Thread: Soup machine! Board: Heaven / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I was given a soup maker for Christmas. Wonderful! You can do a fridge remnant roundup or real recipes. What have shipmates found that works particularly well?
 
Posted by Martha (# 185) on :
 
I've just been getting into making soups for the cafe I run - I rarely make them at home. Carrot and orange, leek and potato, cauliflower and stilton are all good. Mushroom is nice if you like mushrooms and don't mind the unappetizing colour! Baked potato soup with cheese and bacon is next on my list. Oh, and spiced lentil soup.
 
Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :
 
Sorry, I don't know what a "soup maker" is. Is this like a crock pot or slow cooker?

If it is, is the question what works especially well in this sort of device, or just soups generally? (I feel like I'm being obtuse - I'm blaming my flu.)
 
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Pangolin Guerre:
Sorry, I don't know what a "soup maker" is. Is this like a crock pot or slow cooker?

If it is, is the question what works especially well in this sort of device, or just soups generally? (I feel like I'm being obtuse - I'm blaming my flu.)

I share your puzzlement, PG. To me, a soup maker is, ummmmm, a pot. I used one a couple hours ago to make a lovely Red Lentil & Lemon soup.
 
Posted by Ian Climacus (# 944) on :
 
I have seen these...

But I use a pot. And haven't graduated beyond vegetable soup. [Roll Eyes]
 
Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Ian Climacus:
But I use a pot. And haven't graduated beyond vegetable soup. [Roll Eyes]

The very first soup I made was a vegetable soup (using The Joy of Cooking recipe). It is still one of my favorites. But my soup making really took off when I bought a copy of 12 Months of Monastery Soups. Brother Victor-Antoine firmly believes that many people don't cook recipes because the recipes seem too complicated. So he makes sure to simplify them to the basics. The result: delicious soups that are easy to make! I heartily recommend the book.
 
Posted by Amorya (# 2652) on :
 
I only make soup on the stove, not in a machine. But my favourite is watercress and cashew.

My mum invented it when she turned over two pages at once in a recipe book. It's delicious! You also need vegetable stock, milk (soya milk works well if you want it to be vegan), and a bit of cream. Throw in a potato if you want it a bit thicker. Blend before serving.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
The machines in the link look to me like a rather complicated and expensive piece of kit for what is, essentially, a very simple operation.

Does it work like a slow-cooker, i.e. you put the ingredients into it and let it get on with it? Is the blending part removable, so that you can have your soup either smooth or chunky?

I love making soup - I probably do it once a week - but I'm not sure that I see the advantage of a soup-machine over a pot (or slow-cooker, depending on how much I want to make) and a hand-held immersion-blender.

If you're looking for suggestions, the following things will all make very decent soup:

Smooth soups (whizzed with the blender)
Bacon, lentil and tomato
Fiddleheads
Broccoli and Stilton
Carrot, tomato and coriander
Mixed root veggies with spices

Chunky soups
Veggie (I use potatoes, onion, carrots and celery)
Potato and leek

Most of the veggies you've got lurking in your fridge will make a decent soup if you've got good stock and stick to the proportions of roughly 1lb of veggies to each pint of stock.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Sorry - cross-posted with Amorya

quote:
Originally posted by Amorya:
... My mum invented [watercress and cashew soup] when she turned over two pages at once in a recipe book ...

[Killing me] That's brilliant! Just as well it wasn't the last recipe in the soup chapter and the next chapter was cakes and puddings ... [Big Grin]

I bet watercress and cashews do make a nice soup. [Smile]
 
Posted by Ian Climacus (# 944) on :
 
He he on the 2-page turnover soup!

Thanks Hedgehog; looks like the book I could do with (and one I may give a friend for a present!) And as we reverse you seasons autumn is next -- when my mind turns to soups. Thanks again.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Hedgehog:
quote:
Originally posted by Pangolin Guerre:
Sorry, I don't know what a "soup maker" is. Is this like a crock pot or slow cooker?

