I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it but. . . . .

I don't see the attraction of a 'soup maker' - a saucepan does the job just as well. Put everything in, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. There are more complicated recipes, but start simple and then progress, and enjoy.

why do you feel you have to make soup? I have made it in the past but just don't have the time so don't feel guilty!!

Thank you Monica, you sound my kind of cook, bung it all tog in a pan and simmer. I actually bunged ingredients and stock cube in microwave and then put the mass of veg in my little mixer (mixer meant for one!) and had a tasty soup with lumps, Thank you so much I have always wanted to make soup but it sounds so fiddly and to make things worse my son in law has special soup making appliance so it all seemed beyond me, but not now thanks to you! x

I make soup nearly every day. So simple. Put chopped veggies in a pan, add stock and seasoning and cook for 20 mins. Liquidize if you like it smoother. I don't eat stuff in cans - it's full of garbage and way too expensive. Any soup you don't eat, pop it into the freezer.

I love making soup. If I feel depressed I make quantities of soup, lentils, sweet potatoes and chorizo - plus onions of course - and feel my life has meaning!! Also, there are all these quick meals in the freezer for later. As my grandson says, nutritious and delicious.

I enjoy making soup, as well as eating it, so it’s a win-win situation as they say.
phoenix I love your term ‘Random Vegetable’ and intend to adopt it. My DD always calls it ‘Fridge Gravel Soup’ which sounds rather unsavoury. She keeps coming back for seconds, tho’!
My favourite quickie soup is as follows:
Chop an onion and do the frying bit with a spoon of oil,
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, and one of baked beans, one stock cube, and the empty tomato can of water.
Simmer for 20 mins, then blitz, taste and season.
You can add bacon, other veg, whatever you have available or have time for. It’s very popular with children, probably because of the beans!

One of the best things about making your own soup is that you can use all of the tired wrinkled vegetables i.e.: root vegetables like carrots, parsnips etc that are in the bottom of the fridge or languishing unwanted in the vegetable basket looking forlorn. A slow cooker is excellent for soup as you do not need to do anything apart from chuck everything in with the stock and switch on. If you like a smooth soup, then blitz it with a stick blender, and add a little cream to finish.
Check out a brilliant recipe site called allrecipes for lots of ideas too.

Totally off thread but I keep seeing in recipes for soup etc, which says something like "Vegetarians may use vegetable stock,"
That really annoys me. IMO the may sounds to me as if the writer of the recipe is rather grudgingly giving me their personal permission to change to vegetable stock as if I had not thought of that.

Why not just write "use chicken beef or vegetable stock to suit." Just a silly observation.

I've always done a lot of cooking but never got into making soup. On the rare occasion I've tried it, it just hasn't seemed right.

To take your suggestion even further, nelliem, I'm thinking why not just specify "stock" and the amount required.

I made freezer soup the other day from all sorts of leftovers. Then I refroze it in portions of which I've had a few already. If I remember rightly it contains some beef stew, some chicken stock made from a carcass, tomatoes, sweet red pepper, baby broad beans, carrot, cabbage, bit of mashed spuds....

Delish and so easy. Boil everything up. Blitz in blender. Eat.

Waitrose sell a packet of frozen veg for soup. I keep 2 in the freezer for emergencies. Heat oil and chopped garlic (get this in frozen cubes from Indian shop) Just throw packet into heated pan and stir. Veges melt through add stock (either cube in water or real) and then any left overs etc. if I need some cooked potato I chop two up small and put in microwave for 3 mins.

I have a soup maker I got from Aldi. Chop up onion add 1 teaspoon Olive oil and put into machine switch on. After 3 mins add 3/4 pint water. Stock cube and pre cut pack of veg. Go out and enjoy yourself machine switches off when cooked as has timer. Come back press blend button and reheat, serve with crusty bread. I bough my daughter one as she is very busy working full time and rushes to and fro nursery. She says it saves her time and money as soup cheap and nutritious.