Last updated on April 6th, 2022
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Soup makers take all the time and effort out of making a bowl or two of nutritious, hot, homemade soup. You can have soup from scratch in as little as 21 minutes and these kitchen appliances also make smoothies for nourishing breakfasts and snacks.
We review the Best Soup Makers, giving you their pros and cons as well as their distinguishing features and our recommendations. Our Buyer’s Guide discusses the basic features of a soup maker and all the extra functions you may find to make your soup-making even easier.
Best Pick
Best Budget Pick
Best Premium Soup Maker
Best Soup Makers Reviews
1. Morphy Richards Saute and Soup Maker 501014
Best Pick
Buy on Amazon.co.uk
The Morphy Richards Saute and Soup Maker 501014 is a brushed stainless steel model with a generous capacity of 1.6L. This is enough soup for a family on a cold day, or for a smaller group with larger soup bowls.
Morphy Richards seem to dominate the Best Soup Maker category and with good reason. This is a well-established consumer electronics brand with a worldwide reputation for quality. This model of soup maker is a very stylish design with the usual MR colours and the control panel on top of the handle rather than the lid. It also has some extra features over other soup makers.
Let’s start with the regular features. The controls are through touch buttons on the control panel where there’s also an LCD display that counts down the minutes left in the cooking process. You have the choice of a chunky soup that takes 28 minutes, a smooth soup that cooks for 21 minutes or a smoothie that’s ready in 2 minutes. There is also a blend function if you want your soup/smoothie to be extra velvety.
Now for the extras. Instead of cooking soup from raw vegetables, use the sauté function to give them a bit more flavour before making the soup. The sauté button is easily found on the handle on the side of the jug; just press it and let the jug heat up before adding the vegetables. Saute to your desired doneness, then add any liquid and start the soup process.
A really useful feature is the pause feature. This lets you open the lid to add more ingredients or liquid during the cooking process. When you’ve done this, just press the programme button again and it will continue the process – it doesn’t start all over again like most other soup makers. This is especially useful if you like to add fresh herbs or seasonings that don’t need a lot of cooking towards the end of the soup-making time.
This MR Saute and Soup Maker doesn’t have a self-clean feature. Online reviewers report that you need to be especially careful when you wash the jug as the electrical connections in it are very sensitive to water. Get them wet and they may not work anymore.
Pros
- Brushed stainless steel soup maker with a 1.6L working capacity.
- Makes 1.6L of soup in 21 minutes.
- Control panel on top of the lid has touch button controls for all the features.
- LED display on the control panel shows how much time is left in the chosen process.
- Four settings for smooth soup, chunky soup, juice and manual blend.
- Saute function to pre-cook your veggies and spices.
- Pause function to add seasonings during cooking.
- Non-stick coating inside the jug.
- Recipe booklet included.
Cons
- No self-clean function.
- Difficult to clean.
Our recommendation
The Morphy Richards Saute and Soup Maker 501014 is our choice for Best Soup Maker. This model goes beyond the basic soup maker options of chunky or smooth soup and smoothies to give you a saute function to lightly fry your vegetables for extra flavour. There’s also a pause function for you to add in extra seasonings or ingredients within the cooking time and not need to restart the cooking process. This is an excellent choice for a soup maker for families for those who regularly include soup or smoothies in their eating plan.
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2. Morphy Richards Compact Soup Maker 501021
Best Budget Pick
Buy on Amazon.co.uk
The Morphy Richards Compact Soup Maker 501021 has a 1L capacity jug which is a useful size for one or two people’s soup needs. This brushed stainless steel unit has the traditional Morphy Richards black and orange trim, though that’s more subtle than with other models from this brand.
This soup maker has the usual functions of smooth soup, chunky soup, a drinks feature and a blend feature. The drinks function is to make smoothies and milkshakes; the blend one is to further blend the soup if its consistency is not to your liking after it’s finished cooking. You know how much time you have to wait for the process to finish as that’s displayed on the LED display on the control panel on the top of the lid as well.
Some online reviewers report that that vegetable bits in the chunky soups sometimes stick to the bottom of the jug where they burn and so close down the unit. This is a common problem reported by most soup makers. To avoid this problem, cut your vegetables into smaller chunks and add half a cup of liquid (water or stock) to the soup maker before putting the vegetables in.
