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You won’t get very far with the vast majority of soup recipes if you don’t own a blender or a food processor. It’s a necessity.
If you’re now thinking that you need to get shopping, then do your research first: at RoundTheBlend.co.uk you can find a lot of handy consumer information on blenders and food processors (it's a website maintained by a good friend of mine, and a big soup lover).
But, before you do go shopping, let’s get this blenders vs food processors thing cleared up once and for all.
If you’re a big soup lover, you need a blender.
Why not a food processor?
I’m not actually claiming that you can’t make soup in a food processor. You can. But there are a couple of reasons why it’s a less than ideal way to do it.
First of all, there’s a limit to the amount of liquid you can put in a food processor before it starts leaking all of the place.
With soup, we tend to make big batches, and that means that you’re stuck pouring your mixture into the food processor to be processed in small batches. Then transferring the soup into yet another pan for mixing together again.
That’s time consuming, fiddly and creates a lot of unnecessary washing up. That’s for starters.
Another problem with food processors, when it comes to soup, is that they work on lower powered motors and just can’t puree soups as smooth as most people like them.
If you use a food processor, you’re always going to left with a lumpy soup.
For me, those are reasons enough that a blender is what you need.
I don’t want little lumps in my soup, and I hate washing up.
Convinced? Great. Which Type of Blender Is Best?
You’ve got two choices when it comes to blenders; jug or immersion.
A jug blender is the larger countertop variety. You know, the ones with a motor in the base and a jug that screws onto it.
An immersion blender, if you didn’t know, is a hand blender. It kind of looks like a set of curling tongs that goes straight into the pan to blend your soup.
Both types make great soup, and the choice really depends on whether you want to make other things with your blender besides soup.
What Other Stuff Can I Make?
Well, a blender is a lot more versatile that you may realise.
Using my countertop jug blender I regularly make all sorts of stuff; cakes, breads, pancakes, cheesecakes, frozen cocktails, smoothies, milkshakes and a whole host of other things.
If that sounds appealing, then a jug blender is what you need, as immersion blenders are great for soups but not a lot else.
But wait! Immersion Blenders Have One *Big* Advantage
There’s still a great reason to go immersion.
Washing up.
Blending your soup right in the pan you cooked it in creates a heck of a lot less washing up. That’s a major selling point me, and if I didn’t use my blender for so much other stuff then I’d go with an immersion blender in a heartbeat.
So, if soup is the main thing you want a blender for and you can’t really see yourself doing much else with it, then go for an immersion blender and save yourself some washing up!