Souptastically Soup Time

Well I said I’d share my soup recipes. Today I picked up a bag of Sainsburys Casserole Vegetables and some low salt vegetable bouillon. (pardon the photos, they’re from the iPod Touch)

Casserole in the Soup Maker

Tonight was one of those late nights getting home from picking up H – we finally made it through the door at 5.45 – so I went straight to my Morphy Richards Soup Maker as I fancied a kind of soupy casserole – I didn’t have time to chop the vegetables so put them all into the container; topped up the water to the maximum then added four teaspoons of the low salt bouillon. I also sprinkled in some paprika, although Shaun reckons it wouldn’t make a difference.

Ready to Cook...

I set the Soup Maker onto the chunky setting so the vegetables were left – and 28 minutes later our casserole-y thing was ready (and I got all that time with H I wouldn’t normally have!). I also made some brown rice to go with it.

So, the casserole-y vegetables were done, tasted good, but I felt needed a bit of chopping. So I replaced the lid of the Soup Maker and pressed the ‘blend’ button for about three seconds. Went to look again, and what was a kind of casserole was a soup – so those blades are good and sharp in there.

In the end I put the brown rice in bowls and added the soup mix on top – and H loved it! WeightWatchers wise it works out at around 4 points – the rice was around 40g (2 points) and the vegetables also came in at 2 points thanks to there being potato included. If you were to be less lazy and do it properly, you could get that right down.

My Casserole-y Soup

We added bread as the soup was quite hot, so points-wise I reckon this was 5 – and it’s really filling too – and really quick to prepare when you can’t be bothered to chop up your vegetables after a long day at work.

I suspect the next recipe will be pumpkin/butternut squash based, due to having loads of both…. any recommendations?

My New Gadget – and I Love It – A Soup Maker

* I’ve written a follow up, six months on from buying this – it’s over here*

Greg who sits opposite me at work has an annoying habit of knowing exactly what kind of gadgets I like, suggesting them and then watching me buy one a week or so later, when I’ve managed to convince myself I need one.

This week it was a Morphy Richards Soup Maker.

Morphy Richards Soup Maker

Now, you’ve probably read the name and said exactly what I first said when greeted with this (what sounds) frankly ridiculous idea – a Soup Maker? I’ve got a pan, thanks.

But then I thought about it. The last time I made soup it was a disaster. I seem to remember blending all the vegetables and the bottom of my blender coming open so the liquid spilled out everywhere – I saved what I could, but there wasn’t much.

Which is where the Soup Maker comes in. I love the nights we decide to have soup as it’s so quick – we’ve been having lots of lovely spicy butternut squash soups that are on offer at Ocado – but this appealed. The idea of just prepping your veg (as I would do anyway), putting it into a container, adding water and spice and stock and leaving it for 20 minutes then serving just seemed a bit too easy – plus with what limited time we have it means I can spend a bit more with H – I’m never happy leaving a pan boiling on the cooker.

Prepping veg for the Soup Maker

All you do is prepare the vegetables, add them to the Soup Maker, add water, stock, seasoning and leave it, using whichever setting you want – you’ve a choice of Smooth, Chunky or Juice – oh yes, forgot to mention, you can make smoothies in there too.

Morphy Richards Soup Maker

Then of course there’s cleaning it afterwards, my least favourite job of anything. Actually, it’s easy. They’ve made it easy – and that is something I approve of, as washing up is boring (and the Soup Maker isn’t dishwasher-friendly) – and I’ve cleaned (and stopped using because the cleaning was so boring) so many juicers I’ve lost count.

So yes, we’ve used it twice since Thursday and made some delicious soups – you can make it up as you go along pretty much – the end result is something which tastes good, the vegetables are all cooked so they don’t lose any nutritional value – and it sits perfectly with WeightWatchers as I can now make 0 Points soups!

Morphy Richards Soup Maker

Tonight Shaun made a spicy vegetable soup, I’m going to share any recipes we make up on here (using the tag souptastically souper)- do you have a Soup Maker and have any good recipes to share?

You can buy the Soup Maker at Amazon and all good stores.

Spicy Vegetable Soup

You need – carrots – however many you fancy, peeled and diced. Butternut squash – peeled, diced and unseeded – just the one. One onion. One clove of garlic. Some curry powder. Stock cube (we use low salt ones). Ginger. Cumin – one spoonful. Curry powder – one spoonful. Chilli powder – one spoonful.

Make sure all the vegetables are diced and weigh around 700g, put them into the Soup Maker, add water up to the full line (if you’re doing three or four bowls of soup), put it on the ‘blend’ setting, and 22 minutes later it’s ready.

If your soup is a bit too spicy, add some milk, cream or yoghurt to spice it down a bit (this worked for H).

Voila!

Shaun's Spicy Vegetable Soup

(n.b. I know the soup looks boring, but it tastes pretty good)