If you haven’t much experience in making your own soups, make sure to try out the 30 recipes in the free recipe book. Though it’s really just an experiment of throwing in some stock and some vegetables and seeing what comes out.
Pros
- Brushed stainless steel soup maker with a compact design.
- Makes 1L of soup – that’s 3 starter or 2 main portions.
- Control panel on top of lid has touch button controls.
- Smooth (19 minutes) or chunky soups (25 minutes), manual blend and drinks functions available.
- Drinks function is for smoothies and milkshakes.
- LED display counts down time left in the process chosen.
- Recipe/instruction booklet included.
- Non-stick coating is easy to clean.
Cons
- Has sticking problems with thick or chunky soups.
Our recommendation
The Morphy Richards Compact Soup Maker 501021 lets you cook a smaller volume of soup in its 1L jug than the other models in our review. If you only need a bowl or two of deliciousness, this compact stainless steel model is a great choice. Smooth soup in less than 20 minutes can’t be beaten on a cold day and even waiting almost half an hour for chunky soup isn’t too bad.
The Morphy Richards Compact Soup Maker 501021 is our choice for Best Budget Soup Maker.
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3. Ninja Foodi Blender and Soup Maker [HB150UK], 1.7 Litres
Best Premium Pick
Buy on Amazon.co.uk
The Ninja Foodi Blender and Soup Maker [HB150UK], 1.7 Litres is different to all the other soup makers in our review. Other soup makers are appliances with blending arms for the soup; this Ninja model is a full-scale Ninja blender that also makes soup. This is why it’s the most expensive model in my review (as of November 2021).
Let’s start by covering the cooking functions available in this unit – and we find that soup is only one part of what this multi-functional appliance can make. There’s the usual smooth soup and chunky soup selections.
But also in the Cook part of the control panel are functions for making jam and sauce. There’s also a sauté function that lets you fry your vegetables before putting them in the soup. But unlike other soup makers with the sauté feature, you can first chop the vegetables in the Ninja (find button under Pre-cook section), sauté them there and then make the soup – all without using another saucepan.
As for the non-cooked section of the features, there are automatic programs for blending smoothies, frozen drinks, desserts and milkshakes. You can also blend manually, turn the cooking process on and pulse the blender at three different speeds.
Everything is done via touch buttons on the control panel on the front of the Ninja soup maker. That’s also where you go to find out how much time is left in your chosen process and to use the self-clean option instead of washing the unit by hand. Although this blender and soup maker has 10 different Auto-iQ programs and six ways of manually using it, it’s still easy to use.
If you’re new to making soups from scratch, you may want to also buy the authorised blender book especially for this Ninja blender and soup maker, which covers both cold and hot items and soups.
Pros
- Stainless steel full Ninja blender that that makes up to 1.7L of soup as well.
- Blends hot and cold liquids.
- Chops, sautés, blends and cooks.
- Built-in heating element quickly cooks ingredients directly in the jug.
- Control panel on the front of the unit base contains touch buttons and a digital readout of the time remaining in the process.
- 10 programmes include smooth or chunky soup (both in 20 minutes), jam and sauce under the cook functions and saute under the pre-cook options.
- Cooks soup in 20 minutes.
- Self-cleaning feature.
Cons
- Heavy jug and unit.
- Noisy when blending.
Our recommendation
The Ninja Foodi Blender and Soup Maker [HB150UK], 1.7 Litres, is both a full blender and a soup and smoothie maker. We love multi-functional appliances and this certainly qualifies as one. Chop and sauté your vegetables, blend them and make soup – all in one container. This model’s self-cleaning function also saves on clean up. Use the several manual blend and chop options to get just the right consistency for your soup.
The Ninja Foodi Blender and Soup Maker [HB150UK], 1.7 Litres, is our choice for Best Premium Soup Maker. If you’re looking for a blender and a soup maker, or you make soup regularly and often, its quality and convenience make this Ninja model the one to look at.
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4. Tefal BL841140 Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker, 1.2L
Buy on Amazon.co.uk
The Tefal BL841140 Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker, 1.2L is another appliance that has some extra and unusual features. But these are different to the ones in the Morphy Richards Saute and Soup Maker 501014 so the choice between them depends on which features are best for how and what you cook.
