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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHi, everyone. I’m making do now with a PowerPro II Food Processor, which is basically just a big blender I guess and my smoothies, no matter how finely I cut the food before hand or de-vein the kale or what-have-you—are coming out pretty darn chunky. Any ideas?
If I leave my glass on the counter, the vegetable matter separates from the liquid, so things re obviously not mixing properly.
Maybe use Ice? Right now I only use liquid water.
Thanks!
BTW: I seem to spend too much time de-veining my kale. Do most of you just pull the leaves off the main stalk (stem?) and that’s it?
Comments
i just rip the leaves off and juice the stems… (hands are my favorite utencil since going raw)
i’m assuming you use fruit, right? i do the fruit and water first (so there is a nice soupy base) and them add the greens in very gradually.
you might have to get a better blender though. or switch to a wimpier green like spinach.
This might be a pain, but strain your drink through a strainer (nut bag, paint strainer, etc.) then put the unsmooth stuff back in the food process and process again to see if it will be smoother.
Or, when you are processing to begin with, slowly add fruits and veggies in while processing. Then slowly add the water while processing rather than adding the water all at once. This gives the machine a more “compact” material to process before it gets liquidy…
get a vitamix.they are the best blenders ever. I don’t have to do anything to my kale. I just throw everything in and crank it up. If you can’t get one, then bluedolfin had some pretty good ideas…I can’t think of anything else.
Go with superkat. Whether or not the vita-mix is the best choice for you smoothies (which it will be) it is great for making alot of different things, like nut butters, nut milks, juices, everything you can imagine. I make my sunrise smoothie by bledning frozen strawberries and mangos with a little grape juice and the whole thing is pureed into a smoothie within 3-5 seconds. Yeah, it’s expensive, but you’ll be glad that you got it if you do get it.
Vitamix blenders are sure powerful, but they heat up too quickly for me. I have the basic 4500, w/o the variable speed. I’m sure the 5000, with the variable speed function, doesn’t heat up as quickly.
If you want to save money, go for the Braun Powermax 2550. It’s only $50, and it’s pretty powerful. Rated #1 by Consumer Reports. It tested #1 for smoothies, even above the Vitamix 5000! Not quite as powerful as the Vitamix, but it does a great job, nonetheless.
I should really qualify my comments about the Vitamix. I don’t want to put it down too much. It is really great for dense mixtures. It saved me on Saturday night when I made a chocolate pie!
For those of you who have the Vitamix 5000, maybe you could chime in on your experiences. Thanks!
Yeah, mine’s a 5000. I heard it was expensive, though I am not sure how expensive. It doesn’t really matter ,though, because it’s a great investment. It works awesomely. You don’t have to chop everything into tiny little peices or whatever(unless you want to lol). And if stuff gets stuck in there, it comes with a plunger to keep things moving. I love it. It blends frozen fruit without leaving chunks(or it just leaves like, one) and it blends up my greens(parsley,celery,dandelion,kale, oh and beets too though you have to chop them up a bit) perfectly and super quick. And like rawclaire said, you can do anything with it. If you are going raw, it is one of the best machines you can have.
The reason why your food processor cannot make a good smoothie is because of the blades. The blades of a food processor are sharp and are meant to cut the food. The blades of blenders are not sharp. The edge is actually flat so when the blade is spinning at a high RPM, it actually pulverizes any food it comes in contact with, instead of cutting it into smaller pieces like a food processor. A food processor will never make a good smoothie, because that is not what it was designed for.
Thanks, J. I can buy separate blades—er, pulverizers for this thing. Maybe it’s worth the extra ten bucks.