Instant Pot Just Launched A Blender That Can Cook Soups, Blend Ice Creams, & More

Lazy cooks of the world, unite — eventually. There's now a product that can appeal to the most laziest among us. If the idea of meal prep makes you feel totally exhausted or you're overwhelmed by all of the different settings on an oven, then you are my people. Some folks are total naturals in the kitchen, while others live on Seamless and the kindness of strangers — and that's OK. But this new gadget — the surprisingly affordable Instant Pot Ace 60 Cooking Blender — seems like the kind of cooking tool that even a kitchen-phobe like me could get behind.

That's right — Instant Pot, the creators of everyone's favorite cooking pot that has been all over your Instagram feed, has branched out into the blender-sphere. And "Cooking Blender" is definitely the right name for it, because it's a blender that can cook your soups while you're making them. Let me repeat that for you: you can cook soup in a blender. I don't even think I could mess that up, though I will undoubtedly find a way to do so.

But that soup function is just one of many on this little gizmo. Yes, it has of a motor that goes at 23,000 RPM — but not many of us even know what that means. The important thing is — IT MAKES SMOOTHIES AND SOUP. Hot and cold. In one place. "The Ace features three manual blending speeds, four cold blending programs, and four hot blending programs," Instant Pot explains on their website. "Cold blending programs are ideal for Smoothies and Frozen Desserts. Whereas, hot blending programs provides you the ability to cook fresh ingredients combining boiling and blending for one-pitcher meals."

Hot blending? Making a dessert in a blender? Only having one little thing to wash? The future really must be here — I just wasn't expecting it to arrive in blender form. In fact, this blender has an actual nut milk option. Like a button you press to make nut milk. And then it just happens. And then you have nut milk. As both a vegan and a lazy person, my interest is definitely piqued.

There's no denying that one of millennials' favorite things is to make food easily (and then show it off on social media). A well-organized pantry is basically its own kind of Pinterest porn and meal planning has become a sort of religion among certain groups of people. But many of us are also, to put it delicately, broke as heck — so perhaps the best thing about the Ace Blender is that it comes in at under 100 bucks. A lot of cooking tools are prohibitively expensive, which makes the idea of learning how to feed yourself even more daunting. For something with dedicated smoothie, nut milk, smoothie functions and a lot more, this little machine definitely seems to be earning its very reasonable price tag.

There's probably not a single tool that can turn you from a delivery-fiend into a master meal planner, but there's nothing wrong with trying to inch that one step closer. A machine that can blend, cook, milk, and whatever else you might need for just $99 could definitely entice me to try and be a bit more domestic — or at least start branching into my five-a-day. Smoothies, ahoy.