If it is, is the question what works especially well in this sort of device, or just soups generally? (I feel like I'm being obtuse - I'm blaming my flu.)

I share your puzzlement, PG. To me, a soup maker is, ummmmm, a pot. I used one a couple hours ago to make a lovely Red Lentil & Lemon soup.
Thanks to Ian Climacus for the link upthread. A soup maker is essentially a blender with a heating element, and a variety of functions; heating, blending, boiling, steaming, and going the whole hog to produce smooth or chunky soups.

The beauty is that all the ingredients go in together, switch on, and the soup is ready without any further input from you, except final additions such as cream and thickening and switching off the machine.

One small bonus is that for those of us on eating plans such as Slimming World, no fat is required as there is no preliminary sauteing of the ingredients. I made leek and potato, and carrot and coriander soups in this way and they were very good. Any added cream/quark/crème fraiche goes in at the end.
 
Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :
 
Not that I ever disliked soups, but a few years ago I had severe stomach problems (mercifully, now mostly addressed), and came to rely on soups a great deal. It forced me to be much more creative, and now, winter or summer (so many beautiful summer soups!), it's rare that I don't have a pot in the fridge.

I don't have a soup maker, but an immersion blender - it's a bit of a unitasker, but at least it occupies very little space.

I make probably 12 different soups in semi-rotation. My borscht has brought me fame! Songs are sung of it. Minestrone (begin building by gently rendering cubed pancetta in olive oil). Cabbage soup made with a pork hock broth (caraway and allspice berries). Potato and leek (with tarragon). Indian brown lentil, spinach and lemon, chilled, in summer. White bean and cured chorizo.
 
Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 
jacobsen--

"Quark"? You add sub-atomic particles to your soup? (Though I suppose they're already there...)

Or is there another definition?

Thx.
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
I use the five-litre slow cooker for making large quantities of bone broth or chicken stock, which I freeze. Soups I make on the stove top so that I can sauté onions, leeks, celery, carrot, etc.
 
Posted by Ian Climacus (# 944) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
"Quark"? You add sub-atomic particles to your soup? (Though I suppose they're already there...)

[Big Grin]

It's a dairy product.
 
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
I defrosted a mystery soup the other day when it was cold (I must be more disciplined about labelling). I thought it was kumara(sweet potato) and carrot, but I turned out to be chickpea and was yummy.

Apart from the chickpea, which requires boiling, and a quick store cupboard lentil soup which Babybear posted eons ago, I make all my soups in a 5 litre crockpot. For me soup is not just a nutritious food, it's also useful as an item of exchange when I ask my builder friend to do small jobs that require tool using skills.

Huia
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
The last mystery soup I defrosted turned out to be apple sauce. [Big Grin]

[ 14. January 2018, 07:33: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 
Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
I use a 40 year old prestige pressure cooker - super soups in 15 minutes.

Yesterday I used peas, sprouted beans, potato and leek.

Marvellous!
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
My wife is a dab hand at soup and used to make soup in a pressure cooker years ago. It worked well but we felt that the different flavours hadn't had enough time to "blend". But, then, to our mind soup always tastes better when reheated on the day after it's made!

[ 14. January 2018, 08:18: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
My speciality is Leftover Soup - which is, of necessity, a highly variable recipe. There are a few pointers - if the principal leftover is chickeny or fishy then I head towards julienned vegetables, spicy stock cubes from the Chinese supermarket and coconut milk. If beefy, add chilli, beans and tomato. If root vegetables, curry powder.

I am a reckless adder of things from jars: the other day I made (leftover) beef olive, haricot bean and Tomato and Jalapeño Relish soup.
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
My speciality is Leftover Soup.

My wife's, too.
 
Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :
 
Recently made a curried leek and sweet potato, which was good, but a firm favourite is Butternut squash, chilli, ginger and coconut.

