Do I want a soup maker?

[Thinkle]

Or will it languish in the back of the cupboard?

---

MNHQ Update
Searching for a soup maker that'll take the stress out of making your favourite soup at home? Our guide to the best soup makers is up to date with a wide range of options tried and tested options. We hope it’s helpful!

No

I make soup often

I use a pan, and if necessary a blender

Can't see the point of a so called soup maker

No. They're pointless and you still have to do lots of prep.
It's just a gadget doomed to languish.

Yes. I use mine at least 3 times a week all year round. Mine makes delicious quick soups and it is much less faff than blender etc.

Every time this Q comes up it's a split between the I-love-mine and ha ha ha I can't understand what's wrong with chopping/ saucepan/ blender.

Personally I find mine very useful and I like the really smooth soup it produces. But I have to run it in the utility as the bleeps and churning noise kept startling us!

Soup in 21 minutes it’s brill.

I'm in the camp of just use a pan and blender myself, but they're not absolutely pointless. The feature to automatically turn off at the end of cooking tine is useful and you can walk away and forget about it as it's all contained safely with no hot surfaces, unlike with a pan on the hob where esp if you have small children you need to be in the room. And the fact the blender is incorporated means you don't have to transfer the hot liquid from pan to a blender or risk the splatter etc of a stick blender, this is really useful for my shaky elderly mother who hasn't the strength to lift a full pan and doesn't like a stick blender. But otherwise I'd say invest in a good blender as more generally useful in the kitchen overall...

Yea you absolutely do they are brilliant

Its the most useless thing i ever bought.

I like mine - go through phases of using it and not, but that's more seasonal than anything. Quick go in the frying pan with any kind of chopped veg; bung in soup maker with stock - sit down and relax for 20 minutes and then a beep tells me my lovely soup is ready to pour. What's not to like?

I prefer a pan and, if I’m making a smooth soup, a blender but if I’m making soup I make at least a dozen portions and freeze, so a pan is more practical for me.

I love mine. Delicious soup on 20 mins.

There you go, OP 😂

For those of you who say no, have you tried one or are you just saying there is no problem with using a pan and a stick blender? I have a big pan and a stick blender but I also have small children and a badly designed kitchen that means I have to carry said pan across the kitchen to use the stick blender. The fact that I don’t have to monitor it also appeals. I don’t mind the prep.

You have captured the essence of mumsnet

I loved mine, used it all the time. Sadly it is now broken and at the moment I can't afford to replace it. I've tried the hand held blender but I found it just ends up with soup splattered about

I love mine. No monitoring. Small footprint and placed anywhere on a countertop, out of reach.

My soup maker also cleans itself

The point is you don’t have to stand over a stove making it and it keeps warm for half an hour once it’s done. You also have less washing up as you don’t have to use a pan and a blender and mine even has a cleaning function.

@Thinkle I am a soup maker convert having been sniffy about them before I was bought them for Christmas, for the same reasons as @SimonaRazowska . I use it a lot more in winter but not exclusively and in terms of food wastage, it’s great. The main thing I do with it really is make “fridge soup” where you gather up the odd bits of veg you have lying around, bung in soup maker with a stock cube and 20 minutes later you have lunch for 4.

Why can't you take the stick blender to the saucepan?

@GertieWooster tell me about one that cleans itself

No sockets near the hob!

I have a pressure cooker, bung in the ingredients, cook and leave it, open the lid when ready to and use a stick blender to get it how i want either smooth or a bit chunky. I use the pressure cooker for cooking beetroot, cooking gammon, steamed puds etc too.

You can get an electric pressure cooker for the price of a soup maker - was shocked when I saw how much they were. I make soup in the PC in about 12 mins then blend it and I can use it for lots more cooking, not just making soup.

I thought that, and cursed my husband when he bought me one for Christmas.

I love it!

I have a soup maker, but honestly a big pan and a stick blender is so much better.

I have a soup maker I was given as a gift, and while I wouldn’t have bought it myself, I really like it. Mumsnet is very pro immersion blenders, but for me the texture of a soup blended with an immersion blender is significantly worse than a soup blended in a jug blender or the soup maker. The soup maker also stops the transfer of hot liquid with a jug blender. It frees up space on a job, is easy to clean and feels far less effort than soup in a pan.