Traveling and eating healthy don’t always go hand-in-hand. The good habits you may have at home can go by the wayside when you can’t make your usual protein shake, get a plentiful salad, or cook in a healthy way in vacation rentals because you don’t have the right equipment. I’ve discovered a product that helps me address all of that. And because I don’t recommend a product unless I’ve had a chance to review it for a good long while, I can now share my thoughts and tips for making the most of the BlendJet Portable Blender.

Save this BlendJet review article and practical tips to Pinterest to help you make the most of your BlendJet. Top photos courtesy BlendJet. Graphic by RealFoodTraveler.com.

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When I travel, I stay in a variety of types of lodging, from hotels to rentals. One item I love to take with me is a BlendJet blender which I use for making smoothies on a daily basis but also for chopping veggies and making salsas, sauces, and purees. Completely portable, it has helped me eat healthier at home and when traveling.

BlendJet Review & Tips

I have two BlendJet Portable Blenders. The first one is from the first generation of the product and the second is, appropriately named, BlendJet2 which is pretty new on the market. Full disclosure, I received both over the course of the past couple of years through the company to help facilitate writing about it. But, as is always our policy here at RealFoodTraveler.com, we don’t write about, or recommend, a product unless we’ve used it extensively and really, truly feel it’s a benefit to our food and travel-loving readership.

The Concept of BlendJet

The product has a tumbler-size container with screw-on lid, on a base with blades that are activated by pushing a button. Basically, it’s a small blender. It is powered by charging with a charger chord attached to your computer, another charging device, or, with an adapter, to an electrical outlet. But the actual BlendJet doesn’t have a chord so it’s completely portable.

Depending on how long you push the power button for, you can chop things or take them all the way to puree. You can make sweeter things like fruit smoothies to more savory things like salsas and sauces. See my tips below about the difference.

Depending on how much you use your BlendJet Portable Blender, you may need to charge it up every week or so. I find it takes about an hour to fully charge.

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BlendJet Review: Uses for the portable blender

The BlendJet website has a great section with recipes and I’m looking forward to trying more of them, including cocktails, dips, desserts, plus batters for breakfasts, breads, and more. But here are some things I’ve used it for:

Fruit Smoothies with Protein:

I start with a couple of big spoonfuls of plain yogurt and, depending on what I’m “feeling” that day, frozen fruit (some days I use a berry mix, some days I use a pineapple/peach blend), some baby spinach leaves, ½ a banana, an ice cube, and a little water if needed. I find I have better luck if I blend a little after each addition.

Salad in a Cup:

I’ve been trying to eat a lot more veggies but, frankly, I get tired of having a salad at every dinner plus other kinds of veggies to get my daily allotment. One day, I asked myself, “why isn’t there a veggie smoothie I could just drink down and get more veggies than I’m willing to fork and chew?” It hit me that I could accomplish that with the BlendJet, especially the BlendJet2 because it has an even more powerful motor. So, I started to make this veggie smoothie, aka my Salad in a Cup:

First, I put a little water, or plain yogurt in the bottom of the BlendJet. Then I add tomato (a handful of cherry tomatoes or two of the “cocktail” tomatoes that come on the vine, a peeled ½ a cucumber (or two of the smaller pickling cucumbers) that I’ve chopped into about 1-inch slices, a big handful of mixed greens (baby kale, collards, spinach, etc.), one ice cube, a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a couple of dashes of hot sauce of choice. I blend it up but don’t puree it because I still want some texture to act as fiber (which is the benefit if eating veggies in a salad). It’s delicious and tastes like gazpacho. You could experiment by adding carrots (chopped more finely), and other veggies that you like. You could also augment with herbs or spices.

Chopping help:

I had a Cuisineart mini-chopper for years which I used for making diced onions and garlic and mixing salad dressings and sauces. I loved it but it conked out on me. A bit pricey to replace, I decided, instead to use my first BlendJet. To chop onions or garlic, just “pulse” the power button to avoid pureeing the veggies.

Tips from having used the BlendJet and BlendJet 2:

• It’s pretty common that hard items get stuck on one of the pointy blades which will make the BlendJet stop. You can stick a long-handled teaspoon down there to try to loosen it but, when you have stuff in there, you can’t see well. So, I’ve found it works to turn the device on its side in a couple of directions which dislodges whatever is stuck. I also found that adding a little water or yogurt to the bottom before putting chunky items in helps prevent that from happening.
• Blend in stages when you’re adding a lot of things like, say if you put in cucumbers, then tomato, then ginger, then spinach, you should blend briefly between adding items to help everything move around the blender better, thereby ensuring even blending and mixing.
• Cleaning the BlendJet is one of the best things about it. There’s no sticking a rag down in there, hoping you don’t cut yourself. All you do is put a drop or two of liquid detergent in it, fill it most of the way with hot water, put the lid on and push the button! It creates this great little tornado of action that cleans the blades, the cup and the lid. Dump out that soapy water, rinse it out and, mostly because it looks so cool, I fill it with clear water one more time and whir it to make a pretty tornado of water. Then, I dry the blender and its lid face-down on a dish towel for a while to let all water drip out. Then I turn it upright and leave it open to dry the rest of the way before putting the lid back on and putting it away until the next time I use it.
• You can remove the cup from the base by unscrewing it. And you can remove the rubber gasket from the lid and wash everything (except the base, of course), in the dishwasher. Just make absolutely sure you screw the cup back on, aligning the arrows with those of the base, or it won’t work. I once thought I’d broken my original BlendJet after washing it in the dishwasher, but really, I just hadn’t aligned the arrows right. I suggest rinsing out the BlendJet as soon as you’re done using it to make it a whole lot easier to wash. Dried on stuff makes it harder to wash with the simple “tornado” method.
• I have found it very helpful to have two BlendJets, keeping one for savory things and one for sweeter uses. After the first time I used my original BlendJet to make a curry sauce (using garlic, ginger and curry powder), I found that the cup and lid smelled like those items even after washing them, which impacted the fruit smoothie I made after that. I figure this is akin to the recommendation to have one coffee grinder just for spices and another for coffee so they don’t impact each other. That said, I did put baking soda and hot water in my “savory” BlendJet for a day, whirred that around, and then washed it as usual and it did greatly diminish the savory aromas.
• Charging up the BlendJet can be an issue if your timing isn’t just right. There’s no way to know just how charged up your device is so, multiple times, I’ve put all my items in the blender, pushed the button and it only goes for a second or two. After verifying that it’s not because something is stuck on the blades, I know it’s because it doesn’t have enough power. That has meant that I’ve had to plug in the blender for 10 minutes or so, just to enable me to finish my mixing. I then make sure I give it a full charge after I’ve washed it and before putting it away.

There are lots of attractive patterns and colors to choose from with Blendjet. Photo courtesy RealFoodTraveler.com.

I’ve taken my BlendJet on several trips and have been so glad to have it so I can still make healthy drinks. When I’m not going to have access to fruits, veggies, yogurt, etc., BlendJet sells smoothie packets you mix with water or the liquid of your choice. They’re good to keep in your carry-on so that you can use them when you need to.

Bonus: BlendJet comes in a variety of colors and patterns so you can express yourself, match décor, clearly ID one from the other, etc. Shop different designs, and accessories, plus read their interesting origin story, on their website.

-Story by Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher and Managing Editor, RealFoodTraveler.com