Knowing how much I love my Instant Pot, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I ordered their new Ace Blender the moment it hit stores. Like their famous pressure cooker, it’s a multi-tasking small appliance that can blend and actually cook your food at the same time!
This post is sponsored by Instant Pot
While some other blenders can cook food through friction, meaning that they blend for so long that the ingredients eventually heat up, the Ace Blender actually has a heating element to cook your food— so not everything that gets cooked has to have a perfectly smooth, pureed texture. (Though it can do that, too.)
What also excites me about the blender is that the pitcher is made of glass. So if you’ve been hesitant to put warm foods into a plastic blender container, like my daily vegan latte, this option is perfect for you. (The glass pitcher also means it’s heavier than most, so you get a bit of an arm workout at the same time.) The blender can even detect when the lid is not securely attached to the blender container and won’t start until it’s sealed, as a safety precaution.
Since the Ace Blender is relatively new to the market, I’ve been taking some time to play around with it to see what it can handle. If you’re wondering if it’s worth the investment, or have already bought one but aren’t sure how to get the most out of it, here are 7 things I think make the Ace Blender appealing.
1. It Makes Ultra-Smooth Smoothies
It’s hard to find an affordable blender that can break down tough ingredients like Medjool dates and chia seeds without leaving small chunks in your smoothie. One way I judge a blender is by making a smoothie with these challenging ingredients, like my Creamy Almond Butter & Spinach Smoothie. It can make any smoothie silky-smooth!
This Sweet Potato Smoothie, made with dates and crushed ice, also turns out perfectly in the Ace Blender. It is important when you’re making a smoothie like this one that you blend the liquid, dates, spinach, and seeds first, and then once that’s smooth, you can add in the ice and blend again until it’s thick like a milkshake.
2. It Makes Easy Non-Dairy Milk
Rice milk can be a pain to make at home, because there is usually a soaking or cooking process required before getting started. Not with the Ace Blender! Simply add raw rice and water, then press the “rice milk” button for a hands-off process that takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
The Ace Blender heats and blends the rice milk, so you don’t have to dirty an extra pot before getting started. It’s so silky smooth that you won’t have to strain any remaining pulp out when it’s done, either! (That’s not the case with almond milk, however, which you do need to still strain.) There’s a setting for making soy milk and one for nut/oat milks, as well.
3. It Can Cook & Blend Sauces All at Once
If you love making homemade spaghetti sauce or healthy cauliflower Alfredo, the Ace Blender can help make that easier.
Once you’ve sauteed the aromatic ingredients for your recipe to help bring out their flavor, you can add the rest of your ingredients to the blender and press the “soup” button. The blender will take care of heating it up and blending it, all in the same pitcher! Because the Ace Blender has the heating element included, you get to decide how smooth or chunky you’d like the final result to be.
4. It Can Make Snacking Easier
Since the Ace Blender has the option of low-speed and pulse options, I can make some of my favorite healthy snacks in there, like my Zucchini Hummus and Spinach Muffins.
If you don’t have a food processor, you can even use the pulse function on the Ace Blender to make my favorite Date Energy Balls. A blender isn’t ideal for chopping up thick and sticky items like this usually, but I found that the pulse function does work in a pinch as long as I’m willing to stop often and scrape down the blender pitcher to keep the ingredients moving.
5. It Can Make Healthy Ice Cream
I usually make my favorite Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream in a mini food chopper, but I found that I can use the Ace Blender to make it even better. You can come up with all sorts of healthy creations, using any frozen fruit you like.
Since the Ace Blender comes with a tamper, you can use that to keep the ingredients moving without needing too much liquid– and that is key to getting a thicker, soft-serve consistency, rather than a smoothie.
6. It Cooks Soup
Several blenders can cook soup by blending for so long that the friction builds up and eventually heats the ingredients, but the Ace Blender is unique in the fact that it can cook soups without having to puree them. This means you could cook any type of soup that you like in your blender, with as much or as little texture as you like.
I made my Panera Black Bean Soup in it, and was able to puree it only enough to make it creamy, with plenty of chunks of beans and vegetables for some bite.
7. It Can Make Creamy Dips & Dressings
Most affordable blenders can’t turn cashews into a silky-smooth Vegan Ranch Dressing, but the Ace Blender can! I actually timed it, and within 1 minute and 30 seconds my cashews were totally pulverized, without soaking them ahead of time.
Things You Should Know About Using the Ace Blender
When using the Ace Blender, you should know that there is an 8 to 10 second delay after pushing any button on the blender before it will start the blending process. This is totally normal for this appliance, but it’s a surprise if you’re not ready for it.
If you like to get creative in the kitchen like I do, I think it’s also important to know which buttons use the heating element. There are 4 settings that use heat, and those are Purée, Soy Milk, Rice Milk, and Soup. I use the soup setting, when in doubt, for any cooking recipes that I want to make directly in the blender.
