Before I committed to a vegan lifestyle, I used my blender sparingly―usually only to make smoothies. Once I embraced the plant-based movement, suddenly my blender became the most important and most used tool in my kitchen.
Since then, I’ve tested several blenders and have found a few that stand up to the heavy demands of plant-based living. Below, I’ve reviewed each of the best blenders for vegans so you can find the right one to fit your needs and budget.
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The Best Blenders for Vegans
Vegans don’t just use their blenders to make smoothies and protein shakes. They fill them with almonds and oil and expect them to produce perfectly creamy nut butter with minimal effort. To do that effectively week after week, a blender must be exceptionally powerful and quality made.
When I chose my list of the best five blenders for vegans, I kept both of these features in mind. I also looked for products with a range of functions―blenders that could handle making smoothies, cashew sauce, and everything in between. Lastly, I tried to find options in a range of prices to fit every budget.
Without further ado, here are the five best blenders for plant-based and vegan diets.
1. Vitamix 5200 Professional-Grade Blender
Thanks to products gifted to me by friends and blenders sent to me by companies looking for reviews, I have had the opportunity to try a lot of blenders in my life. But I have yet to find one that I like more or that works better for my needs than the Vitamix I got for my college graduation present over a decade ago.
There’s a reason this brand is one of the first that comes to mind when anyone mentions blenders. Vitamix has built a reputation for building very powerful, capable, and durable machines. I’ve put all three of these aspects to the test over the years and found that each holds up without exception.
I’ve made nut butters from unsoaked almonds and created my own powdered veggie mix by blending hard veggies and greens with almost no water and then dehydrating the resulting paste. Multiple times over the last ten-plus years, I’ve run the motor to the point of overheating. And never once has it failed to turn back on for me after a brief rest period.
I have thrown a lot at this beast, and it has yet to let me down.
The Vitamix 5200 is the newest version of my older model but retains all the same great features. It doesn’t have as many buttons or fancy screens as others on this list, but that’s honestly one reason I love it. The fewer dials and settings, the less likely a machine is to break down on you.
Now, this does mean you will have to work a little harder to find the right setting for different needs. This blender doesn’t have an ice setting or a pulse function, but it can certainly chop up ice and dice your veggies and even pulverize seeds if you get creative.
But most importantly, the Vitamix 5200 has the power to make creamy vegan sauces, nut butters, and ice cream with little effort. Plus, it can self-clean with a little hot water and soap and comes with an amazing 7-year warranty.
Any Vitamix product will cost you a fair amount of money, but considering what it can do and what kind of abuse it can take, this blender is well worth it.
2. Breville BBL920BSS Super Q Countertop Blender
If you want the power Vitamix offers but like something with more functionality, the Breville Super Q is an exceptional choice.
Like our top choice, this blender can make creamy smoothies and nut butters, grind almonds and cashews into tasty vegan milks, and turn cold veggies and broth into steaming soup. But with this option, you don’t have to mess around with the dials to find the right setting for each project.
The sleek control panel features one-press settings for smoothies, green smoothies, frozen desserts, and soups. The manual settings include 12 different speeds and a pulse/ice crush mode.
This blender comes in with a whopping 1,800 watts of power and is impressively quiet considering that. It also carries a 12-year warranty which speaks to this blender’s durability. Plus, it comes with a handy to-go cup that also fits onto the blender, leaving you with fewer dishes as you rush out the door in the morning.
The only thing I found disappointing about the Breville? Sometimes the auto-features don’t live up to your expectations. The one-push smoothie buttons work well if you put in the exact right ratio of liquid to frozen chunks, but if this is off by even a little, you’ll end up with a chunky mess. Often, I found myself reverting to the manual settings anyway.
Because you pay a premium for those extra settings, it’s extra disappointing when you have to revert to manual mode. But, for most people, I believe the Breville will rarely disappoint and is certainly worth considering if a top-of-the-line, multi-function blender is what you’re looking for.
3. Ninja BN701 Professional Plus Blender with Auto-iQ
If you’re after a dependable blender that can do everything your vegan diet requires but don’t have the budget for a Vitamix, the Ninja Professional Blender is worth a look.
This bargain blender comes with a budget-friendly price tag without sacrificing a lot of features. It has one-press functionality for smoothies and ice cream and an ice crush mode. The manual settings are restricted to low, medium, and high, but these work well enough for most jobs.
The Ninja only comes with a 1,400 wattage rating, but what it lacks in power, it makes up for in blades. This blender is unique in that it has not just one blade at the bottom of the carafe, but tiered blades that sit at intervals from the bottom to the top. These blades not only chop more efficiently in less time, but they also help keep the contents moving for a smoother finish.
