How to use your Vitamix for food processing (Blendtec vs Vitamix)

Not all kitchens are spacious, and when you’re dealing with space issues then a food processor can really get in the way. Most of the time you’ll end up putting your food processor in the cabinet where it will Rest In Peace for many days until one day you need to chop some vegetables for a dinner party.

• Big appliances take up a lot of space in the kitchen and can be a pain, that’s why I am writing this article, to let you know that you don’t need all those appliances when you own a high power blender such as a Vitamix blender or a Blendtec blender.

• A high performance blender such as a Vitamix or Blendtec can be used as a food processor for chopping as well as a smoothie maker, ice cream maker, grain mill, food chopper, make quick dips, batters, and salsas. Lots of cool recipes, definitely a game changer to have one in the kitchen.

Wet chopping

How to use your Vitamix for Wet Chopping

Wet chopping is the best for quick raw salads, add the ingredients in with some arugula and mix it up. You can shred your tomatoes, red cabbage, onions, parsley, all in the Vitamix; here’s how..

• Add 3 to 4 cups of water into the Vitamix container, then add in all the ingredients you’d like to shred into tiny pieces, you can do them individually or add them all in at the same time.

• The ingredients will tend to float on top of the water, that’s perfect. Then using the pulse feature on the Vitamix blender you can shred the ingredients very quickly by quickly pressing the pulse feature and letting it go, giving you a short burst which suck down the vegetables through the water and shred them. Huge time saver.

• You’ll just need to pulsate the blend 3 or 5 times, don’t over pulse because you can quickly turn everything into a smoothie.

After you finish pulsating the ingredients, strain out the container and what you have left over are shredded tiny pieces which is perfect for a salad. This works great for RAW SALADS, specially using red cabbage.

How to use the Blendtec blender for wet chopping

• Blendtec also has the same type of pulse feature in the form of a button and you are able to do the same thing with Blendtec blenders, press the pulse button and quickly let go creating a short burst.

 

Vitamix chopping vs Blendtec chopping 

Blendtec Models featured in the Video above are the Blendtec Designer 725 and the Blendtec Classic 575 blender. The Vitamix blender models featured in the video above are the Vitamix G 750, the Vitamix classic 5200, and the Vitamix Personal Blender the S30. 

Comparing Vitamix blender models

Vitamix offers many types of blender models to choose from; we tested their three most popular blender models which all have different Vitamix Containers. The Vitamix container used on their classic blenders such as the Vitamix 5200 is a tall 64oz container with a narrow base and a 3 inch blade which is a little more difficult to reach into with your hand and harder to scoop ingredients out from under the blades. 

• The Vitamix container used on their Vitamix G 750 blender is called the Low Profile Container and has a wide base with a 4 thicker 4 inch blade which is much easier to reach in and around and scoop out ingredients from under the blades. 

The Vitamix S 30 personal blender has a small single serving container with a smaller blade design which proves to be more difficult for chopping. 

Results for food processing with Vitamix blenders

Vitamix Legacy G Series 750

The Vitamix Legacy G Series 750 Blender Model had fantastic results. The carrots and cabbage we’re shredded to a very crispy and evenly chopped consistency and the Vitamix G Series was easy to control and very responsive and had no troubles slicing through the tough hard vegetables.

Here are 4 reasons we liked the Vitamix G Series

• The Low Profile Vitamix Container has many advantages over other Vitamix Containers. It has a wide base which is easier to scoop out the remaining pieces of cabbage and carrots because you can reach under and around the blades easier; furthermore, the laser-cut stainless steel blade design is slightly thicker so there is less fear of cutting your fingers.
• The pulse feature on the G series Vitamix blender is located right on the front display
• The combination of the heavy duty G Series base along with the low profile container is a nice setup
• The vegetables we’re chopped nicely, leaving a crispy fresh cut raw salad. 

The G Series Vitamix 750 blender was our favorite choice for wet chopping. We think that the best blender for food processor replacement is the G series. The consistency of the food processed cabbage and carrots was perfect and evenly chopped.

Vitamix C Series 500

The Vitamix C Series 500 blender uses the old style tall Vitamix Container which has a sharper blade design. The disadvantages of using this container is that it is taller and harder to reach in and around the blades to scoop out the remaining pieces of cabbage and carrots. 

Using the controls on the Vitamix C Series was very effective, the pulse feature is responsive and you have a lot of control with the pulse.

You can fit the Low Profile Vitamix Container on any Legacy G Series blender model, any Ascent Series Vitamix blender, and any older style C Series Vitamix blender model so which every Vitamix blender model you have you can buy the Low Pro container for it. 

Both blender models are able to give you an evenly chopped salad and both containers are effective, but the tall container proves more difficult to use. 

Vitamix Personal Blender S Series S50

The sharp stainless steel blade design on the Vitamix personal blender are sharp and able to produce a good consistency for chopping, but, you will not be able to fit large vegetables and fruits into the small 40oz container. You will need to chop the vegetables and fruits into smaller pieces in order for them to reach the blades.

How to pulsate a blend with the Vitamix S series personal blenders

The s series is more limited on controls and it’s main feature is the speed dial where you control your speed, but yes it does have a way to pulsate the blend. If you push in on the speed dial it produces a short burst which is used for pulsing. 

3 Disadvantages and advantages for chopping

• A big disadvantage to the Vitamix S series personal blenders is that it is not compatible with any of the other Vitamix blenders, The S Series blenders are a separate machine all together from any of the other Vitamix blender models.
• One benefit of the Personal S Series Blender Models is the container unscrews at the bottom allowing you to get everything out from the bottom of the blades and container easily, 
• The consistency produced is similar to the other Vitamix blender models and YES, you can use it for chopping.

