Soup maker

www.robertdyas.co.uk/salter-electric-soup-maker-jug-stainless-steel#

At the risk of being boring about a soup maker.

Thank you POGS

Okay, I tried the Cuisinart soup maker this morning. Carrot and coriander because I had lots of carrots and it seemed the most simple. I followed the recipe to the letter.
Even with the carrots cut into slices no thicker than a 50p piece, it took far longer for them to become soft enough to blend than the recipe said it would. I thought the simmer function had gone to sleep but periodically it has a sort of burst of activity and then settles down again. Not sure if this is normal. Perhaps Thingamajig could put me right on that. The finished soup - it made about a litre - was a good consistency but even with extra seasoning it was very bland. I realise that this is not the fault of the soup maker. Will I give it another go? Maybe, if I only wanted a small amount of soup and was not batch cooking. You only have one cooking vessel to wash up - that's got to be a plus.

I bought a tefal soup maker a few weeks ago. I'm impressed with the soups I've made in it so far. Once the veg is chopped, in it goes and 25 minutes later lovely soup to eat! Glad I got one.

Glad you are happy with yours, Mapleleaf. I'm afraid mine is back in the garage!

I don't know about the Cuisenart, Greyduster but the MR blends in fits and starts too, with heating in between. I suppose the carrots or whatever cook faster when broken up a bit. How long was it supposed to take, and how long was it in reality? The MR takes 21 minutes for smooth carrot and coriander, and the carrots are certainly not cut as thin as you say.

The flavour is up to the recipe, as you say. For 1.2 litres of soup I use 600 gm of carrots, a small potato and a small onion (unless it is for Sil with IBS - he doesn't eat onions) The seasoning is a good heaped teaspoon of ground coriander and two or three of Marigold bouillon powder. It doesn't taste bland to me.

It was supposed to take twenty minutes, Elegran, but it took about thirty five. I suppose it's trial and error but considering what this these things cost should you not expect them to be pretty much foolproof? As for the seasoning, I used Knorr vegetable stock pots as I wanted DD to try it and she is vege. May not have been strong enough, and I think he recipe called for a teaspoon of coriander. I may drag it out and try another recipe, but at the moment DH is into making soup the traditional way and we are up to our necks in soup!

You shouldn't need trial and error for an automatic soupmaker, Greyduster The Cuisenart sounds like just an ordinary saucepan with an attached blender blade, not automatic at all. Put it on Ebay or Gumtree and buy a Morphy-Richards!

I have the odd mad day when I peel , boil/simmer , blend and pressure cook and end up with a groaning freezer , I use the Marigold stock too , but it has onion in it so my Sister can't use it as she is very sensitive to onion . I suppose the soup maker would be handy for a day like today when I have a cupboard of empty containers and not a bit of soup left in the freezer but no inclination to do a mammoth cook up !

aggie I find that a full soupmaker is too much of one kind of soup for me to eat up, by the time it is finished I am absolutely fed up with it, so I have one plateful, divide the rest between two containers, put one in the fridge and freeze the other. That way I build up a varied supply of frozen blocks of a reasonable amount each. It can be like consulting a restauarant menu, "Which soup today? The broccoli and stilton? the tomato and basil?"

I am not a great lover of soup. So, not a bit interested to learn how to make this.

I have very little freezer space and a big pot of soup which HAS to be eaten becomes boring. I like the idea of a smaller pot .