It may take a little more effort to complete some tasks with this blender, but it will do everything you need. It can make nut butters, milks, and all kinds of delicious vegan sauces. And with the auto-mode, you can create tasty vegan ice cream with hardly any effort.
Do expect this blender to take more time to clean and maintain than others on this list. Also, note that it only comes with a 1-year warranty and will not stand up to the same abuse as our top choices. But for a budget-friendly blender, the Ninja is more than capable of meeting the demands of a vegan diet.
4. OMMO 1800w Professional Countertop Blender with Built-in Timer
Looking for a lot of power at a lower price? The OMMO blender offers 1,800 watts of power for about a quarter the price of the Breville.
Most of what you are paying for with this blender is that powerful motor. It can easily pulverize nuts into butters and create silky-smooth sauces and smoothies. You may need a touch more liquid than you would with our top choices, due to the less effective blades, but if you’ve never had a better blender, you probably won’t even notice this difference.
With so much emphasis put on the motor, you should expect some pitfalls in the rest of the design. The carafe is on the thinner side and the lid design is not my favorite, but the sleek control panel makes up for these shortcomings.
It has 8 auto-set modes including a timer function, which is especially handy when making hot soups and other tasks that take a while. It also has a turn-knob with variable speeds and a pulse function. Unfortunately, setting these functions is not as intuitive as it looks and most require a lot of button pressing to get to.
Still, for the price and the power, the OMMO is worth considering. It will not last as long as others if you plan to abuse it by making a lot of nut butters and vegan ice cream, but it will get the job done for as long as the motor holds up.
5. NutriBullet ZNBF30500Z 1200 Watt Blender Combo
Not all vegans go all-in on making their own nut butters and milks, and that’s fine. If your main reason for getting a new blender is to make nutritious green smoothies and tasty vegan sauces, then the NutriBullet is a good option.
At 1,200 watts, it doesn’t have the power to grind nuts or work through low-liquid condiments, but it can make a mean smoothie.
This blender also features a wider carafe, which allows for equally effective blending of small volumes and larger volumes of liquid. It’s perfect for that individual morning protein shake or for mixing up a family-sized batch of homemade spaghetti sauce.
The control panel is fairly simplistic and features only five buttons: low, medium, high, extract, and pulse. For more complex dishes, it’s nice to have a variable speed knob, but for straightforward dishes, these functions work well enough.
This set also comes with two to-go cups which attach to their own mini blade for hassle-free morning smoothie prep.
The NutriBullet comes with a limited 1-year warranty and isn’t likely to last you an entire decade, especially if you expect to use it for heavier-duty meal prep. But it’s a nice option for less intensive vegan cooking and a great match for those with lower budgets.
Expert Advice: What to Look for in a Blender
As you can see from the above choices, there’s a lot of variability in the style, functionality, and power ratings of different blenders. To help you understand all the different choices out there, we put together this quick buyer’s guide.
Below are the many different options available in the blender world and how each affects a product’s ability to be a good blender for plant-based eating.
Power
The best indication of a blender’s power is in its wattage rating. This number can vary widely from product to product with some having wattages as low as 150 and some as high as 1,800.
For a vegan blender, you’ll want to look on the higher end. Anything over 1,400 watts should be able to make nut butters and grind nuts and seeds into powders. If you get a product with a lower power rating, you’ll be more limited in what you can use it for.
Materials
The bulk of blenders out there today are going to be made of plastic. Normally we try to shy away from this material because it isn’t as durable and isn’t great for the planet. But when you’re dealing with big, powerful blenders, weight quickly becomes a factor.
If you plan to set your blender on the counter and never move it, then you may want to look for the glass carafe option―something many of the above brands offer as a separate purchase. But if you plan on moving your unit from the cupboard to the counter and back, you may have to settle for plastic. It’s lighter and less likely to be damaged from a fall.
Functionality
The most basic blenders offer low, medium, and high blending settings. More advanced variable units will have a dial to allow you to adjust the speed to the perfect setting for the task at hand. And really advanced setups will include auto settings like “ice cream” and “smoothie.”
For making vegan dishes, I find the variable speed knob more useful than any auto setting. This knob also allows you to manually pulse things like ice and nuts and then quickly move to a higher maintained speed to really pulverize the contents. If the unit you’re looking at doesn’t have a speed dial, it should at least have a pulse button.
Warranty
Warranties are often a sign of how well a product is made. Companies that give long warranty periods are more confident that their product will hold up to normal abuse than companies that only offer the obligatory 1-year-limited.
