Vita-Mix Super 5200 Review

A little over a month ago, I was contacted to see if I was interested in reviewing the Vita-Mix 5200. I had no idea what it was until I clicked on the link and saw that it was a "power" blender. Well, hello, of course, I said yes! A few weeks later, the blender came in the mail and through the holidays and with all my travel work I didn't get a chance to open up the box and check the contents until a week ago. It looked like one of those super blenders at Jamba Juice! The Vita-Mix even came with the "baton" thingie majiggy. Does anyone know what the official term is?

I browsed through the recipe binder that it came with and saw so many great recipes! I didn't realize you could do so much with this blender. I was contemplating a post-long run recovery smoothie... Coincidentally, I was having a potluck dinner party with some friends at my house! My very good friend wanted to make Cream of Celery soup (it taste better than it sounds, I promise) as an appetizer for the dinner but needed a blender/food processor. I had a brilliant idea and offered her to come over a little early so she could use my new Vita-Mix blender.

The VitaMix 5200 out of the box!Now, another friend who is a chef (who has worked at a Michelin starred restaurant and at an upscale San Francisco restaurant) also happened to be at a dinner. Can you imagine how nervous the rest of us get when *she* comes over for dinner??? Anyway, as soon as she saw the blender, she was like, "OMG, is that a Vita-Mix? I love those!! Do you know that the Vita-Mix does things that other regular kitchen blenders can't??" And continued to gush about it. At this point, the rest of the dinner party wanted to know how I got it and when I told them, they ALL wanted to start blogging!

Honestly, am I the only one who's never heard of the Vita-Mix? Can I tell you how happy I am to own one?

Getting ready to cook the celeryBoilded the celery and the onions and now about to blend!Blending!!!

Ta-da!
YUMMY!

We also had some delicious veggies...

And our chef friend made some fancy veal raviolis... from scratch!

Cream of Celery Soup Recipe
1.5 cup chopped celery, medium sizes
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoon butter
2.5 cup milk
half teaspoon salt
squeeze of lemon

Melt butter in heavy bottom pan over medium heat (do not brown the butter); add onion and season with salt; sweat the onion over low temp for about 10 min (until it's translucent--no browning at all!); add celery root and season with salt; cover with milk and simmer over med heat until celery root is tender. CAREFULLY blend soup (can be very dangerous to blend hot things!)--don't add all liquid at once--thin with liquid; blend for a LONG time so it's nice and creamy; best to strain through a strainer, if you have one, so soup is extra creamy; adjust seasoning with salt and a squeeze of lemon.

We didn't strain the soup, which gave it a better texture. It was REALLY yummy. :-)

And let me just say, I can't wait to use the blender to make other things... I was browsing through it this morning and they dozens of recipes!! Thank you Vita-Mix! If you're interested in more information on this awesome product, please check out this link here.