KitchenAid 5-Speed KSB580

by Christina
(Oakley, CA, USA)

I love my KSB 580 KitchenAid 5 speed blender because it is so versatile. I use it mostly as a food processor, since I like to add vegetables (semi-juiced) to my recipes. It can quickly dice small vegetables (onions) and takes broccoli chunks down to recipe size. I can then mix the vegetables with whatever base I might be using to make a casserole or soup. I find that making casserole and soup bases is very easy when I add, for example, condensed soup or broth, milk, spices, and small vegetables. All the work is done in one unit, and is then ready for baking or cooking. It is easy to disassemble the blender for cleaning. I prefer the clean-up of a blender over washing a big food processor.

The only down-sides are that it can be a little hard to clean the tighter spots, and I have to be careful not to over-blend my vegetables. To get small chunks of vegetable, I just pulse and watch very carefully. The pluses are that it takes up much less space than a food processor, it blends in very well with my kitchen décor, and the blending jar is all in one piece (blades included) so you don’t have to deal with lots of parts to clean. It is a very quiet and powerful blender, and rates about 4.5 on a 5 star scale from tested-products evaluation sites and store sites.

The touchpad controls on this blender are modern, easy to use, and easy to clean. There is an ice crushing mode that I have only used occasionally, as I am not that interested in slushy drinks, but it works very nicely and does get used on some of our very hot summer days. Overall, this blender is light-years ahead of the old ones I grew up with, and solves some of the basic problems they had. I don’t know what I’d do without the convenience it gives me with general recipe work!