With lower-priced units, you should expect a short warranty period. But for more expensive products, you’ll want to make sure it comes with a long, comprehensive warranty. Otherwise, you could be doling out that much cash again in a few years to replace a machine that you expected to last a decade.
Cleaning
Cleaning sharp blades in tight spaces is not something anyone wants to deal with, especially when what you’re cleaning is sticky almond butter. Products that have powerful motors are generally capable of cleaning themselves. For these, all you need is some warm water, a drop of soap, and to leave them running on high for 30 to 60 seconds.
Less powerful units will need to be cleaned manually. Look for a product that is dishwasher safe to help reduce your cleaning burden.
What Will You Use it For?
The most important thing to consider when shopping for a new blender is what you intend to use it for. Each task below requires an increasingly more powerful unit. If you want to tackle them all, you better opt for a more expensive, high-powered blender.
Smoothies
If a blender can’t make a smoothie, can you even call it a blender? While this is the most basic task and one that doesn’t require a ton of horsepower, do keep in mind that more powerful blenders will deliver smoother, more uniformly blended smoothies in less time with less work.
Condiments
Most people don’t make their own condiments, but if you’re a vegan living far away from a health food store, you may have to. Most homemade vegan condiments are thin and viscous and easy enough for any blender to handle. But some require blending nuts, which will take a little more power.
Sauces
Vegan sauces are another place where you will find yourself blending nuts, specifically cashews, an awful lot. For less powerful blenders, you will need to soak the cashews first in order to get a smooth sauce. But with more powerful units there is no reason to plan ahead; they’ll be able to handle fresh cashews with ease.
Nut Milk
Blending nuts into a smooth sauce is one thing, but can your new blender pulverize almonds suspended in water to extract all the flavor inside? You need a powerful blender capable of balanced, thorough blending to accomplish this. You’ll have to spend a little extra money, but you’ll be rewarded with years of delicious homemade nut milk.
Ice Cream
Vegan ice cream doesn’t seem like something that would take a lot of power to make, but in order to get the right texture, you need a high frozen fruit to liquid ratio. A powerful motor is necessary to crush all that frozen food into fine particles to make an ice-cream-like texture without melting the fruit first.
Hot Soups
Another fun trick of uber-powerful blenders is the ability to heat soups right in the carafe. This only works if the blades spin at a fast enough speed to create friction, which will, in turn, heat the liquid up. You can still make soups with less powerful blenders, but you’ll have to heat them on the stove or in the microwave after you’ve finished blending them.
Nut Butters
In my opinion, the ability to make good nut butters is what defines a “vegan” blender. The less additional oil you have to add to your nut mix to get it to blend into a smooth butter, the better it will taste and the better for you it will be. Only the most powerful blenders can accomplish this.
FAQ
Which Vitamix is best for vegans?
The best Vitamix for vegans is the Vitamix 5200 Professional-Grade Blender. This celebrated blender features a simplified interface and a powerful motor that can create nut butter, plant-based milk, and vegan sauces with ease.
What is the best blender for oat milk?
The best blender for creating homemade oat milk, in my opinion, is the Vitamix 5200. For a less expensive option, the Ninja Professional Plus Blender is a great, budget-friendly choice that also has the power to make creamy oat milk right at home.
What is the best alternative to Vitamix?
One of the best alternatives to Vitamix is the Breville Super Q Countertop Blender. This one comes with a higher price tag but also has more features and functionality. For a cheaper option that compares well to both, I recommend the OMMO 1800w Professional Countertop Blender.
Our Favorite Blender Recipes
Once you have your new blender, the fun begins. Here are some of our favorite vegan blender recipes:
- Ultimate Vegan Breakfast Smoothie – This smoothie is packed with nutrition and works as a versatile smoothie base that can be added to in order to suit your tastes.
- Creamy Vegan Asparagus Pasta – This creamy yet healthy pasta features a simple asparagus-based sauce blended to smooth perfection.
- Strawberry Daiquiris – The perfect way to end a hot summer day.
- Carrot Ginger Dressing – An Asian-inspired zesty dressing that’s perfect for salads, wraps, and more.
- Simple Vegan Mayo – This mayonnaise is egg-free and tastes so much better than store-bought.
- Homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing – The perfect dressing for any sweet greens salad and a great way to welcome summer.
What’s the Best Blender for Vegans?
In order to accomplish all the many tasks needed for preparing delicious homemade vegan meals, you need a blender that is as powerful as it is durable. The Vitamix 5200 embodies both of those qualities perfectly and does so with a simple, functional control panel with unlimited potential.
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And if you have any questions about the blenders recommended above or comments about these brands and others, please share with us by posting in the comments section, below.