I often end up making "green soup" which is a leftover soup of green stuff that's going a bit squishy at the bottom of the fridge. Mr D doesn't much like it.
 
Posted by Sarasa (# 12271) on :
 
I was looking at soup makers in the Lakeland Catalogue recently. I guess these are useful if you make a lot of soup and have the space to store the machine. One of my New Year's resolutions was to make more soup but I have a tiny kitchen so it's getting made the traditional way. Last week it was chickpea and bulger wheat, this week it'll be ribollita, the Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall recipe (others are available). We quite often do bottom of the fridge soup too.
 
Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 
Another soup maker convert here. It has saved hours washing up pans and the blender, not to mention saving hours scrubbing the top of the cooker where I spilled soup, transferring it between pan and blender.

It helps use up the courgette glut in summer and leftover parsnips in winter.
 
Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
My wife is a dab hand at soup and used to make soup in a pressure cooker years ago. It worked well but we felt that the different flavours hadn't had enough time to "blend". But, then, to our mind soup always tastes better when reheated on the day after it's made!

Agreed.

I eat a bowlful and save the rest for the next day, and the day after. I’m not the cook in our house so this soup making is quite a departure and the chef likes it, which is accolade indeed.

[Smile]
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
... there is no preliminary sauteing of the ingredients ...

Do you mean just that you don't have to, or that you can't? It's something I always do when making soup unless I'm using the slow-cooker, and I'd miss the extra flavour that sautéing brings.

It's amazing how nice a soup you can make from the most unlikely ingredients. D. loves soup (it's his default starter in a restaurant), and his definition of a good restaurant is one that can make a soup that he likes out of ingredients that he doesn't.

When we were house-sitting last year, we'd been encouraged to use up things in the fridge, and I passed the soup test with flying colours when I made soup from a head of broccoli (which D. hates) and a lump of Stilton (which he likes but I don't).

I quite like the idea of a soup-maker (now it's been explained [Big Grin] ), especially as it looks as though the capacity would be about right for two of us. Whether I could justify the expense is another matter.
 
Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
I often judge the quality of a restaurant by its soup. Once I went to a small place in Williams, AZ by the Grand Canyon and they served a delicious veggie and lentil soup. We talked to the owner/chef and found he was a chef from a large city who wanted his own place in a wonderful environment. I could have guessed just from the soup!
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I often judge the quality of a restaurant by its soup.

I often judge it - seriously! - by the state of its toilets.
 
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
I often judge the quality of a restaurant by its soup.

I often judge it - seriously! - by the state of its toilets.
You really, really don’t want to go to China.

OTOH, I often take the packets or pots of instant noodle soups from the local Chinese grocer as a starting point for a quick lunch. Plus, as I’ve mentioned, the Tom Yum stock cubes, and also the various tofu products.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
... there is no preliminary sauteing of the ingredients ...

Do you mean just that you don't have to, or that you can't? It's something I always do when making soup unless I'm using the slow-cooker, and I'd miss the extra flavour that sautéing brings.

If you want to sauté the ingredients, you would have to do that separately. But the three soups I've made without doing so have worked very well. Flour needs to be mixed in or added after you've put in the liquid, or it may burn, not at the end of the cooking process, as I rather misleadingly implied in my earlier post.
 
Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 
My soup maker does have a sauté function; I just turn it on without the lid/blender on the jug, add oil and the ingredients and stir them around for a while before adding the liquid. Then I put the lid on and start the cooking time. No added washing up!
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
My blender blades are at the bottom of the jug, not attached to the lid. That's why sautéing is not an option with my (admittedly inexpensive) machine.
 
Posted by Landlubber (# 11055) on :
 
Not casting aspersions on your soup maker, just encouraging Piglet! In fact, blades in the base sounds safer to me.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Thanks for the explanations, both. I think Landlubber's immersion-blender-type one would probably suit my cooking style better, which wouldn't surprise me, as I always gravitate to the one I can't afford ... [Disappointed]

eta: How long (generally) do they take to cook?

