Use These Substitute Tools If You Don't Have An Immersion Blender

We've all seen TikTok videos of recipe creators making their favorite pasta sauce or smooth and creamery soup. And you may find yourself saying, "Man, I really want to make that." But alas, you don't have the one thing you need to make that sauce so smooth or that soup lumpless: an immersion blender. A key kitchen tool used to blend up roasted veggies into a delicious sauce or cream and sugar into fluffy whipped cream, the immersion blender has taken on a big role in the kitchen. Unfortunately, not everyone has this device in their kitchen and it can be a bit pricey to buy one yourself — especially if you're only using it for the one TikTok recipe you saw.

An immersion blender is a handheld blender that you put straight into your food rather than pouring your food into it, like a regular blender. It has the same use as a traditional blender, but the added convenience of being able to blend everything in the pot you cooked it in or the bowl you plan to serve the food in (via Kitchen Aid). This gives you more freedom to move the blender around, combining everything together carefully. But if you don't have an immersion blender, there are some tools that can serve as a substitute to do just the same.

While there is no substitute that can fully provide the convenience of an immersion blender, there are tools that will do the same exact job — just with a few more steps. A food processor is a great tool for getting the chunky soup you cooked to be nice and smooth, like tomato soup or split pea. Food processors come in different sizes but if you have a bigger size, it's a better tool to use for soups than a blender because it holds more (via How Stuff Works). You could also use a hand-held mixer for similar tasks that you would use an immersion blender for, like whipping cream or beating egg whites. Hand-held blenders may even add a little more fluff than the immersion blender (via Kitchen Aid).

If you are cooking up the perfect homemade tomato sauce recipe or putting together your homemade dip for company, then a regular blender may work just the same as the immersion blender. It has the blades and purpose like an immersion blender, you just won't be able to move the blades about all the ingredients. Lastly, if you're really in a pinch, you can use a potato masher to mash up any cooked food that you need to be pureed. It may not be as pretty as some of the other options, but it provides a similar consistency that you may be looking for from an immersion blender (via MasterClass).