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I hope my experimenting with the Ace Blender will prove helpful for you if you’ve been considering it! For a machine at this price point, I’m very impressed with how smoothly it blends, and I’m totally in love with the glass container. As far as I know, this machine is only available at Walmart. (I bought mine online from them.)
Reader Feedback: Have you tried the Instant Pot Ace Blender yet? Let me know in the comments below what you’ve tried in it! We can all benefit from your experience.
Have you published a comparison of the Ace to the VitaMix?
Not yet, but I’ll try to do that in the future!
Hi Megan,
Could you please load some videos with the recipes above on YouTube?
Thanks!
Sure, I’ll add those to my to-do list! 🙂
The only downside I’ve seen is that you can’t immerse the whole removable portion. You can’t get the black part wet. It’s difficult to clean.
True, you can’t immerse the pitcher, but cleaning is as easy as filling with hot water to the 1400 mL mark, adding 2 drops of liquid dish soap and hitting the ‘clean’ button. When it’s finished, rinse with hot water and dry!
yes very easy to clean
I used mine for broccoli soup on the weekend. Added the ingredients and pressed the soup button twice for creamy. The soup turned out great, and was fun to watch, but it burnt to the bottom. I’m not overly impressed because it was super hard to clean. It cleans great for smoothies and other cold stuff so far.
Got a ace blender for Christmas.. love it..
Made soup for wife for lunch, tasted awesome.
1 pot is awesome feature.
Hi Megan,
I have owned a Vitamix, as well as the Instant Pot pressure cooker, for many years and love both!. I wanted a blender for my beach house, but didn’t want to spend another $400 on it, so I got the IP Ace. It makes equally smooth margaritas and other frozen, blended foods, and I really like the heating element for the cooked foods. The Vitamix uses friction so the blender has to run constantly to heat up the food, and that is very noisy for a long period of time. I highly recommend it to anyone needing a blender. Like the IP, it is a well made, versatile kitchen tool.
I love my IP blender! Oat milk comes out great and I love making soup. One hint: carrots do not get as I would like. Now I keep cans of diced carrots that I can throw in if I want to make soup on a moment’s notice.
Great introduction to the Ace blender, I was just wondering which setting you use for that Cauliflower Alfredo?
Just received mine from Walmart. Trying to find experienced home cooks that know what they are doing with it by now.
Just received my Instant PotBlender. Setup was very quick and easy! Made a smoothie with half/half, 2 frozen bananas and 2 fresh bananas, wedge of lemon, and small clementine. Pushed smoothie button and it was done in90 seconds! Tasted smooth and delicious.
Received for Christmas. 1st thought ” what am I going to do with this” well actually it is now the only appliance that sits on my counter top.
You can adapt all sorts of receipies to work in it. Be creative & it is fun to watch do its work 🙂
Just got my insta ace for my b day yesterday and made cream of mushroom soup in her today. Just sautéed the mushys and tossed em in. Set to soup it up, mode dos and velvety mouthwatering bliss Was delivered in a short time. Fanfare. Applause. Etc.
Just bought the Instant Ace Nova blender. It struggled towards the end to finish blending the chickpeas for my hummus; not sure why. Is it possible to add a note at the bottom of your recipes on steps to take if using the blender? I prefer your delicious food over what comes out from America’s Test Kitchen, the creators of the recipes for this blender.
Can you make scrambled eggs in the ace blender?
I’ve just bought mine and it is amazing! Cant wait to try all of your suggestions! Well, as soon as my butternut squash soup is done 😉
I have used this blender and it’s an awesome blending machine I have ever used! 🙂
FYI ~ I bought mine from Macy’s online
I have made the broccoli cheddar soup. I love it.. I will try the loaded potato soup next.
Thank you for sharing information on the IP Ace Blender. I really love using it to make smoothies and Soups. I have not found a lot of different recipes for the blender. For a couple of years I’ve search for recipes to try. Only a handful of soups. It’s like it doesn’t exist. I love my Instant pot. Most used appliance, except for my air fryer lol. Do you have more recipes for the Ace Blender? Thank you again!!!
I am on my second IP Ace blender. I foolishly overloaded it making a smoothie and it would leak from the bottom after that, so be careful not to overfill with frozen fruit! But I use it for all kinds of soups, I make my own fruit purees for yogurt, nut milks, and dressings! It is one of my favorite appliances in my kitchen. The 2nd blender I bought is a bit different, they have improved some things about it, and like a reader below I’ve noticed this one does occasionally burn on the bottom. I just use a bit of Barkeepers Friend and scrub it with the included scrub brush. Not sure why this one burns and the other one didn’t, but it’s not something to keep me from continuing to use or recommend it. Makes life things very easy!!