Making soup isn’t exactly tough, although some recipes are clearly going to be more complex and take longer than others. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to speed up the process, like buying pre-prepared veg and stock pots. Veg can arrive peeled and chopped so you can use it without fuss, stock pots give rich flavours with much less time needed to sweat down the ingredients and evaporate off extra water. Stock also means you often need less spices in your rack to call on, as it’s all ready mixed into the pot.
Having those short-cuts is a big time saver, but there’s an easy way to make things even faster too. You can head to the local electrical store, or go online and get yourself a state of the art soup maker. If you’ve not seen one of these contraptions before, it’s a bit like a kettle – in fact some people call them soup kettles. They’re significantly different to your average kettle though, as they don’t just heat, they stir and chop too.
In essence, it’s an all-in-one blender and kettle, but it doesn’t stop there. It also uses pre configured setting to create the soup, making it an automatic cooking solution. Different brands have different features, so let’s consider a few.
Tefal
Tefal are a big kitchen brand, a popular choice for pots and pans as well as electronics. They’re famous for their white and stainless steel silver coloured goods, along with creating their solutions to be really easy to use. The soup makers are very popular and straightforward, not least because they’ve limited themselves to a few models rather than loads like other brands.
Cuisinart
For most of us, the Cuisinart name is associated with food processors in decades gone by. While you could be forgiven for thinking they’re confined to the history books, they’re still very much in existence, if a little less famous than in their hey day. One line of their current activity is the soup maker, which is a premium product with a premium price.
Morphy Richards
The big guns of the soup maker market, Morphy Richards soup makers are very popular indeed. They’ve got older models that still sell incredibly well thanks to very low prices, while you still get a lot for your money in terms of the bells and whistles of their features. While they have created a lot more newer items in their range recently, it seems that the older soup makers are still reigning supreme.
If you’re looking for advanced features, Morphy Richards do offer some more expensive updated models too, such as delayed timers and sauté options, but those are features you’ll know you need already if they’re for you. For everyone else that’s new to automatic soup making, the basic models will be sufficient.
Salter
As another kitchen focused manufacturer like Tefal, Salter have also jumped into the healthy eating ring and launched a low priced range of soup makers. While you might not get the impressive value for more that Morphy Richards offer, you will get a very competitive price if they’re your brand of choice. Plus they look great with other products from Salter, so if you’ve got scales or salt and pepper mills, you’ll get a great consistent look around your kitchen surfaces.
Vonshef
As a less well known name, Vonshef are worth a mention as they offer some solid, simple and easy to use soup makers. As you’re not buying a big brand, you’ll often get a lower price, particularly when compared to a brand like Cuisinart. If money is no object, at least in so much as you can comfortably afford the above brands, Vonshef soup makers likely won’t appeal, but for those on a budget they pack quite the punch.