15 Unique Things Your Keurig Does Besides Make Coffee

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What's the most versatile kitchen appliance? Some might say a cooktop or a slow cooker, while others insist it's a microwave or an air fryer and sure, they all have their advantages. But there's one gadget that should make it to the top of everyone's list: the Keurig coffee maker.

Originally the brainchild of John Sylvan, Peter Dragone, and Dick Sweeney, the device that brewed coffee using individual pods hit the market in 1998. Keurig (the Dutch word for "excellence") machines were initially aimed at coffee shops and offices, and were very successful. However, it was only when a home version was launched in 2004 that sales really went through the roof.

Although inventor Sylvan has since criticized the environmental impact of K-cups, the machines themselves have proved to be more than just good for making your daily macchiato. Owners of these stylish gadgets have discovered, sometimes by accident, that their coffee machine can be more useful than they ever imagined. Let's take a look at unique things your Keurig does besides make coffee.

Unlike Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, most Americans eat some form of cereal for breakfast. While lots of brands pack their products with added vitamins and minerals, oatmeal comes with all those benefits as standard. As well as being a daily dose of fiber, it also contains avenanthramides, antioxidants that are good for blood flow.

Cooking oatmeal the traditional way takes time that many of us don't have first thing in the morning, so hurray for instant oats. These smart sachets are just as good for us as the traditional kind, but they're precooked and the hot water from your Keurig can have them ready to eat in a flash.

Just pop the oats in a bowl, add 4 ounces of hot water, and let it sit for a minute or two. If you want to be really organized, prep it a few days in advance: Fill a few jars with a combination of oats (use these for a British touch), milk powder, dried fruit, and a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon. Come breakfast time, pour 4 ounces of water into a jar, leave for one minute, and stir.

Tea drinking in the United States might not be quite the national obsession of the United Kingdom, but it's still very much a thing. No matter where you live in the world, it's a given that tea from a drinks machine will be good for nothing but watering nearby plants. The Keurig changed that.

The machine's range of innovative K-cups, small pots that contain enough coffee grounds for a single cup, was expanded to include tea. Initially, some people's Keurig brews resulted in flavorless disappointment, but things have improved since then. Brands like Tim Hortons have come up with Steeped Tea K-cups, making cuppas a British builder would happily slurp. Just don't tell them when you're adding the milk.

Your Keurig isn't limited to brown tea either. Twinings has developed a wide range of K-cup flavors, including delicious herbal teas and refreshing green tea. In the warmer months, when you're ready for a tall glass of something cool, your Keuring has got you: Make your fave tea as usual, then add lots of ice for the perfect tipple.

On the list of universal comfort foods, a creamy, warming bowl of pasta has to be among many people's top 10. It's filling, tasty, and whole grain varieties are great for our digestive health. Yet not everyone has the time (or inclination) to hang around for water to boil, pasta to cook, be drained, and tossed in a sauce.

Our busy lives mean convenience is crucial — and your Keurig is a ticket to the speediest of pasta meals. Rip the top of a pot of instant mac 'n' cheese, hit the hot water button on your Keurig, and in a few minutes, you can be spooning that cheesy, carbohydrate goodness into your mouth.

Add this ingredient to take it to the next level, throw in some diced, pre-cooked chicken or shredded beef, or keep it veggie with some dried mushrooms for an umami boost. Fans of fresh pasta can get in on the Keurig action, too. The water from the coffee machine reaches roughly 192 F, which is more than hot enough to cook a batch of homemade pasta in a flash.

There are thousands of different kinds of rice in the world, and although the United States can grow them all, they — ahem — boil down to three sizes: long, medium and short grain. Shoppers can buy all three uncooked, par-boiled, precooked, quick frozen or as a retort (also known as ready-to-heat) product. It's those latter forms that are ideal for cooking using a Keurig.

The hot water supply is perfect for instant rice. Just make sure to dose equal parts of rice to water, or you'll end up with either a rice brick or gloop. Half a cup of rice to 4 ounces of piping hot water from your Keurig means no leftovers to worry about storing safely. Cover with a plate, let it stand for five minutes, then stir and devour your soft, fluffy rice.

A Keurig will also deliver perfect couscous every time. This delicious food can be easy to waterlog when cooking on the stove top. Instead, take equal amounts of dried couscous and hot water from your Keurig and combine them in a pot. Cover with a lid and wait for five minutes, then fork lightly and serve.

Lots of celebrities are a dab hand in the kitchen. Actor and comedian Pete Davidson is not one of them, as he revealed in a 2021 episode of the "River Cafe Table 4" podcast. When asked by host Ruthie Rogers whether he cooked or not, Davidson replied that he made a "mean Cup O' Noodles," using the hot water from his Keurig coffee machine.

