Are soup makers worth it? If so, how do you use yours?

[Geebray]

I want to get more healthy and I like soups, but I want to start making my own rather than buying processed ones. Is a soup maker worth it? Or is it just another kitchen gimmick?

What sort of recipes do you use for yours, if you have one?

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Quite. The reduction in food waste in my house easily counterbalanced the carbon footprint of my very well used soup maker ( plus simmering on the gas- wasteful) and the electricity gor the blender!
I have had 2 morphy Richards ones. I wish I'd bought the Ninja though.

@Geebray , it was a joke based on the poster who was saying it would end up in landfill etc. You want one so buy one. If you don't like it then sell it or pass it on.

Tinned soup are mainly rubbish IMO. Much healthier and more economical to make your own, and you can experiment with flavours you wouldn't think of buying.

I don't eat soup but I eat a lot of veg. stews, which are basically 'back of the fridge' soup but unblended. Pretty much zero food waste.

Oh, sorry! 😆 I've clearly been sensitized by the stick people.

What's bone broth? Is it what's always been called stock for hundreds of years i.e. stick all the chicken carcass, or bones, skin etc in a big pan with onion, carrot, celery, bayleaf, salt, peppercorns, cover with water, boil and simmer for 3 hours and strain? If it's that why is it called bone broth and seemingly imbued with new magical properties? No cookbook I've got ever calls stock bone broth.
But homemade stock does indeed make infinitely better tasting soup than you'd ever get with a stock cube or pot.

Calm down.

There is a difference.

BB is cooked for 16 hours plus. Stock isn't. As you say.

Maybe next time I'll start a thread on politics, or religion. Something less controversial than soup.

I used to scoff at the idea of a soup maker, as a stick blender was just as good. Or so I thought.

Then I borrower a friend's soup maker - game changer. I love mine, have had it 5 years and if it breaks I'm going straight out to get another one.

So it's just concentrated stock? Loads of people used to have a stockpot bubbling away on the stove all the time which would have produced the same thing. I'm perfectly calm, just confused why something that's been around forever has been renamed and had medicinal properties attached to it.

Just the type of uplifting soup-based content I was looking for! Thanks. Do the stick people still talk to you?

No worries OP. I got a fruit juicer. I thought it was brilliant. Used it twice and it went to the back of the cupboard. OH's colleague mentioned he was after one. I passed it on.

If you have a soup maker you can leave it but you need to watch a pan.

I love a proper rich stock for soup especially poultry stock

Last Christmas I used the turkey bones and bits with carrot celery onion peppercorns bay leaves, and simmered for 3 hours

I then strained it to remove the bones etc. I did it over the sink so all the stock went down the plug hole and I was left with mushed vegetables and bones!
Not a happy bunny!

I love a proper rich stock for soup especially poultry stock

Last Christmas I used the turkey bones and bits with carrot celery onion peppercorns bay leaves, and simmered for 3 hours

I then strained it to remove the bones etc. I did it over the sink so all the stock went down the plug hole and I was left with mushed vegetables and bones!
Not a happy bunny!

This thread got a bit wild 😂 who knew people could be so passionate about soup....

OP I have one, I don't even know the brand tbh, but I like it. Its summer here now so not soup weather, but I do batch book pasta sauce in it quite a bit, when I have plentiful amounts of tomatoee

Brilliant!

Oops my phone went a bit mad there.

...when I have plenty tomatoes, onions etc in.

We make milkshakes and smoothies in it to. So it's used year round.

Yes I could make soup in a pot. But I have cast iron le creuset pots which I would use, and there is just no bloody way a stick blender is going into inside of my prize possession le cresuet. So I was a complete faff to put the soup into something else to then blend.

Even just for that reason alone, I'm team soup maker.

This gave me a good laugh. Sorry 😂

TELL ME MORE ABOUT MAKING PASTA SAUCE IN A SOUP MAKER!!!

(And please, pleeeeeeeeeeease don't come on and say "But you can make pasta sauce in a pot!" I know you can. And I have. Thousands of fricking times. But now I want to know about a different method. I am 56. I'm allowed.)

😂 I'm team soup maker so I'm not trotting out that line.

So when tomatoes are in season they are available in bulk here for silly prices really, so I make the most of it. I vary it according to what I have in, but basically it's tomato, onion, peppers and garlic. Sometimes I roast them all a bit beforehand, but I don't always. Just roughly chop everything and bung it all in. Mine has that saute feature so it precooks it anyway. Add some liquid, I use stock pots sometimes or a cube and a bit of balsamic, basil and turn it on. Sometimes I change the texture to smooth, and other times I set it to chunky and do a manual whizz or two just sort of smooth it out. Add in a bit of sugar at the end to take the tartness away.

Last time I added in some aubergine, sometimes some butternut goes in too (that makes a pretty decent sauce addition I have to say).

It's a bit like my soups. Whatever is there to go in, goes in.

Then I just decant them all into one meal size portions and freeze them. So I just take one or two portions out when I need them.

I don't only use them for pasta either. If I'm doing cottage pie or lasagne (ok that is pasta but you get the idea) I just add a portion of this into the mince.

It's a game changer I tell ya. None of those jars needed when your soup maker to do a perfect job of it.

Yes everyone, I can do it in all I'm a pot, but I like the convenience of shoving everything in, and then just pouring it all out when it's done.
And no I'm not Italian so my chuck what is available recipe may not be perfect by any means, but it works for me.

Oh and OP, butternut and red pepper soup done in it is my favourite.

OP: Is a soup maker worth it? Or is it just another kitchen gimmick?

Me: It's another kitchen gimmick and also most likely a waste of plastic that will end up in landfill.

OP: Don't preach at me, you evangelical climate loon!

OP. If you already had made up your mind on the answer to your question and didn't want anyone to tell you that they are a gimmick, I'm not sure why you posted.

Love this! I can see all sorts of possibilities opening up.

We live in a flat with an open plan kitchen/sitting room, so it will be lovely not to have pots simmering/frying etc.

PP. If you were going to get touchy because I had already decided, by the time you posted, and on the weight of previous submitted evidence, to get an infernal soup machine, I'm not sure why you posted.

Another vote for the ninja and you can make smoothies and frozen margaritas in it, plus the aforementioned pasta sauce plus - this might blow your mind - I even made pasta in it once when my food processor was out of order (probably food processors might also be the devil’s tool, I don’t know). It was not ideal because it was a right faff to get the dough out, but it worked! And it has a self- clean function although disappointingly it doesn’t actually give itself a scrub and I do usually have to wipe the spout.

We love ours. Used 2 or 3 times a week.

You had me at frozen margarita.

But, with your pasta making, we have officially reached peak soup maker 😎

So glad I found this thread. I have a picky, autistic DD and homemade lentil soup is one of the few things she will eat. I've managed to cut down the faff by using frozen pre chopped onions and carrots, but the blending part is driving me mad (I have a stick blender) .

I had dreams of getting a soup maker but I thought I'd have to saute the onions myself first, didn't know there were soup makers that did it for you.

I want a ninja, I think I'm going to get one now.

Cheers OP