Who uses a blender for making soup? Any really simple recipe ideas?

[mistyoptic]

Stick blender, deffo

Important to let the soup cool before blending. DAMHIKT

 

[fossyant]

@Dave7 have you thought about a soup maker - it's a blender with a heater. It will turn out a soup within 30 minutes and can blend 'chunky' or smooth. Use mine every week to make an onion gravy base for sunday lunch.

 

[briantrumpet]

Stick blender, deffo

Important to let the soup cool before blending. DAMHIKT

The Braun one I've got is stainless steel, so can do hot too. I prefer it to the much more expensive Moulinex one I've got in France, which is not only plastic (and stains with turmeric), but doesn't macerate nearly as quickly.

 

[slowmotion]

Stick blender. Much less washing-up, more fun, and they are really good for making mayonnaise too, but you have to use a container that is only marginally larger diameter than the blender head. Look up the technique on Youtube.

 

[bonzobanana]

I use a Salter soup maker which I picked up from a charity shop for £7.50. It's basically a kettle at the bottom and blender at the top. I throw any old left over rubbish into it and spice it up. I only bought it recently and have only used it twice but seems a brilliant machine and knocks out amazing soup in 25 minutes. I personally think the spice/herbs are more important than the other ingredients. I have yet to follow any recipes as really I just cook and blend up left over bits of ingredients. One mystery so far is I put a whole load of brussel sprouts in with the remains of a a squash expecting the soup to turn out green and at least partial taste of brussel sprouts but apart from a thicker soup there was no indication they were in there. I tend to use a spice/soup mix and nutritional yeast, maybe a stock cube and sometimes a rough bit of cheddar. All meat pre-cooked and typically a little bit of chicken here and there. As I say only used it twice and maybe I've been lucky but both soups came out amazing really. My brother has an allotment so hoping for some organic veg from there occasionally. I'm having more fun experimenting than following any recipes currently. The thing is following recipes can be expensive, getting in the right ingredients so if you just want cheap nutritional soup I prefer using what I actually have that is likely to go to waste if I don't use it in soup.

The salter soup maker seems to be the same as about 10 other importer brands, so I guess its a Chinese design that many companies import. I had no interest in getting a soup maker but bought it as an impulse buy and so glad I did. A really useful device. Of course its brilliant for making soup but another device you have to find space for. However I intend to get back to dieting and fitness in the new year and typically follow a soup and salad diet along with intermittant fasting so seems an ideal device for that.

 

[si_c]

Mrs C uses a Thermomix to make soup. Usually a couple of times a week, Curried Sweet potato is a good one, but Pea and Ham also a good choice.

 

[Dave7]

@Dave7 have you thought about a soup maker - it's a blender with a heater. It will turn out a soup within 30 minutes and can blend 'chunky' or smooth. Use mine every week to make an onion gravy base for sunday lunch.

Got/had one but after Sue died my daughter snaffled it. Worth exploring though, thanks.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Potatoes are a good thickener. If you look at the ingredients in instant packet soups the main ingredient is often potato starch. ( and a load of other preservatives/ stabilisers )
Braun stainless steel stick blender is what we use. Recently got a Ninja multi and use it for basically most things including preparing soup by roasting veg in the big inner pot then adding stock.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I don't know if you're vegetarian or not, but I used to make a bacon and veg soup. Cook your bacon and onion in a pan, then add your carrot and swede (they're cheap too), and one potato. Boil it all up with chicken or veg stock. You can include lentils or bulgar wheat if you want.

The only thing I find is - excessive potatoes give it a very starchy and silky texture. You can perhaps cook the potato separately and drain them before adding to the mix. Or just use a low potato-to-veg ratio like 1:5. Sweet potato is also good.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I use a glass jug blender but stick blender works just as well (and as highlighted means less washing up!).

If you use a base of onion, carrot and celery and a bit of garlic sweated off in butter you can then add just about veg to it and some stock and make a good soup. As above, you can use a bit of potato to thicken if needed. The one thing is to make sure you use enough of the main ingredient to give it flavour, otherwise a lot of soups can end up tasting a bit wishy washy.

It is worth adding a touch of cream to a lot of veg based soups just to give it a silkier texture.

Some favourites:

Cauliflower cheese
Broccoli
Minestrone
Cream of mushroom
Curried lentil
Cannellini and bacon
Sweet and sour corn, veg and noodle.

All very easy recipes to follow and don't require a ton of ingredients.

 

[Dave7]

@Dave7 have you thought about a soup maker - it's a blender with a heater. It will turn out a soup within 30 minutes and can blend 'chunky' or smooth. Use mine every week to make an onion gravy base for sunday lunch.

Right....been looking into that. Problem is the price..... starting at 50ish quid. I can afford it but can't justify it until I check how much use it's going to get.

 

[MichaelW2]

Roast butternut squash soup is good.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

End of week, just bung in any veg that won't survive more than a couple of days and blend it into soup. Now for the magic bit: get a half-dozen or so of those egg-cup sized fridge boxes and fill them with your own wonder-soup flavouring. For example: a teaspoonful of mild curry powder, a drop of Tabasco and fill up with mayonaise; or a teaspoonful of turmeric, a teaspoonful of ground ginger, good sprinkle of celery salt and fill up with soy sauce. Add magic box to random soup, heat and enjoy.

 

[Animo]

Another dead easy one:

Put some frozen peas and a bunch of mint leaves in a pan with enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer briefly. Then transfer to blender along with some creme fraiche and seasoning. Blitz until smooth.

A nice topping is some parma ham, fried until crisp and then crumbled over the top.

 

[Dogtrousers]

My wife makes "bottom of the fridge soup" which is generally good, and varies - obviously - by whatever happens to be lurking in the fridge and looking to be near the end of its usable life.

Other things that make good soup are parsnips (if you like parsnips, some people don't). Jerusalem artichokes (a bit of an odd one but I happen to have grown rather a lot in my garden this year).