advice sought about cooking appliance

The rather smart Lakeland one only does 1.4 litres if hot.
I admit I like the look of it though.

eddiecat78

Caleo If your budget would stretch to £150 the Lakeland Touchscreen Soup Maker would save your dil a lot of time and is very easy to clean

The trouble with soup-makers is they don't really seem very big.
I make about 5 litres at once. They all seem to be too small to me.

spabbygirl

thanks for that nannarose, I just bought a mezzaluna

Oh I really hope it works well for you!

For Caleo - here's a link to Lakeland, usually good quality. www.lakeland.co.uk/in-the-kitchen/cutting-and-chopping/mandolines-slicers-and-choppers/choppers and a chopper from QVC www.qvcuk.com/cooks-essentials-5-blade-press-chopper-storage-lid.product.822452.html ours came from KleenEze (as was) so check them if their successor leaves you a booklet?

I agree with the ninja chopper. I have one and its great. I cant chop veg due to arthritis in my fingers so this is a perfect for me.

Use a mini chopper but make sure the controls are not too small. Otherwise buy frozen prechopped veg such as the base mix at Morrisons, contains the basic soup and casserole veg. I'm sure other supermarkets do their own. I find it's easier to use just a small amount that way.

I bought a mini chopper from Lakeland, from the 'Good Grips' range - it is very efficient, assuming you can thump the handle and don't have arthritic fingers.

I have a kenwood food processor does everything chops veg, grates, makes bread, pastry, a true all rounder.

Caleo for scraping carrots I use a metal pan scourer, it works a treat.

I second the thermomix - i have bought one on hp - I use it every day. its a miracle worker

Must Have Ideas has a good manual food chopper with different blades for different shapes/slices

Caleo

Please advise me about any appliance you know of that helps with cutting and chopping vegetables and herbs for soup. Thanks very much!

I use very sharp knives and herb scissors.

I was gifted a Tower cavaletto glass bowl chopper. I would never have bought such a thing, but it's the best thing ever.

thanks for that nannarose, I just bought a mezzaluna

There’s a reason already chopped vegetables are available - for ease of cooking for people with limited mobility, resources or time.

Your daughter - who says she prefers to do it by hand, the “simpler way” is missing the point. Just how valuable is her time anyway? And yours?

New gadgets just accumulate when you find out they don’t work as you wish. The simpler way is to leave all he prep-work up to the purveyor.

Personally I have a mini 2-3 cup capacity electric food processor that is handy and might work for you, but I do not use it to chop vegetables because I would not want irregular cut veggies.
USA Gundy

Although this is a US link, it explains a mezzaluna really well, and lots of good cook shops sell them. They are best used with the concave board (DH made mine).
www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/tools-products/mezzaluna
I also do a lot of chopping, and this makes all the difference to me - although good ones are a bit of an outlay, they are simple, no elecricity!

I've got a Kenwood mixer and have an attachment which chops veg into centimetre cubes. You prepare the veg, peeling, scraping whatever and cut into bits small enough to go down the shute, and bingo, perfect centimeter cubes. Only any good if you've got the mixer but it makes soup look rather posh.

I use a Nicer Dicer

I use a mini chopper/processor for one, easy to use. B&M around £7

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202310/medium-428099-kenwood.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202310/medium-119179-kenwood-elements.png

I make a lot of veggie soups too. I just give carrots a scrub with a nail brush rather than scrape or peel them.

My Kenwood food processor has a blade that can be flipped over, one side for slicing, one for grating. You just feed the ingedients down a funnel opening in the lid. It's the blade next to the sliced red onion in the picture.

I put the various elements of the processor in the dishwasher (not the base with the cable, obviously) but they are easy to hand wash, taking care with the blades, of course.

Mine cost £30 in John Lewis but that was in 2019.

Caleo If your budget would stretch to £150 the Lakeland Touchscreen Soup Maker would save your dil a lot of time and is very easy to clean

PS I noted someone's advice to buy prepared chopped veg. However she would not like do this as she believes in buying simplest ingredients. I don't suppppose there is a device that scrapes carrots too.

By the way, is one of these food processors eeasy to clean?

I'll tell you what it is. My daughter in law makes delicious veg soup which she thickens with potato and adds celery, carrots , parsley etc. She makes large batches and freezes portions for me too as I no longer cook as I can't move about without becoming tired and shaky. I was wanting to help by buying her an apparatus if she would like one. Thanks for all the helpful advice. She is strong and fit but I am concerned about all her labour washing and chopping the veg. for a large potful f soup. I never had a food processor and did not know if these do cutting as well as fine chopping.

Caleo, I use my old food processor.

Caleo, I use my food processor for that. The Zyliss looks good Shysal - and simpler too.