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Breville Q Blender and Vac Q Attachment Review {Carrot, Apple, and Ginger Soup Recipe}

A good blender is the workhorse of any kitchen. We use ours all the time to make healthy smoothies, dips, salad dressing, mayonnaise, soups, and hummus, so a quality blender is a must. It needs to have enough power to crush ice and frozen fruit, and it has to be easy to clean. After a month of daily use, I can say that Breville’s Q Blender checks off all the boxes.

The Breville Q is a commercial-grade blender especially designed for the home kitchen. Its heavy-duty, powerful 1800 Watt motor sends its four stainless steel blades whirling around at speeds up to an impressive 186 miles (300 kilometers) per hour. Yeah, this is a powerhouse. Smoothies are done in a jiffy, soups are silky smooth in no time, and frozen margaritas are made in a minute!

The box comes with the blender, a heavy-duty 68 ounce jug, tamper, and instruction booklet. I would have liked to see a recipe book in there as well, but unfortunately this blender doesn’t come with one.

The Q Blender has 5 speed settings from the slowest Mix setting (for folding ingredients together), through Chop, Blend, and Puree, to the fastest Mill setting (ideal for making flour or nut milk). It also has five exceedingly useful one-touch programs:

  1. Auto Pulse (Ice Crush) – Continuous pulsing to chop ingredients into an even consistency or crush ice. It’s margarita time! (60 seconds)
  2. Smoothie – A combination of speed and pulses to blend and aerate ingredients into a smooth, creamy smoothie. Whole frozen strawberries are pureed and creamy in less than a minute. (45 seconds)
  3. Green Smoothie – Green smoothies tend to have lots of leafy, fibrous ingredients, and this high speed setting helps break down those fibers for a smooth texture. (50 seconds)
  4. Soup (Cold to Hot) – This one-touch cycle uses high speeds to blend room temperature ingredients and heat them via friction into steaming hot soup. (5:35)
  5. Clean – Add soap and water and push this button to auto clean the blades, jug, and lid. (60 seconds)

We love smoothies! That’s what we use our blender the most for. I just throw in some frozen berries, a banana, a splash of pineapple or guava juice, and some coconut milk. The smoothie auto setting lets me continue putting together school lunches while it does its own thing, automatically making smooth, creamy smoothies for breakfast without the tiniest frozen bits left unblended.

The Q Blender is compatible with Breville’s Vaq Q Vacuum attachment (sold separately), and if you’re a smoothie family like we are, it’s a great addition to this blender. This little device fits in the middle of the blender’s lid and uses a vacuum pump to remove all the air from the jug before blending.

The vacuum stops air bubbles from building and reducing oxidation resulting in smoother textures, brighter colours, and richer flavours. Yes, you can tell the difference! Blueberry smoothies made with the Vac Q keep their bright colour, and the fruit flavours seem to pop more. Once done, don’t forget to press the button to let the air back in or you’ll never get the lid off again.

The Vac Q attachment works great for fruit and green smoothies, pestos, dips, and soups, but I leave it in the cupboard when I’m making milkshakes, whipped cream, dough, or other recipes where I want those air bubbles.

The other awesome use for this blender is for soups. Now that the cold weather is here, I’ve been making soup more often and really appreciate the one-touch soup program that uses super high speeds to puree all the ingredients into piping hot and velvety smooth soup. The other day I made this delicious carrot, apple, and ginger soup. This healthy, hearty soup is simple enough to make on a weeknight and so warming on any winter night. The apple adds a little sweetness that the kids loved!

Carrot, Apple, and Ginger Soup

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger peeled
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 4 cups sliced carrots
  • 1 apple peeled and sliced
  • 1 cup coconut milk or cream

Instructions
 

  • Heat coconut oil over medium heat in large saucepan.
  • Saute onions until soft, then add ginger, garlic, and curry powder. Saute for 2 minutes.
  • Add carrots and vegetable broth. Cook over medium heat until carrots are soft, about 10 minutes.
  • Add apple slices and cook for another 3 minutes.
  • Transfer contents into blender, add coconut milk, and blend on high until smooth.

After making your smoothies and soups, clean up is a cinch with the 60-second auto clean cycle. Just give the jug and lid a quick rinse (no need to wipe, just get the bulk off), then add soap and water. The blender shoots soapy water up the wall of the jug and into the lid, getting everything clean without having to scrub the inside or the blades. Nice!

The versatile Breville Q Blender doesn’t disappoint! It really can handle everything you can throw in it, and since it comes with a pretty amazing 7-year limited product warranty, I expect this to keep on blending for a good long while. It does come with a hefty price tag of $599.99, but it’s not hard to find a much better price if you shop around.

Disclosure: I received a sample item to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ. This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

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