Soup maker vegetable soup.

Add some brandy to the finished mushroom soup.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202310/medium-721771-garlic-peeler.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202310/medium-361752-garlic-chopper.jpg

To cut down the work on the garlic, and the garlic-scented fingers, invest in a couple of small gadgets. I have them, and they both really work.. You just trim the base of the garlic clove, put it into the peeler and roll it back and forth on the table. The skin is rubbed off without having to pick at it with your fingernails.
Then you put it into the garlic chopper and roll that back and forth, and is chopped up by the sharp blades - which you never have to touch. The longer you roll it, the finer it gets, without ever touching the garlic. If you rinse it under the cold tap straight away as they advise, it comes clean with no effort but what they don't tell you is that the best way to scrape the last bits of chopped garlic out is with the handle of a teaspoon.

www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenCraft-Magic-Silicone-Garlic-Peeler/dp/B00TQR1UKW?tag=gransnetforum-21
www.amazon.co.uk/Chefn-1254516-Garliczoom-Chopper-Plastic/dp/B07DNPCZMZ?tag=gransnetforum-21

I doubt you can rescue your soup. I’ve had really bitter tasting courgettes on occasions and they’re awful.
I tend to stick with root vegetables and onions as a base now but if I’ve got an odd sprout, leek or pepper I’ll throw that in. The worst soup I ever made was with Jerusalem artichokes!

Elegran

Add some brandy to the finished mushroom soup.

I add brandy to top of many soups. In the bowls as children are served from the same huge pots of most everything cooked here.

Germanshepherdsmum

I wouldn’t be without my soup maker - no more standing over a pot, adding things bit by bit, stirring, blending. Just press the button and get on with something else.

Absolutely! A little cynical when I had it as a gift, but am delighted with the delicious soups it produces with the minimum of effort. 😊

Norah I'm with you I gve away the soup maker I got as a gift .I much prefer to make it in a pot.I dont do gadgets ,I have a hand whisk and a blender I got over 48 years ago as a wedding present and with some decent knives I make soup most days .I keep my sons family in fresh soups,lentil (smooth lentil) made with ham ,scotch broth made with lamb ,mushroom chicken and rice ,cullen skink and chicken and sweetcorn have been this weeks.What we dont use on the day is frozen.My GD often comes through the door asking for a favorite soup to take home with her.Soup needn't take more than 45 minutes if you have stock made in the fridge.
I like the prep its part of the enjoyment of the finished dish

When we have a glut of courgettes from the garden I always make soup with it. It has never been bitter.

I think you'll have to ditch the batch. I'd vote for the courgette too, I often find them very bitter. Bitter courgette fried in butter - piquant; bitter courgette dominating a whole soup - Bleah.

I like my soup maker, got it on the side ready to make some as I type. What I like best is that it traps the smell of it cooking inside. I live in a tiny flat, so that's a big plus.

Bitter courgettes are a particular phenomena explained in the link in my first post and most courgettes are not bitter. I had a problem a couple of years ago when one bush of courgettes produced only bitter frui, so I pulled it out.

paddyann54

Norah I'm with you I gve away the soup maker I got as a gift .I much prefer to make it in a pot.I dont do gadgets ,I have a hand whisk and a blender I got over 48 years ago as a wedding present and with some decent knives I make soup most days .I keep my sons family in fresh soups,lentil (smooth lentil) made with ham ,scotch broth made with lamb ,mushroom chicken and rice ,cullen skink and chicken and sweetcorn have been this weeks.What we dont use on the day is frozen.My GD often comes through the door asking for a favorite soup to take home with her.Soup needn't take more than 45 minutes if you have stock made in the fridge.
I like the prep its part of the enjoyment of the finished dish

Thank you.

I shall borrow one and make an attempt. I only hope it makes as much soup as we require for our family = as my pot is perfect.

You’ll only get four bowls from it Norah.

Germanshepherdsmum

You’ll only get four bowls from it Norah.

Oh. Well, thank you for advising me.

I just bung the ingredients in a saucepan, simmer for 20 minutes and then finish with either liquidizing or adding cream.

I have made soup in the slow cooker, in batches to freeze, it’s a lot cheaper to run, can be ignored for hours and won’t catch.

M0nica

Bitter courgettes are a particular phenomena explained in the link in my first post and most courgettes are not bitter. I had a problem a couple of years ago when one bush of courgettes produced only bitter frui, so I pulled it out.

Yes, there was a problem with the seeds sold a couple of years ago.

All the courgettes we've grown this year have been fine.

Love our soup maker

Perhaps some of you make soups without lumps and bits?Usually cooked pasta, rice, pulses, lentils, diced veg or couscous are present in the bowls.

Different style I reckon, we eat easy peasant food as mum made.

I use a saucepan and a blender. Much easier than a soup maker. Also can make more if required. Agree that your ingredients should not have resulted in a bitter taste. I tend to use some frozen leeks instead of onions. Again much easier and a smoother taste!!! I use anything that I think could go together.

Couldn't be bothered with the faff of blending. Soupmaker does it all no bother.

It’s easy to make soup in the soup maker with all the ingredients intact Norah, it gives you the option to choose what consistency you want. You can go as peasant as you like with it.

It’s a personal thing I know, but I always think courgettes are a bit of a waste of time and effort.

My (non blended) vegetable soups - known in this house as Dustbin Soups (my mother’s term) - contain whatever I’ve got, which could be any or all of potato, carrot, swede, celeriac, turnip, always onions and some celery (for flavour). Plus a stock cube or two, chicken or veg - or chicken stock from a carcass if I’ve got some.

Any green veg - e.g. cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, quartered sprouts go in just for the last few minutes.

If I have any parsley, some of that will go in, too.
I usually include a handful of red lentils/and/or pearl barley or orzo pasta. These are main meal soups, though - not for light lunches.

Aveline

Couldn't be bothered with the faff of blending. Soupmaker does it all no bother.

I've got a stick blender, it's easy as long as you remember to turn it off before you take it out of the liquid!

Sometimes I use the soup maker, if I want to make a bigger batch, I use a large pan.

Soup maker addict here. Yes to potatoes, onion, a couple of carrots, garlic and a veg stock cube, in fact that's the basis for my veggie soup.
(I rarely have celery in the fridge, but if I did, it'd go in)

Germanshepherdsmum

You’ll only get four bowls from it Norah.

It depends how big your bowls are. I get six good-sized bowls from my soupmaker, Too much for one person to eat one after another, so I freeze most of it and always have a choice of several varieties in the freezer to microwave. The medium size of Lakeland's basic plastic freezer box holds two platefuls, so I eat two platefuls fresh and freeze two boxes full. (before anyone upbraids me for buying plastic, I have had these boxes for at least ten years.)

Whether a soupmaker is for you depends very much on personal choice, so I don't know why anyone would seem to imply that it is somehow morally better to use a saucepan and a blender and laziness or gadgetry to use a machine that does both. When I had a house full of hungry teenagers, I used to make soup in large quantities, but now that there is only me, even 6 portions is a lot. Horses for courses.