The best kitchen gadgets for 2026

It’s hard to beat the Vitamix in this area. The high-performance blender brand makes machines that not only handle preparing smoothies, but can also make salad dressings, sauces, batters, and soups. This is especially useful if you have a habit of adding hard ingredients to your recipes — things like nuts, dried fruits, and frozen produce. While other, less powerful blenders may leave pieces when adding harsh ingredients, the Vitamix won’t do this, leaving you with a silky smooth end product.

Depending on the model you get, you can also purchase different attachments to make the most of the blender’s powerful base. You can get a 64-ounce container to make smoothies for your whole family at once, or get a “dry grain” container that has a blade specifically designed for grinding things like whole grains so you can make your own flour.

Vitamix currently has four series of blenders: the basic Vitamix One, which comes in at $250; The slightly more advanced Explorian series, which starts at $350 and is arguably the best for most people; Legacy series, starting at $400; and the advanced Ascent series, which will cost you at least $500. Yes, these are expensive machines, but it’s worth the investment if you do a lot of mixing or like to experiment with making things from scratch.