This soup maker is white and stainless steel, but it’s made with an iron alloy of stainless steel which makes it a little heavier than usual. With a 1.2L capacity, it’s a good size for a small family or one or two people. As usual, you can make chunky soup (in 25 minutes) or smooth soup (in 23 minutes), so you do have to wait a bit longer than with some other models – but just a few minutes. Use the blend function to make smoothies or milkshakes in a healthy way for quick snacks in 4 minutes.
All the controls are touch buttons on the panel on the lid of the jug and this is where you also find the extra features of the Tefal BL841140 Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker. There’s a compote option. This is a 20-minute non-cook function that’s great for making compote and sauces for your ice cream or morning oatmeal. Some online reviewers rave about the compote option for making baby food from scratch as they can choose exactly what goes into the food that their baby is eating. With the blend feature, you can blend everything to a smoother consistency if the texture is not quite right for you.
There’s also a keep-warm function. The jug is double insulated and automatically keeps the contents warm for 40 minutes after the cooking process ends. This is really handy as there isn’t a digital display to let you know how much time remains in the cooking process, so you may not be there when the soup becomes ready to eat.
And those who use this soup maker every day report that they’re delighted with the self-clean function. Just empty the jug, fill it with water and press the easy cleaning button. Three minutes later, empty out the water and wipe the jug dry. That’s it!
Pros
- White and stainless steel alloy with iron has a 1.2L capacity.
- Functions include chunky soup, smooth soup and compote.
- Has also manual blend (for smoothies) and self-clean options as well as a keep warm function.
- Controls are touch buttons and are on control panel on top of lid.
- Only two clicks to start any program.
- Free recipe book for 30 recipes.
- One-year warranty and repairable for 10 years guarantee.
Cons
- Food burns and sticks to the bottom.
- No time countdown display.
- No pause function.
Our recommendation
The Tefal BL841140 Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker, 1.2L is a close contender for our Best Pick of soup makers. It lost out solely because we feel that more people would use the sauté function of the Morphy Richards Saute and Soup Maker 501014 than the compote function of this Tefal model. We really like the keep warm and self-clean features of this Tefal model. This is a great choice if its features are those that you would use frequently.
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5. Morphy Richards 48822 Soup maker, Stainless Steel, 1.6 liters
Buy on Amazon.co.uk
The Morphy Richards 48822 Soup Maker is an attractive stainless steel unit with black and orange trim. The maximum capacity is 1.6L and the minimum capacity of 1.3L is clearly marked with lines on the outside of the unit. With this soup maker, you can have smooth soup from scratch in 21 minutes and chunky soup in 28 minutes. As well, there’s a blend function that lets you adjust the consistency of your soup to whatever you want, even semi-blended with chunky bits in it.
You operate all the functions with touch buttons found on the control panel on the top of the lid. They’re clearly marked by icons that are easy to understand. There’s also an LED digital display on the panel that tells you how much longer the soup has to cook for – a handy timeline in which to get the rest of your meal ready. Chopping your vegetables into small chunks helps with cooking them evenly and thoroughly, as does putting a small volume of liquid into the soup maker first.
If you just don’t fancy soup, use this kitchen appliance to make smoothies or milkshakes. There is no cooking portion to these programs, so it takes only about four minutes to whip up a nutritious smoothie for breakfast.
The Morphy Richards 48822 Soup Maker doesn’t have a pause function built-in. This means that if you open the lid to see how the soup’s coming or perhaps to add more liquid, you have to restart the entire programme again. So make sure of the vegetable to liquid ratio you’re supposed to use before you start. There’s also not a self-cleaning function with this model, so all the dishwashing of it is up to you and your kitchen sink.
Pros
- Stainless steel soup maker has a 1.6L capacity with minimum capacity of 1.3L.
- All controls are through touch buttons on the lid.
- Stainless steel body with black and orange trim.
- Settings for chunky (28 minutes) and for smooth (21 minutes) soups.
- Blend soup to just the consistency you want.
- Juice function for making smoothies or milkshakes.
- Screen displays the time left to cook.
- Can also use to make smoothies.
- Two year warranty.
Cons
- No self-clean and not easy to clean by yourself.
- Vegetables have to be thin or small to cook properly.
- No pause function.
Our recommendation
The Morphy Richards 48822 Soup Maker is a good basic soup and smoothie maker that makes enough soup for a family. It is without the extra features of the more expensive models but does its programmed tasks well. We like the blend feature that lets you blend chunky soups down to the kind of consistency that you like. This is for you if you just want to easily make a homemade soup from scratch.
