Can you please come and tell me about your soup maker?

[HoHoHopeForTheBest]

I mean the all-in-one machine, rather than "dh" etc :o

I keep hearing about how fab they are and am wondering whether it would be something worth investing in.

The way I do soup at the moment is cook it either in a pan on the hob, or in a bowl in the microwave, then use hand-held blender to get it smooth. Is there any advantage in using a soup maker?

And what else can you use it for?
I already have a proper blender which I never use - it was a free attachment on my Kenwood mixer. The mixer gets used loads and loads and loads (do a lot of baking).

Um, that's it really! Just would like to hear if you have one and how you find it, then can have a think whether it might be something we'd use too.
Thank you :)

[magimedi88]

Never heard of a soup maker. I make soup at least once a week in winter.

I sweat all the veg in butter & a dash of oil to stop the butter burning -very low heat for 10 mins with a sprinkle of salt, unless there is bacon in there or pulses & then I don't salt until the end.

Then add stock or water & hubble for about 20 mins.

Leave to cool a little & then I just use the stick blender to smooth it all together. Taste! Season!

My best soup is Summer Soup - ie: summa this & summa that - usually all the left overs in the fridge!

[GreenandwhitePenguin]

I always make my soup in a pressure cooker. Just fry some chopped veg in oil, add seasoning, herbs and stock and it is ready to blend in about 2 mins. A pressure cooker is more versatile than a soup maker so better if you are pushed for storage space in the kitchen. It is very economical too, lentils and pulses take a few minutes and no soaking.

[Alonglongway]

I've got the Morphy Richards soup maker - the kettle style - only real advantage to saucepan that it's very simple and self contained. You can pop off and do something else, easy for the DC to learn to use.

[HoHoHopeForTheBest]

So if there's no real point to them, why do people have them? I was hoping there would be some secret to them which made them superior to saucepan + blender in some way :o

I know lots of MNers have one - it comes up a lot on various food threads. I just need to lure them all onto here to tell me about the joys of their soup makers....

[Selks]

You sure you're not thinking of slow cookers, OP?

[wannaBe]

the advantage is £££ to the companies who make them and market them to the gullible and make them believe that having a soupmaker is somehow preferable to using a saucepan and a blender.


Nothing wrong with owning one if you have the money and space, but it's just a gadget really.

[IslaValargeone]

at 'just a gadget'
I'm a lover of kitchen porn and have been looking at the cuisinaire soup maker, still undecided though.
I make such a bloomin' mess when I make soup, the idea of a self contained thing is very appealing.

[HoHoHopeForTheBest]

No, I'm def. thinking of soup maker!

I did ask a similar question about slow cooker though - I basically use a casserole dish and the timer on my oven to achieve exactly the same thing, so as far as I can see, I would have no advantage in getting a slow cooker.

I admit I am disappointed. I thought I was going to get soup making aficionados coming on here and raving :o :o

[FrillyMilly]

I make soup on the hob then blitz in the blender. From what I can tell a soup make would just mean I don't have a pan to wash. If the blender broke I would consider one as I don't use the blender for anything else.

Surely the advantage of a slow cooker over the oven is it costs a lot less to run a slow cooker for several hours.

[Groovee]

My dad bought one and returned it for being crap.

[Rwep]

Do you mean this Vitamix

A friend at work has one and talks constantly about how fab it is. I can only do at the price

I love making soup - have done River Cottage's Parsnip and Ginger today which is to be highly recommended, but I did just use a saucepan and a hand held blender.

[HoHoHopeForTheBest]

at the price of that Rwep!

[vigglewiggle]

I'm not sure how easy it can be that it beats a saucepan and a handheld blender. The pan goes in the dishwasher and the blending wand tingy takes seconds to clean. I think you can live without it.

[NUFC69]

I bought a soup maker from QVC - I think it is Cooks Essentials and cost about £40 - I loved it until it packed up about a month after I had bought it. The replacement has just come, so hoping that that is all right as I have bought one for my sister for Christmas. You can either just chuck everything in the machine, press the button and off it goes; of, if you have a recipe that you prefer to use that involves browning, do that in a frying pan and then chuck it into machine. You can either have the soup liquidised, or just chunky, and there is a button so that if you add, say, cream, it will blend it in for you.

I found that I was using it a lot; it makes enough for four people, so I would freeze half of it. I also found that if I had left over vegetables I was making "interesting" soups by just putting whatever I had in the machine and pressing the button - something I would never have done before in a pan.

I guess it depends on how much soup you are going to make - my DH and I are at home every day and home made soup is lovely at this time of the year.

[Asinine]

Coming up next on QVC

a soup maker cleaning kit

[valiumredhead]

The only thing you need is a heavy based saucepan and a stick blender.

No need to spend £100 on something you plug in. Reviews weren't great when I looked either.