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WFH during lockdown I regularly made soups from the veg left in the fridge, would freeze a batch and have them for lunch.
Life is back to "normal" so we're all up and out to work/school now. Microwave access is limited at work, so can't take the frozen soup and heat it up.
So, I think I'd like a soup maker, AKA a kettle with a chopper. Quite appealing to chuck some veg in when I get up, tip it into a flask and take it to work. Probably for two people at a time. Anyone use one, and are they any good? Or a pointless gadget to clutter the kitchen when I could just use a pan, and defrost/heat a frozen soup and take it to work in a flask...
As a fellow soup enthusiast, I've never been tempted to replace my big pot, hob and blender with a standalone device.
I've also never cooked a single-serving soup though.
In your situation, I'd just heat up a bit of soup on the hob and pour it in my flask.
Ace. Use ours at least once a week all year around.
Have considered but prefer batch cooking and freezer. They look too small to me. I can make 8 or 10 double portions (me + wife) at once in my big pans, then a week or two of lunches only takes a few mins in microwave while making a sandwich etc.
I don't eat the same soup every day for a fortnight of course 🙂
I got a soup flask specifically for this, can also use it for other "sloppy" food.
Microwave or heat on the hob at home then pour it into the flask, still nice and hot 5 hours later.
Wife uses our regularly, it's dead easy, quick and seems to make good soups. Got to be easier than various other bits and peices, but then they can probably all be used for other things as well...
Pretty good. Also handy if making gravy - i.e. boiling up some onions and blending them - saves the mess with a food blender/cleaning !
Working on the bins during the pandemic and I found a brand new boxed one thrown out - student house end of term. They just dump everything mummy and daddy bought them to keep them healthy having never used it 😊
Think it goes down as my favourite bin find. It's just so easy, I just chuck in all the veg reaching end of life status in the fridge. It also means all those things like broccoli stalks get used up. Of course you can do it in a pot with a blender but if you have the room it's very handy, chuck everything in and 20 minutes later soup
Yup, we save up broccoli stalks etc to throw in.
Love ours. I have a curried pumpkin soup on the go right now. Very quick and easy, no mess.
I usually roast a load of veg in the oven in one go and then bag it and freeze in to portions. I find the roast veg has a slightly nicer flavour to it.
In the winter we use it a few times a week.
We have one with the saute function, so can do some garlic and onion before hand. Very handy to have.
Another fan here - I often make chicken/ham and veg soup with leftover Sunday dinner, especially during the winter months.
Great idea about using one to make gravy too – I had never thought of that 👍
Not tempted so far, convince me! I've already got a saucepan (or a roasting tin) and a blender. We make lots of soups this time of year, no effort - minimal washing up. What advantage would a dedicated gadget give me? Not having a pop, genuinely curious.
Not tempted so far, convince me! I’ve already got a saucepan (or a roasting tin) and a blender. We make lots of soups this time of year, no effort – minimal washing up. What advantage would a dedicated gadget give me? Not having a pop, genuinely curious.
This. I tend to make two different types of soup at once for my family of 5, then it gets used for lunches for a day or two after, as well. It's quite a large quantity. It takes 2 saucepans and a blender and a few minutes peeling and chopping. It's not exactly complicated or onerous enough to need a gadget.
However, if the gadget could peel all the veg, dispose of the waste, cook the soup, clean itself and make croutons... 😀
I've never considered buying a specific tool to make soup. I'm perfectly happy making it the old fashioned way in a large pan and a hand blender. But I do have a lot of free time so don't need to streamline my soup making.
Not tempted so far, convince me! I’ve already got a saucepan (or a roasting tin) and a blender. We make lots of soups this time of year, no effort – minimal washing up. What advantage would a dedicated gadget give me? Not having a pop, genuinely curious.
This. I tend to make two different types of soup at once for my family of 5, then it gets used for lunches for a day or two after, as well. It’s quite a large quantity. It takes 2 saucepans and a blender and a few minutes peeling and chopping. It’s not exactly complicated or onerous enough to need a gadget.
However, if the gadget could peel all the veg, dispose of the waste, cook the soup, clean itself and make croutons… 😀
I think for me, it's the idea of having a decent, healthy-ish lunch to take to work, sorted out as part of getting ready in the morning rather than cooking the night before etc. Minimising effort. making gravy with it sounds like an added bonus
Not tempted so far, convince me
It's a speed thing - 20 minutes for a blended soup, 30 mins for a chunky soup. So I can get up, put the stuff in the maker, take the dog out for a walk, get home and it's sat there, ready to be poured into a flask.