[ 15. January 2018, 05:54: Message edited by: Piglet ]
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
20-30 minutes.
 
Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
I sauté, pressure cook and then use a stick blender. All in the same pan, 20 minutes start to finish and very easy to clean [Big Grin]
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
I've never quite got it right with stick blenders. Usually the kitchen, myself and the cats get sprayed... [Ultra confused]
 
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
My stick blender and crockpot are my favourite kitchen appliances. I must admit though Jacobsen it took me a while to learn that the stick blender goes into and comes out of the soup turned off. [Roll Eyes]

Huia
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
I've never quite got it right with stick blenders ...

They're easy enough if you're careful with them, and so easy to clean - just run under a hot tap and switch on to the slow setting and Bob's your uncle.

I've never sussed pressure cookers. My mum used to use them, but I have a vague memory of one exploding, which put me off. Someone gave us one as a wedding present, and it remained in its box until I put it into a silent auction when we were in St. John's and someone very kindly bought it; she said all it needed was a rubber bit to replace one that had perished and it was as good as new.
 
Posted by Leaf (# 14169) on :
 
For a whizzed-up soup, my favourite is this carrot and cashew soup, but I usually substitute ras el hanout for curry. I throw in butternut squash if I have some around.

I've been on a soup-making bender lately; we've all had colds, and the weather has been around -40C windchill. In the last ten days I've made a legendary minestrone; carrot and cashew; and an Asian mushroom soup with shiitake, carrots, cabbage, noodles, ginger and garlic.

I'm not sure if the soup-making machines I've seen online, courtesy of this thread, would have a big enough capacity... I tend to make a vat!
 
Posted by Leaf (# 14169) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Pangolin Guerre:
My borscht has brought me fame! Songs are sung of it.

Stop right there. White borscht or beet borscht? Beef-based or all vegetable? These are important soup shibboleths (which would be very hard to say while sipping soup.)
 
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
A friend of mine is singing the praises of the Nutribullet. It occurred to me that I could use it in place of a jug blender, would that work?
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Since it has become clear that different machines have different functions, you would need to research a particular make.

A swift google search defines it as a blender. No mention of cooking the ingredients. And it looks like a jug.

[ 16. January 2018, 08:53: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 
Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 
I use a large stockpot and a stick blender. Sweet potato and butternut squash soup is a current favorite.
 
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
I no longer have a liquidiser jug as part of my food-processor as the last time* I poured in a hot mixture from a pan to whizz it into a smooth soup, it poured straight out again in a stream around the blades. So perhaps not?

* It had worked several times previously.
 
Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :
 
Curiosity, that sounds as if either something round the base needs tightening, or there is a rubber ring/washer/gasket which may have perished and needs replacing.

Or possibly the jug has cracked? [Confused]

[ 16. January 2018, 12:35: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
 
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
The rubber ring didn't like the hot / boiling liquids. Which was a pain, because I most used it for making soups.
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
We have an automatic soup maker.

If we have any leftovers my wife automatically makes soup.
 
Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Large stockpot at the Image household. Bone broth, chicken ( from feet) beef, and fish kept in the freezer, at all times. We have soup at least twice a week. Favorite at the moment in pho
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
We have an automatic soup maker.

If we have any leftovers my wife automatically makes soup.

[Killing me]

Is Mrs. Balaam really the Soup Dragon?

We went to a local eaterie for lunch today, and they didn't quite pass D's soup test. The soup of the day was potato, dill and dill pickle, and it didn't really work. The dill flavour was OK, but the dill-pickle flavour was just a bit too noticeable. It wasn't horrid, but it wasn't one we'd be likely to try and replicate.
 
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Today's cooking included one of our favourite soups: Black Cavalo Nero Soup, I ignore all suggestions to liquidise as my daughter hates liquidised soup after being on a liquid diet at a teenager.
 


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