Ninja Foodi Power SS351 Blender and Food Processor Review

The SS351 earns its place on the counter through chopping, pureeing and blending, and it does each of those jobs with the same motor base.

Chopping and mincing

The stainless steel Total Crushing & Chopping blade and the Chop preset take care of onions, garlic, herbs, nuts and cauliflower rice. Expect coarse-to-fine chopping, not uniform dicing: pieces come out in uneven sizes, which is fine for a sofrito or a crumb topping and less so when you want even cubes.

Purees, dips and spreads

Hummus, pesto, salsa and nut or seed butters come together in the pitcher, with the Spread preset doing the long run for thick mixtures. Nut butter and other dense spreads need scraping down the sides and some patience before they turn smooth.

Dough

A dough blade is included and the machine is rated for up to 2 lbs of dough. In practice that covers a batch of pizza or bread dough. Treat it as a kneading function, not as a mixing bowl for cake batters, which need a gentler fold than a high-speed blade gives.

Smoothies and frozen drinks

The 24-oz extraction cup and the 14-oz smoothie bowl maker are the strongest part of the machine. Frozen fruit, ice and thick bowls come out well, and the bowl maker's built-in tamper lets you push frozen food down and make a thick bowl with less liquid than a pitcher would need.

One base, three containers

The detachable attachment system means the same motor drives the pitcher, the cup and the bowl maker, so you swap containers instead of owning three appliances.

Controls

Six Auto-iQ presets cover Smoothie, Extract, Bowl, Spread, Chop and Dough, each running its own sequence of blending and pauses. Variable speed control and a Pulse button let you take over when a preset does not fit the job.

Practical details

The pitcher is BPA-free plastic, the blades are stainless steel, and the base sits on suction-cup feet. The removable parts are dishwasher-safe, and a 15-recipe Inspiration Guide comes in the box.

The limits of the SS351 show up as soon as you ask it to do the jobs a wide-bowl processor handles without thinking.

No slicing, shredding or grating

There are no discs and no feed chute. You cannot slice cucumbers, shred cabbage for slaw or grate cheese in this machine. If vegetable prep is the main reason you are shopping, this is the wrong tool, and a processor with a wide bowl and a set of discs is what does that work.

Small batches are awkward

The pitcher is tall and narrow, so a single shallot, one clove of garlic or a handful of herbs can sit below the blade and escape chopping entirely. A wide-bowl processor keeps small quantities in the blade's path.

No adding ingredients mid-run

The lid has to come off to add anything, so you stop the machine, lift the lid, add, replace and restart. There is no opening to pour oil into a running mayonnaise or drop in more flour.

Not for hot liquids

The SS351 is not a heated or hot-blending machine. Let soups and sauces cool before blending, and never put hot liquid in the to-go cup, where pressure can build and spray when you open it.

Loud under load

The motor is genuinely loud when it works through frozen fruit or dough. Reviewers at other retailers describe it as one of the loudest machines they have handled. Plan around it if you blend early in the morning or late at night.

Cleaning the bowl maker

The pitcher rinses clean with a short soapy-water run. The smoothie bowl maker is the fiddly part: its built-in tamper and the blade hub need a soak and a brush to get residue out of the crevices.

Durability in owner feedback

Amazon's summary of its customer reviews reports that multiple buyers say the base broke away from the bottom and that the machine lasted around two and a half years, and durability mentions skew negative. That is owner feedback rather than a measured result, and it sits alongside a 1-year limited warranty.

Uneven results on soft, wet ingredients

Tomatoes and similar soft produce chop coarsely and can come out uneven, with some pieces pureed and others still whole.

These are the figures that decide whether the SS351 fits your counter and your cooking.

The 64-oz liquid ceiling on a 72-oz pitcher leaves headroom so that foaming smoothies and soups do not overflow, so fill to the liquid line rather than the rim. At 14.17 in high, the base needs clearance under your cabinets once the pitcher is seated, so measure before you commit counter space. The 2-lb dough rating is the ceiling for a single batch, which suits one loaf or one tray of pizza dough at a time.