My friend Gaynor mentioned that she was having great success with a new gadget, a Morphy Richards soup maker. Apparently she was served a delicious mushroom soup made in one by a friend (in the days when you were allowed to meet socially distanced in the garden) and was so impressed that she got herself one. She now uses it two or three times a week.
I am very much a fan of home made soup but am not always well organised enough to make it in time to have for lunch. (The recipe I normally use is a Nigella one which you can see here.) When Gaynor mentioned how easy her soup maker was to use and how rapidly it made soup I was very tempted. When she told me what a bargain hers was I needed no further convincing and dashed off to buy one. Various models turn up on offer in the usual discount shops all the time.
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I was a bit concerned where it would live in the kitchen as worktop space is filling up with other gadgets (since I got my lovely Kenwood KMix food mixer - did I mention that already?) but it is not all that big, just a bit bigger than an average kettle. My kettle that you see above is quite a small one.
In fact the soup maker is effectively a large kettle with a hand blender inside it. The liquid you put in the pot cooks the veg and the blender bit processes it smooth.
All you have to do is put peeled and diced veg in the pot with the right amount of water and a stock pot or cube and switch it on. You can choose to have the soup chunky or smooth and hey presto you have home made soup about twenty minutes later with hardly any washing up.
I was a bit concerned about the washing up part as the components, all two of them, are not immersible. In reality I found that if I rinsed the top under the tap, filled and rinsed out the pot with clean water, wiped over with a clean cloth, rinsed again and dried, it was dead easy. Quicker than trying to wrestle the bits of a food processor into the dishwasher in fact.
For the first use today I used the recipe in the booklet that came with it to make my usual soup. It was delicious. There are numerous tweaks and changes I can do to experiment with it which I look forward to immensely. Highly recommended.
There are several soup maker recipes on the Good Food website
here.
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This is the same model as the soup maker I was given for Christmas last year. I really love it and as you say, it is so easy to use and clean afterwards. Just one pointer - don't use really old and bendy carrots and parsnips in your soup like you would if making soup in a saucepan. The soup maker does not like really bendy veg...
ReplyDeleteJo, that's a really useful tip. I have been known to put very bendy veg in a soup to use them up but shall resist. What happens to them ??!!
DeleteThe bendy veg would not cook properly and at the end of the cooking time were still hard and were not cut up by the blender bit. They had obviously got stuck in a heap by the blender and stuck to the bottom and got well burnt. Nasty mess! And I did not enjoy scrubbing my nice and relatively new soup maker either. I have never had a problem with veg that is just a tiny bit past it but really bendy veg now gets cooked into soup on the hob : )
DeleteI have read recently that the way to clean burnt food off the bottom of the soup maker is to put a dishwasher tablet or a cup of biological soap powder in it, cover with boiling water and leave for 24 hours. Apparently the burnt food just dissolves and can then be remove with a brush. Worth a try!
DeleteI love mine! A favourite is pea and mint or pea and ham, both made with frozen peas. I usually only make soups using vegetables, but I mage a chunky soup with beef. In reality it started as left overs of a beef casserole with extra bits added. I found that it was a bit too chunky so you can press the button on the right and it whizzes it a bit more until you get the consistency you want.
ReplyDeleteI'd always thought that a soup maker was a gadget looking for a use, but I'm sold on it.
Gaynor, I can see how useful it is, thank you so much for the recommendation!!
DeleteI made cream of potato and leek today, out of leftovers. Traditional style, in a saucepan then stick blender. It was delicious for lunch. Just the weather for it.
ReplyDeleteSusan, leek and potato is one of my favourite soups.
DeleteWe first came to hear of this from Colin's daughter. She sang its praises and consequently we bought one a couple of years ago. In fact I think this may be the one Gaynor mentioned, because I used it once when they came for lunch. Yours is the exact same model as ours. Aren't they great?! (You've the same kettle too! but we differ on the food mixer!) E.x
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I had never heard of soup makers before but wish I had got one years ago.
DeleteI think you've persuaded me that I need one, Jean! I love making soups with whatever veg is in the fridge.
ReplyDeleteSnowy, go for it! Although take note of Jo's words of warning about bendy carrots !!
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