Turns out the man wasn't joking: Plenty of people have rustled up a delicious bowl of noodles or ramen using their Keurig. Simply pop a packet of instant noodles into a bowl and add around 20 ounces of water. Leave it to stand for about 15 minutes, by which time your noodles will be perfectly cooked and ready to combine with other ingredients.

The benefit of using a Keurig for instant noodles or ramen is unlike a kettle, which can waste energy boiling water that isn't needed, you can be more precise. One drawback is some plastic containers can release chemicals when exposed to heat, so make sure to pour that hot water carefully.

Think of vintage ice cream dishes and baked Alaska probably springs to mind. In 1950s Italy, an affogato was the dessert that made dinner parties end on a high note. Whether its creation is linked to the invention of the espresso machine or not, foodies across the world have taken this decadent dish to their hearts. That includes those who own a Keurig.

The recipe for affogato – which is one of these Italian words all foodies should know — is simple. Pop in a scoop or two of good vanilla ice cream in a dish. Traditionally, the next ingredient should be a dash of espresso, which of course you can serve from your Keurig, but a good, full-bodied dark roast will be just as delicious.

Depending on how much coffee you want to flood your ice cream with, push the button for either 6 or 8 ounces of water, before topping with chopped nuts or grated chocolate. If you want to be really inventive, why not try a vanilla chai tea K-cup, instead?

For years, warming a baby's bottle was an exercise in patience, as parents tried to calm a hungry infant while glaring at a slowly warming pan of water on the stove. Microwaves seemed to offer a solution, but hotspots in bottles soon pricked that bubble of hope for a speedy feed.

Hot water from your Keurig, which is always around 192 F, is a quick and consistent way to warm a baby's bottle, according to one social media poster. Although they admitted they hadn't tried it with formula, they advised brewing 6 ounces of water in a handy-to-carry cup "heats up the milk fast without standing over the sink waiting for it to warm."

When little one starts eating solid food, your Keurig can be an invaluable tool for keeping them fed. Rustling up baby rice or instant baby cereal is a breeze thanks to the hot water function. Just pop it into a bowl, brew 4 ounces of water and stir, before leaving it to cool enough for baby to enjoy.

Overnight oats can be a tasty breakfast and, depending on the extras, a healthy one. Lots of people add fresh fruit to their bowlful, but frozen works just as well — unless you forget to get it out of the freezer. Luckily, plunging them for a few minutes in the hot water from your Keurig will thaw them out in no time. Unlike a spin in the microwave, it won't turn them into a mushy blob with weird hotspots.

In fact, your Keurig will defrost all kinds of fruits and vegetables with no fuss. If you're trying to thaw out something delicate like soft berries, pop them in a plastic bag and put that in a bowl of hot water straight from your Keurig, so they retain their shape.

Although some veggies, like peas or corn, can be cooked straight from the freezer, thicker, more dense vegetables such as carrots can take hours to thaw when left at room temperature. Covering them with hot water from your Keurig saves time without compromising quality.

If coffee doesn't float your boat and tea isn't your cuppa, there's still a lot of good reasons to invest in a Keurig machine. They include being able to make a mug of hot chocolate so luxurious a vending machine would sell itself for spare parts.

Although nobody has followed in Keurig's footsteps yet and come up with a version of the eco-friendly coffee K-rounds for hot chocolate, this milk chocolate variety from Swiss Miss is a very popular option. Some on social media insist on using powdered cocoa or chocolate in their cups, claiming it's a cheaper and better option, or you could even just even break up a few chunks of real chocolate into the bottom of a mug.

Whichever you choose, add 4 (who are we kidding — make it 8) ounces of water to your cup and stir thoroughly. Throw in a slug of heavy cream to level up your hot chocolate's richness, while a pinch of cinnamon will bring the heat before going in with the frother. Want to add a splash of whisky for a naughty, chocolatey hot toddy? Go right ahead.

Most people picture hot cups of coffee pouring from a Keurig, but this countertop machine can serve up a range of ice-cold drinks that will keep the whole family hydrated. It's great for traditional, home-made lemonade in minutes.

Pour a cup of sugar into a jug, and add up to 8 ounces of hot water from the Keurig. When it's dissolved, add 1½ cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice, top up with ice and water, and voilà; instant refreshment. If you're not a fan of lemonade made the old fashioned way or combined with this surprising ingredient, there are lots of fruit-based options compatible with the Keurig brew-over ice function.