As above, I'm not sneering at them or anything, but I enjoy the process of doing it the traditional way (if we can call a blender traditional). Cooking is a bit of a therapy thing for me.
Just had minestrone for lunch, the fourth portion from a batch I made on Friday night.
And my daughter had broccoli & cheese from a batch I made last night.
Did I mention I like soup?
Soup ..Food of the Gods We have soup for lunch every day of the year. .did I mention I love soup!
I had broccoli and Stilton soup for lunch today and it was handsome.
Don't forget it's not just for soup. It will blend as well without using the 'heat' - I just find it a quick way of making soup, without any fuss. PS DO NOT FILL ABOVE THE MAX LINE - you've been warned, keep it just below if needs be !
It's loads less washing up too. Don't get me wrong, I love making soup, but for a small batch then these are ideal. We're cooking for 9 at Christmas and I'm likely to use it for the soup, or at least as a big blender. The food processor doesn't take the same quantity and is more messy.
Warming up soup from yesterday now... it's another "all the salad bits that have gone all wilty" job.
this. Not roasting or at least sautéing root veg beforehand is just barbaric, so it's never gonna be just a one step process anyway.Not tempted so far, convince me!
Nah... big fan of soup made from roast leftovers... but it's really not 'needed'... don't roast especially for soup... save the energy... the machine cooks up a great spicy parsnip soup from raw, for example.
Thermomix - used daily in our house, soups, sauces, gravy, rice, pesto, tomato sauce, the most delicious mash, chilli, spag bol, complete meals with chicken and pasta, the list goes on…..
this. Not roasting or at least sautéing root veg beforehand is just barbaric, so it’s never gonna be just a one step process anyway.
This +1?
Will it cook things high enough to reduce them as well, or does it need to go in at about the right water content (thinking tomato sauce for pizza)?
Will it cook things high enough to reduce them as well, or does it need to go in at about the right water content (thinking tomato sauce for pizza)?
if you’re talking about a Thermomix then yes, it will sauté. Makes fabulous pizza sauce..😁
if you’re talking about a Thermomix then yes, it will sauté. Makes fabulous pizza sauce..
It should fly you to effing Naples and sit you down in the best pizza restaurant at those prices though 🙀
Yup, so expensive I'd be scared to use it! Soup maker was £35.
Not tempted so far, convince me!
this. Not roasting or at least sautéing root veg beforehand is just barbaric, so it’s never gonna be just a one step process anyway.
A standard tomato soup recipe (along with many other soup recipes) has you sauteing the onions until they are cooked through, before lightly sauteing the rest of the veg and finally adding the stock and other bits. This provides the sweetness from the onions that you don't get if you cook a raw onion in a stock, for example. I'd assume that a soup maker can't cope with individually adding ingredients to be cooked in the correct way, and just cooks everything together? Without sauteing, anything with onion in can taste very oniony. Ditto garlic.
Double post!
Current broccoli soup (with a light dusting of pimenton dulce)...
Without sauteing, anything with onion in can taste very oniony.
It doesn’t. I always put a whole raw onion in. I mean, your theory seems sound enough, but in practise the soup the machines make cooking everything from raw is lovely. I was highly sceptical, would never have bought one… it was a present, one I thought I’d use a few times and then leave in the back of cupboard… but it’s been used every week for years now… nearly always just chopping up roughly raw and leaving it to do everything else… no extra steps needed.
The main benefit is that they don’t make a real mess when blending. Sometimes I make a massive pot of soup then liquidise it in the soup maker
Without sauteing, anything with onion in can taste very oniony.
It doesn’t. I always put a whole raw onion in.
Ok. Interesting. Do I need another gadget? Does anyone want to swap a bread maker for a soup thing? (The bread maker is the most disappointing gadget I've ever bought, and I don't buy many!)
The main benefit is that they don’t make a real mess when blending.
As much as I'd like to argue about soup makers being pointless, this must be true! I make a hell of a mess when I blend my soups down. 😀
Does anyone want to swap a bread maker for a soup thing? (The bread maker is the most disappointing gadget I’ve ever bought, and I don’t buy many!)
I see your bread maker and raise you an ice cream maker.
😹
No, you don’t need one. They are better than you might expect though. Borrow one and see.
Whatever you use to boil your bits of veg in, the secret of good soup is the stock.