Blending raw veggies into a sauce BEFORE cooking

[Knobblybobbly]

Hello!
I want to use my new nutribullet (Mother’s Day gift) to make smooth sauces with hidden veggies. I want to blend them while raw, then cook after.

Is this a thing?

I guess the other option is to cook them first, let them cool right down, then blend. But that means reheating it to eat, say with pasta…. So essentially cooking twice.

What do you think?

Never done it that way, I fry first in butter/oil.
Does the mixture have to be cool before blending? What does the manual say?

I wouldn't, sauté the bass vegetables with seasoning to extract flavour. I can't think of the benefit of blending pre cook. I think it would be amazing way to prep smoothies, iced drinks etc though! Freeze it in an ice cube tray and use when needed. Could you do this with herbs, a little oil and maybe spinach or beetroot to create cool salad dressings.

Oooh yes good idea thank you. Ok will do it the proper way and sauté first.

I’ve found some lovely hummus and pesto type of recipes and think I’ll use it a lot of that alone!

And yes, smoothies galore. A banana will never go brown from now on! 😂

With my blendtec, not nutribullet, did this all the time for sauces.

It's just like using passata rather than whole or copied tomatoes in the sauce.

Although I did go overboard once and make a green 'Bolognese'! 😁

I feed my little one a blended diet and use a Nutribullet every day, when I am pureeing their food I just do it hot and then open the lid carefully when it's done.

Ah ok, so it’s more about the heat kind of exploding when you open rather than it damaging the machine?

Yes, that's what I find so I cover it with a cloth and then open slowly to release the pressure.

I used to blend veg when my son was refusing to eat any, when you cook it out it just melts further and you’d never know. Still do it now when I have my blender out, doesn’t hurt to sneak in extra veg at times.

Not so sure it's just about the heat as you remove the lid. I once had the lid pop off slightly and break the spinning mechanism in the base mid way through blending something. Could have been a coincidence but always leave things to cool now! Teach me not to be impatient!

Ok I’ll bear that in mind thank you.

I feel like, if it’s ok for pesto or…. Say… pasatta to be blended prior to cooking, there is a place for blending raw and cooking after.

im going to experiment and will report back what works and what doesn’t for me!

I grate carrot or celeriac to go into various recipes. They just dissolve down to a pulp in less than half an hour. Not everything needs to be sautéed. Liquidised before cooking should be fine. Liquidise whilst boiling hot can lead to some interesting explosions.

I often put carrot/celery/broccoli stalks in the food processor and blitz before adding to bolognese - they disappear during cooking so DC were eve aware of the large amount of veg they were eating.

That's a really good idea about the broccoli stalks! I could do the same with cauliflower stalks! I usually just chop them up and put them in the compost bin, so they're not wasted as such, but this is much better. Why didn't I think of it?!!!

There’s a Nigella recipe for lamb with beans in her feast book where the veg (carrots and onions plus garlic) are blended raw and then gently sautéed until translucent. Then the stock and beans are added. It’s a really nice dish, so can’t se why not.

I have a nutribullet and avoid blending things hot, such as soup, as I find it can build up a pressure. But if things are warm I've found it's ok, so if you have roasted or sautéed veggies, left them on the side for 10 minutes and are adding in a cool/room temp liquid to help blend then that's normally ok for me.

@dexterslockedintheshedagain - I also use the stalks and the green tops off leeks in the soup maker - had a lovely cauliflower and leek soup with a bit of pesto and garlic last week.

I always use a sofritto as a base when I make a tomato sauce. I just blend carrot, onion and celery - sometimes courgette or a pepper depending on what I'm making. Then just sauté the resulting mush (I puree rather than chop as I find it easier and no-one can tell there is veg in the sauce!)

But I use my food processor to chop the veg to a puree, I'm not sure a blender would do it. When I put anything hard in my blender it really doesn't like it.

When my DC were younger (and fussier), I used to make sauces by blending the veg first and they always came out beautifully. I blended onion, garlic, celery and carrot until it was mush, then sautéed the mush as I would do usually with chopped veg. Then added a squeeze of tomato purée followed by finely chopped tomatoes and then add water until it was the desired consistency. It worked well as a pasta or pizza sauce as it was, or a base for spag bol or chilli.

I usually cook veggies first, blend them, and then mix them into my sauces. This way, you get a smoother texture and can control the flavor better. If you’re worried about reheating, you could try blending the veggies raw and then cooking them into the sauce—just be mindful that some veggies might need longer to soften.

I recently made a sauce with a recipe I found for yum yum sauce. It’s delicious and really simple to blend up once you have your base ready. If you try blending raw veggies, just make sure they’re finely chopped to get the smoothest result.