Kids love the company's own Berry Chill refresher, with or without added fruit, while HEB's range includes delicious watermelon pomegranate lemonade, or you can keep it old school with Lipton's Southern sweet black tea. As well as tasting amazing, your Keurig is supporting the family's health by helping keep everyone hydrated.

There's a lot to love about this foodstuff, from the healing powers of chicken noodle to the rush of watching small kids eat 10 vegetables in one spoonful. Soup is magic. For years, it was also a labor of love to make: Hours of chopping and stirring may have been worth the end result, but as our lives got busier, we needed a shortcut to our soupy goodness.

It came with dried soups, which had been around since the 1800s but really caught on in the 1930s, and are popular to this day. They're also the perfect partner to a Keurig, as Campbell's decided in 2014, when it launched Fresh Brewed Soup K-cups. Bizarrely, they were yanked from stores three years later, amid poor sales, but Keurig-compatible soups from brands like Progresso are still going strong.

For soup in a Keurig, simply pour the soup mix into a bowl, insert the bistro cup into the machine, hit the 8-ounce button and presto. A hot meal with no fuss or mess. If you want more variety of flavors, the machine is good for traditional packet soups, too.

Nothing says "let's celebrate Fall" better than putting our hands round a glass of warm cider and taking a deep chug. That sweet apple flavor perfectly captures the changing seasons: Falling leaves and nights drawing in, helping to get everyone in the mood for the start of spooky season as well as all the end-of-year holidays.

Naturally, there's a K-cup on hand to help us make it. With the push of a button, your Keurig will deliver the perfect cupful of warm apple cider, whether you choose the traditional apple flavor, go for this caramel apple variety, or try a spiced version of the much-loved drink. Instant warm cider is a hit among online shoppers, with many appreciating it when the nights turn colder and wetter.

Apart from the good vibes and wellbeing boost, warm apple cider (which can be drunk cold, too) doesn't contain any alcohol and it's a great source of vitamin C. It's the perfect autumnal drink to satisfy the whole family.

In 2018, Keurig teamed up with Anheuser-Busch InBev to launch Drinkworks, an in-home cocktail machine that used K-cups and alcohol to make a wide range of boozy, colorful drinks for grown-ups. It should have been a marketing smash but, after just five years and disappointing sales, the Drinkworks was pulled from stores in March 2022. But that doesn't mean cocktail hour is over for Keurig owners.

Fancy an espresso martini? Pop a strong coffee K-cup into your machine and brew the strongest, smallest cup you can, before adding it to the vodka, coffee liqueur, and a simple syrup combo. You can also play around with other traditional K-cups and turn them into alcoholic treats, too.

A tot of flavored whisky and whipped cream can turn a bedtime hot chocolate into a dinner-party showstopper, or you can take an apple cider to the next level with a fancy liqueur (it's a great way to use up any you're gifted at Christmas) or a dash of spiced rum. Even an everyday chai tea K-cup can be turned into a delicious, warm cocktail by adding a flavored spirit or a serving of Baileys.

Some foods go above and beyond when it comes to their versatility, and the potato has to be a contender for the most flexible of all. It can be cooked in a half-dozen different ways and, like a little black dress, it goes with almost everything.

We can buy potatoes pre-cooked in cans, frozen into various different forms or, assuming you don't have the time or energy to do it yourself, you can buy them dried. The latter kind is popular with everyone from college students to unconfident cooks, and a Keurig ensures they get delicious results from dried or powdered potatoes every time.

There are lots of brands to choose from, including one which comes with four kinds of cheese added in. Across social media, people have waxed lyrical about using their machines to make instant potatoes. One video poster, who added a pinch of gravy powder to their glass of instant mashed potatoes wasn't too impressed with how it initially looked, but described the end result as tasting, "Freakin' good!"

Technology brands are constantly trying to make their products more relevant to as many parts of our lives as possible. In August 2016, healthcare company CVS Health was the first to take the Keurig K-cup in an intriguing new direction: a way to dispense cold medicine.

The Health Cold & Flu Relief single-serving cups were aimed at Keurig owners who had a hard time swallowing pills. They just popped the cup in the machine and brewed it in the same way as a coffee or tea K-cup. Unfortunately, CVS stopped selling the pod-style cold medicine in 2019, for reasons that are not entirely clear.

That doesn't mean you can't use your Keurig to prepare other brands of powdered cold medicine, or rustle up a homemade version of a "medicine ball" tea. Pop a slice or two of lemon in the bottom of a cup and fill with piping hot water from the Keurig. Drop in some herbal teabags, a drop of peppermint extract and a spoonful of honey. Stir and sip while it cools for a soothing infusion.