Drizzle with yogurt, top with the crispy prosciutto and sprinkle with cilantro. The Soup Maker and Blender is as sleek an appliance as I’ve seen. With its glistening charcoal finish and easy-to-read bright red LED displays, it’s like something out of the dashboard of a Bentley. Spend their days obsessing about all the delicious things that go into our stomach. So it makes sense they’d know what gadgets are best suited to the creation of good food.
Starting with hot stock gives it a better chance to add more flavour and taste. Chop your ingredients into small pieces, especially tough veggies such as potatoes, carrots, squash and turnip. This allows the vegetables to fully cook in the short soup maker cycle. One of the best parts of the Blend and Cook Soupmaker is the cleanup.
Whether you are making chunky or smooth soups, jams, sauces for pasta, curries or tasty risottos you can complete every stage of your recipe in the Cuisinart Soup Maker. Watch your ingredients as they cook inside the robust glass jar, adjust the heat settings, add ingredients and stir as required to achieve perfect results. The Cusinart Soup Maker and Blender looks to streamline the entire soup process.
The cuisinart pots and pans set was one of the better-looking models I tried. A sleek and slender design, it doesn’t take up too much space and isn’t an ugly machine that should be stashed away when not in use. Whoever came up with the advertising slogan, “Soup is good food” was spot on. And good for you, too, especially when you make it yourself. Cuisinart is set to introduce (sorry U.S., looks like just U.K. for now) the Cuisinart Soup Maker in September 2009.
Often, there’ll be ‘smooth’ or ‘chunky’ settings, which, naturally, provide a creamy or bitty soup. You can, cook, stir, simmer and blend in the one machine without the need for extra pots and pans and watch your ingredients as they cook inside the robust glass jar. You can adjust the heat settings, add ingredients and stir as required to achieve the texture you want. Blending Control plus Pulse and StirThe blending control knob features 4 speeds – plus pulse function – allowing you to blend ingredients to desired consistency.
The soup maker is designed to help you create delicious homemade soups from start to finish. Even the ability to lightly saute aromatics is integrated. For example, you could start by softening some onions and garlic on the nonstick heater plate, and then add ingredients to blend.
The advantage for me is that there’s only one thing to wash up instead of saucepan, stick blender and jug. Inevitably I used to end up with blended soup up the wall, over the worktop and usually me! However it just works differently to a hob by allowing the heat to dissipate through the liquid rather than continual bubbling. As you can’t blend while heating like many soup makers which offer a smooth setting, it does mean you need to chop vegetables well to ensure you end up with a smooth consistency.
All the devices tested here cook up a smooth, creamy meal in between 20 to 30 minutes. While you’ll still have to chop your veg, you then simply chuck everything into the machine, which usually looks like a traditional blender, add stock or hot water, and you’re good to go. Once you’ve inserted the ingredients and turned it on, you can simply set and forget until it’s time to serve. Able to take cold ingredients too, a soup maker can also be used to create smoothies and milkshakes and even crush ice for your Mojito.
Having experienced first hand how easy and fun it was to make delicious soup from scratch with this blender, I couldn’t wait to bring mine home. The Soup Maker and Blender is as sleek an appliance as I’ve seen. With its glistening charcoal finish and easy-to-read bright red LED displays, it’s like something out of the dashboard of a Bentley. Whether you’re a fan of bisque or borscht, French onion or oxtail, chowder or cock-a-leekie, there’s no denying the soothing feeling of a warm bowl of soup. And now that autumn is in full swing, it’s officially soup season.
Our bakeware is perfect for pleasing a crowd or spending quality time with your own little sous chef. Overall, a strong soup maker which allows for more customisation, but let down by being large and weighty. “Soup is one of the simplest foods,” Harris explains, “which sadly means it is often the dumping ground for sub-standard ingredients.” Robert Welch Signature Kitchen Knife.12cm blade hand-honed to perfect angle. Fully forged from single piece of German stainless steel.