soup makers?

I didn't see the point until I used one but I certainly do now! I wouldn't be without it.

I love making soup, but have never seen the point of a soup maker, although I have one, a Cuisinart - in my garage! DD's MiL gave it to her, she used it once and gave it to me. It sits, unloved, in its box!

I think I posted some time ago about our enterprising young greengrocer who's had great success with his soup bags. A £2.99 bag contains the recipe and all ingredients - down to a stock cube, a single garlic clove or a kaffir lime leaf. Aimed originally at the student market they've become hugely popular in the whole community.
In the lead-up to Christmas he sold 1000 copies of his Seasonal Soups book with a guarantee that he'll have the necessary (local) ingredients in stock at the right time.
I bought 3 copies for my family soup-makers!

I made soup this afternoon , in a saucepan , very easy to clean . I whizzed it with my stick thingy , cleaned in the dishwasher . Enough veg soup made for lunch and lots for the freezer . Took 30 mins and I watched TV while it simmered

We had a friend (male) now sadly dead, who made wonderful soup and he always used potato powder in his soups.His stilton and broccoli was superb, I can taste it now in my imagination, one bowl was never enough.

I keep a packet of dried instant mash in my cupboard for soup thickening emergencies, although I do usually add a potato or two to most recipes anyway, like Tegan. I open the packet and pour the contents in a jar to keep for later use. A tbsp. is usually enough.

The reason I just use veg that needs using up is because I am vegetarian. I do not have left-over chicken carcasses, etc.
Tegan, you do not get rid of all the goodness in veg by boiling providing you have a lid on the pan and eat all the soup. Lots of vitamins are water soluble.

I freeze any left over veg, including mashed spuds and bung into my (always) big pans of soup. I never buy tinned soups, preferring to make lentil, leek and potato, chicken and veg and butternut squash with chilli etc. Then I pour them into 'takeaway' tubs and freeze. I use spud masher for the chicken and veg to break it down a bit and the liquidiser thingy for smoother ones.
I came across a great Facebook page - 'Feed a family of 4 for about £20'. It's got some great recipes on it (not advertising am I [worried emoticon])?

Tins of soup are known as treacherous soup in our house. DH often longs for a can of beef consommé or Poachers broth. When he retired I did feel I'd married him for better for worse but not for lunch and soup has been the compromise. I make a pan most days as I get tired of eating the same thing and there is always a bowl sized container in the freezer. Best ones this week have been a red pepper soup where I didn't have to remove the skin from the peppers ,a broccoli and Stilton and a weightwatchers mixed veg recipe from years back. I don't always want a smooth soup. I've done the Bessie's mash to thicken and also dried milk powder to improve the colour and a pinch or turmeric can improve the look of a creamy soup.

Thanks for the frozen mash tip!

I have one and I love it. I don't remember it being excessively expensive and it has been going for a few years so is repaying me nicely. It is very cheap to run and I will freeze any extra that I make. That and my slow cooker keep me going very nicely (and cheaply) at this time of the year.

Yes, and that's given me an idea to make some mash, freeze it and use chuck some in my soup as and when I need it. I would, of course forget that I'd done so, find it in a few years times and wonder what on earth it was [I've just had a freezer sort out tonight; I keep all sorts of old wierd things in it cause I assume it runs more efficently if it's full.Just worries me that someone might eat something they shouldn't one day. There is a bag of peas that says 'to put on leg only' ie for my dodgy knees.

Just seen your post Tegan - same principle I think?

Brummiegran I wasn't concentrating and put too much liquid into my soup the other week. As I was in a hurry to serve it up quickly I looked around for something to thicken it up and hit on some Aunt Bessue frozen mash I had lurking in the depths of my freeze since Adam was a lad. I dumped a couple stirred in a couple of the discs straight from frozen and let them melt into the soup. It did the job and added extra taste and texture.

Ana Perhaps it's GN subliminally advertising these gadgets to us.

I was just wondering myself, Nellie, whether there was a way one could 'block' a thread which was subliminally convincing you that you did indeed want and need yet another kitchen gadget...

Will you lot please stop tempting me to buy another kitchen gadget. I do not have any more space in my cupboards.
I do have an ice cream maker which is rather fun but that is ENOUGH!!! No more gadgets allowed in my kitchen.

Perhaps I should buy one. We like home-made soup - a filling lunch for weight watchers!

I would love a Thermomix- just too expensive!
I use my soup maker all the time. I know you can use a pan and a blender, but I wouldn't make soup so often. With the soup maker I throw it all in before lunch and switch on, it pings when ready and we have half and I freeze half. Excellent.

NotTooOld the British Heart Foundation takes unwanted electrical items in some of their charity shops.

What put me off tinned soup was reading about how much sugar and salt you often get in them. I often make soup from any left over salad that is on it's use by date [the rocket, watercress and spinach ones] as I feel happier eating it when it's been boiled [thus getting rid of any goodness in the process I suppose ].

Juliette - I have a huge smoothy maker lurking in a cupboard somewhere that I never use. It was one of those 'unwanted presents' that you read about. All that stuff just takes up so much room.

Don't think I can fit another gadget in my kitchen!

Funny this thread has appeared as I have just been to Curry's to suss out the soup makers. The cheapest one was £45 but all of them are big and would take up a lot of room. I didn't buy one because I was with DH who said 'what's wrong with opening a tin?' and wandered off. He's not good at shopping. I would like one because you can choose to have lumps in it or not and, as someone else has remarked, you can switch it on and leave it.

No matter what soup I'm making I always add a potato or two to make the soup thicker [and cream; I have to have cream ]. Probably isn't as healthy but it's more filling so I eat less. I always wanted to have a smallholding and read lots of books on the subject. Which is a bit like me reading cookery books and buying ready meals because I'd be useless at getting up early/growing stuff etc etc. But I am currently going through a 'not wasting any food and seeing how little I can spend but at the same time eating healthily' phase. I nearly bought a soup maker the other year but didn't. I'm now using my nutribullet for most blending but have also dug out my old blender as well if I'm making a larger amount.