Comparing Blendtec blender models

Blendtec Designer 725

The Designer Blendtec Series comes equipped with the Bigger 90oz Wildside Jar which we didn’t like very much as a food processor. The blades are big dull 4 inch blades which left bigger leafy pieces behind in the blend. The consistency was not even and the cabbage and carrots felt sort of beat up and soggy compared to the Vitamix blenders.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Blendtec Designer

• As a food processor, the Blendtec design seems at a disadvantage because of it’s dull blades. The pieces it chops are bigger pieces and are not as well chopped. If this isn’t an issue for you then it works fine, but if you want a more evenly chopped blend with tiny pieces then the Designer Blendtec might not be able to do it.
• The Blendtec Wildside Jar is their biggest jar and works great for juicing and smoothies, but seems unable to produce small little pieces.
• The controls on the designer Blendtec blender 725 was very responsive and the fact that you can pulse at a certain speed was a nice feature.
• Once in Pulse Mode, the digital manual touch slider buttons allow you to hit the manual speeds for short bursts at any speed you’d like to pulse, this was very responsive and there was a difference in which the speed of the blades traveled depending on what speed you push. You can pulse at any speed on the Designer Blendtec blender models.
• The Designer Blendtec was more responsive to the touch then the Blendtec Classic blender model which was only able to pulse at one speed.

We would advise the Blendtec fourside jar for your food processing use of a blendtec blender, the consistency seems a little finer and more evenly chopped

Blendtec Classic 575

Blendtec original classic series blender models come with the standard 64oz Blendtec jar which did a better job as a food processor than the Blendtec designer. The vegetables we’re evenly chopped and had a finer feel as you put your fingers through them.

Advantages and Disadvantages to the Blendtec Classic blender

The Blendtec Classic Series blender consistency was comparable to the Vitamix C Series blender tall container, it was a very close call between the two, but none of the blender models could compare the the consistency which the Low Profile Vitamix container produced, that’s definitely the best container for chopping. 

The Blendtec classic pulse feature is on the right hand side of the digital interface which works well to give a short burst for chopping, but you only can pulse at a set speed and cannot change speeds for pulsating like on the designer. 

The ONE BIG BENEFIT to Blendtec blender jars is the TWO BLADE DESIGN, which allows you to easily scoop out the remaining cabbage and carrots left behind in the jar with ease. You can quickly get everything out from the jar with a spatula where the Vitamix Blenders 4 blade design proves more difficult to get ingredients out from under the blades. 

Blendtec vs Vitamix – The Pulse

Food Processing using a Vitamix

The Pulse feature allows for control and versatility over many blends. The power you have at your finger tips is incredible when using the pulse, and the more expensive the blender model you purchase the more extensive the controls will be.

The pulse feature on the Vitamix is a switch on the front interface of the blender base where you can flip it up or down to create a short burst.

It has an immediate reaction and gives you total control over how long you want the blade to spin. You can use the pulse feature for more than just chopping, it’s great for finishing off a smoothie or making a chunky soup. 

Vitamix blender models allow you to pulse at a select speed, simply turn the dial to what speed you want and flip the pulse switch. This is a more advanced feature that comes on the newer Ascent Series and G Series Vitamix blender models. 

Food Processing using a Blendtec

The Pulse feature on the Blendtec blenders are in the form of a button which you push, usually located on the right side of the digital interface for most blender models. It has a good responsive reaction time and runs for as long as you hold down the button. 

Pulse button features on Blendtec Models

• Hold the button down to allow the blades to keep spinning or let go and they will stop.  This allows you to control your blends or chop vegetables.
• Newer Blendtec Designer Series blender models allow you to pulse at select speeds, the way it works is you push the pulse button which puts the blender in pulse mode, then you press any speed on the slide touch speed dial to pulsate.  It is very effective and well engineered.

The Blendtec Designer and Blendtec Classic models differ a little on the pulse controls. The Designer allows you to set the speed which you want to pulsate at, which allows for pulsating at a slow speed or high speed where the Classic Series Blendtec models have a select speed for pulsing which is a mid-range speed.

• You don’t have the option on the Blendtec Classic blenders of selecting what speed you want to pulse, but none the less the Blendtec Classic is very responsive to the touch and works well .

Blendtec vs Vitamix blade designs

Vitamix blades seem to work slightly better for food processing than Blendtec blades because of the sharp design.

Vitamix sharp blades can finely slice through vegetables and produce a more even and slightly finer  consistency, as you can see in the video above, the Blendtec Wildside Jar had bigger chunkier pieces. 

Blendtec blades are thick and dull and can’t chop as finely as the Vitamix blender blades can, but they are still useful for chopping, but the consistency won’t be as fine and thinly chopped. 

One BIG BENEFIT TO BLENDTEC BLENDERS is that the TWO BLADE DESIGN makes it so much easier scooping out the chopped ingredients from the base of the container. 

In Conclusion,

Both of these blenders can be used for food processing to chop vegetables, we thought the consistency from the Vitamix Low Profile Container was the best and then the Vitamix Tall Container was second best and we also thought the Blendtec Standard Container did a good job, a little finer consistency than the bigger Blendtec Wildside Jar.  All and all these blenders are both fantastic and YES you can use them both for food processing. Thanks for reading, leave your comments below.