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Buyer’s Guide for Soup Makers
All the soup makers in our review have different combinations of features. In your purchasing decision, you need to decide how you want to make soup and what else you want to use the appliance for. Our Buyer’s Guide details the common functions we found in all the soup makers followed by those that are extra. Check off those that are important to you and use that list to make the best choice of soup maker for your cooking and lifestyle.
Usual features
All soup makers seem to have these features.
Choice of chunky soup or smooth soup.
The difference between these two soups is in the amount of blending that is done to the liquid soup. Smooth soups are blended more and should be a velvety texture without bits in. Note that chunky soups take longer to cook than smooth soups as the vegetable pieces need to cook all the way through.
Whatever soup you choose, avoid the issue of vegetable bits sticking to the bottom of the jar and burning by putting about ½ cup of liquid in first.
Blend option
Choosing this function blends whatever liquid is in the jar. Use it to make healthy smoothies or milkshakes. Or, after cooking soups if the texture isn’t silky enough for your liking. The Blend process is a no cooking choice.
Control panel
The control panel is usually found on the lid of the soup maker. This is where you make the choice of programme you want. Many soup makers require only two buttons to be pressed – the programme selection and the start button.
Extras
These are features that may also appear, in different combinations, on a given soup maker.
Juice/Drinks
This is the button to use to make smoothies or milkshakes. It is programmed to run for a specific time (usually two to four minutes) so you don’t have to worry about how long to hold the blend button for.
Look for the best juicers, check out my review here with my recommended models
Digital countdown clock
It is really useful to know how much time you have until the soup is cooked. The digital clock tells you this (in minutes) and is usually found on the control panel.
Sauté
This is a good option to have if you’re using a frying pan to lightly fry your vegetables for extra flavour before putting them into the soup maker. You sauté the veg in the same jar you cook the soup in, saving on cleaning up and keeping everything in the same place.
Compote
One of the models in our review, the Tefal BL841140 Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker has a compote feature. This is a non-cooking programme to make purees, compote and even baby food.
Self-cleaning
If you hate washing up, this is the function to look for. Self-cleaning involves putting clean water into the emptied-out jug, pressing the cleaning button, waiting the required length of time (maybe three to six minutes) and then emptying out the (now dirty) water. If you do have to wash the soup maker yourself, be very careful about not letting water get into the electrical connections as this may short out the appliance when you plug it in next.
Pause
This is a very useful function to have if you want to add something to your soup (think fresh herbs) at some point in the cooking time. Most soup makers don’t let you continue the cooking process if you open the lid and you will need to start from the beginning again. The pause function lets you carry on from where the process started. It will become one of your favourite functions.
Keep warm
This function may automatically kick in when the soup has finished cooking, or you may need to select it from the control panel. It keeps the soup heated for a set amount of time in the double-walled insulated jar. This means that you can come in after the end of the cooking process and still immediately enjoy fresh soup.
Really extra
We haven’t included the extensive features of the Ninja Blender and soup maker in this Buyer’s Guide as it’s in a class of its own. Please read the individual review for all that it does.
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Final conclusion
Quick and easy hot soups on a cold day and smoothies for breakfast in under 5 minutes can be yours with a soup maker. All the models we review have the same basic features for chunky soups, smooth soups, manual blending and smoothies, but each one also has a different set of other options. Our Buyer’s Guide helps you figure out what features you need in your own soup maker to enjoy it to the fullest.
Our Best Pick for Soup Maker is the Morphy Richards Saute and Soup Maker 501014. This appliance lets you sauté in the same container in which you make the soup, offering you less cleaning up afterwards.
Our Best Budget Pick is the Morphy Richards Compact Soup Maker 501021. This is a smaller (1L) and less expensive model for the budget conscious and those who don’t need many bowls of soup at once.
Our Best Premium Pick falls to the Ninja Foodi Blender and Soup Maker [HB150UK], 1.7 Litres. This is a full Ninja blender plus soup maker that also does much, much more.
For advice on how to grow the best vegetables for your homemade soups, check out our Best Raised Bed Kit For Growing Plants and Vegetables Plus Buyers Guide, Best 6 Pop-up Greenhouses That Are Manageable And Mobile, and Growing vegetables and fruit in hanging baskets reviews.
For growing vegetables and herbs in the wintertime, you need to read our Top 5 Best Indoor Smart Garden Kits – Fresh herb & vegetables all year round article.
Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
