How to Make Puree: 9 Video Recipes Included

One of the major differences between home cooking and restaurant cooking is that professional chefs have an arsenal of sauces, gels and purees at their disposal. With this in mind we wanted to highlight a great collection of videos from ChefSteps that will teach you a number of different puree recipes. 

Combine these with the ChefSteps recipes for fluid gels and you'll really up your home cooking game.

Below there's a mixed collection of puree recipes, try a few and you'll realise just how simple it is to take almost any ingredient and create a wonderfully creamy puree with it. 

Gourmet puree recipes

Watercress purée

This incredibly simple and vibrant green puree is the sum of two parts, blanched watercress and xanthum gum. Watch how easy it is to make in the short clip below:

Avocado Purée

Add sodium bisulfite, ascorbic acid, salt and olive oil to freshly blended avocado flesh, blend some more, sieve and pipe. It's as easy as that. Watch how its done by the ChefSteps pros below:

Butternut Squash Purée

Thinly sliced fresh butternut squash, vacuum sealed and boiled for 25 minutes, then blended with salt and xanthan gum followed by a final sieving yields a vibrant orange butternut squash puree, perfect for cheering up an autumnal plate.

Celery root purée

Sous vide thinly sliced celery root is blended before adding cream and a squeeze of lemon juice and a generous pinch of salt and butter, and a final blitz until smooth and spreadable. 

Smoked trout purée

Cook trout fillet sous vide, then remove, chill, de-skin and blend with salt and mayonnaise before passing through a sieve for a seafood appetiser.

Red cabbage purée

Harness the power of purple in this deeply vibrant puree of fresh red cabbage cooked blended with champagne vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, xanthum gum, black pepper and caraway seeds for extra wow factor. See how it's done in the clip below:

Broccoli purée

Pump up the umami flavours in this cheddar cheese and broccoli puree. Cook broccoli and melted butter together in a pressure cooker for 20 mins, then blend and add cheddar cheese, sieve and plate.

Gribiche purée

A trio of herbs make this a versatile all rounder. See how parsley, chervil and chive could become your plating staple in this easy to follow clip below:

Classic mashed potatoes

Ever wondered how they achieve such silky rich mashed potatoes in restaurants? Here's how - sous vide butter, milk and potato then pass the mixture through a sieve, whisk and season as desired, for restaurant perfect mash.