Free Guide for Thermomix · Smoothies
Gritty, lumpy, separated. It is almost never the machine, and the fix takes no extra time at all.
Why is my green smoothie gritty in the Thermomix? Nearly always because everything went into the bowl at once, liquid included. Put anything that needs milling into a dry bowl first, add the liquid last and only a splash of it to start, then blend in two stages rather than one. Same ingredients, same machine, silky result.
I have been making green smoothies in the Thermomix for years, and the question I get more than any other is some version of this: why does mine come out gritty when yours does not? Usually it arrives with an apology attached, as though the person asking has done something wrong, or worse, with a worry that there is something wrong with their machine.
There is not. I promise. Blades do dull eventually, but a gritty smoothie is almost never a blade problem. It is a loading problem and a liquid problem, and both are fixed in the same ninety seconds you were already going to spend.
Let me save you the trial and error. Here is what is actually going on, and the three things that fix it.
Meet the tool
Get the smoothie out of the bowl, not down the sink
Watch
A few of my favourite things to make in the bowl
Have a browse through the reels while you are here. There is plenty in the Thermomix beyond breakfast.
First, rule out the blades
Blades do dull after years of hard work, so it is a fair thing to wonder about. But it is easy to rule out, because blunt blades are not fussy about what they fail at. You would be noticing it everywhere: nuts that will not mill down, breadcrumbs that stay chunky, soups that never quite go velvety. If everything else in your machine is behaving itself and only the smoothies are letting you down, the blades are not your problem. The method is.
Fix one: load the bowl in the right order
This is the one that surprises people, because most recipes do not mention it at all. The order things go into the bowl matters far more than the exact ingredients you choose.
Anything that needs milling goes in first, into a completely dry bowl. Nuts, seeds, oats, anything hard and small. They need to hit the blades with nothing cushioning them, and that only happens when there is no liquid and no soft fruit in there yet. Drop a handful of almonds into a bowl that already has banana and milk in it and they will simply swirl around in the slipstream. That is your grit.
After that: something frozen, then something creamy, then your greens, then a little veg, then fruit, then any sweeteners or superfoods at the top.
Fix two: hold the liquid back
Liquid goes in last, and only a splash of it to start. Not the full amount. I know it feels wrong, and I know the jug is sitting right there.
Here is why it works. Blades need resistance. A bowl full of liquid lets everything spin harmlessly past, so the machine sounds like it is working hard while barely touching the solids. A small amount of liquid forces everything down onto the blades and keeps it there.
Fix three: blend in two stages, never one
This is the actual secret, and it is the step almost every smoothie recipe skips.
Stage one, you pulverise. Just the solids and that small splash of liquid, blitzed hard until everything is properly broken down. Stage two, you set the timer again and pour the rest of your liquid in slowly while the machine keeps going, which brings it from broken-down to genuinely smooth.
It is about ninety seconds of blending all up, which is no longer than tipping the lot in and hoping. The difference is entirely in splitting it into two.
The full guide walks through the variations, so you can see where your own ingredients fit no matter what is in the fridge.
One thing to know about pouring over the MC
Stage two asks you to add liquid while the machine is running, and how you do that depends on your model. If you have our Clear MC, you pour straight over the top and it runs through into the bowl, and you can watch the texture change while it happens. It fits the TM6, TM5 and TM31.
If you are on a TM7, or on an older machine without one, pour into the crevice of the lid instead. It does the same job. Just pour slowly either way, and stop when the texture looks right rather than when the jug is empty.
Still gritty? Two things left to check
The first is your frozen ingredient. Something frozen is doing the work of both temperature and texture, and a rock-solid lump straight from the back of the freezer is harder work than a piece that has sat out for two minutes. If you freeze your own, freeze it in smaller portions. Jumbo Freezer Pods are what I use for this, and a frozen cube of homemade plant milk gives you the cold and the creamy in one go.
The second is how full the bowl is. An overfull bowl cannot circulate, so the top third never reaches the blades at all. Make two smaller smoothies rather than one enormous one, or accept that you will be scraping down halfway through.
Questions I get asked about this
Why is my green smoothie gritty in the Thermomix?
Almost always because everything went in at once with all the liquid. Mill the hard things first in a dry bowl, hold the liquid back, and blend in two stages.
How long should I blend a green smoothie for?
About ninety seconds all up, split across the two stages: a short hard pulverise first, then a longer blend while you add the rest of the liquid.
Can I pour liquid over the MC on a TM7?
Pour into the crevice of the lid instead. Pouring over the MC needs our Clear MC, which fits the TM6, TM5 and TM31.
Do I need to mill nuts and seeds separately first?
Not separately, just first. Put them into the dry bowl before anything else goes in, then build the rest of the smoothie on top.
Get more out of the machine you already own
A thick smoothie clings to the sides of the bowl and will happily stay there. The Thermo Spoon Spatula has been our most popular product since 2012 for exactly this reason.
