or gazpacho for a weeknight dinner.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez
