Morphy Richards Soup Maker

I've got four days off to use up before I leave work at the end of this month and I created a list of jobs to do, but as usual I'm procrastinating.  This morning I spent a good two or so hours watching the Vegan Black Metal Chef on YouTube.  You should watch it, it's hilarious even if he is obsessed with sugar (he put it in baked beans!), Earth Balance, salt and his deep fat fryer!

So, after watching every single episode, I thought I would put off cleaning the bathroom a little longer by writing a blog post. To be fair 'blog' is an item on my to do list so I'm not totally cheating.

For Christmas, my Dad got me a Morphy Richards Soup Maker, which was met with both delight (a new kitchen gadget) and concern over where the hell to put it as I'm running out of space on the worktops and in the cupboards.

Storage issues put aside, it's such a great bit of kit and really cuts down on the mess and washing up usually encountered with making soups.  It has a saute function, so you can fry your onions or leeks and garlic if you choose and then you just throw everything else in along with stock, pop the lid of on and choose either the smooth or chunky mode.  The smooth mode takes 21 minutes and blends the soup as well as cooking it, which removes the need to clean a blender or immersion blender (plus immersion blenders make a hell of a mess!), whereas the chunky mode takes 25 minutes and doesn't blend.  It also had a separate blend function if you decide your smooth soup isn't smooth enough or you would like your chunky soup a little smoother. The soup maker also has a juice function, which I haven't used yet.

The first soup I made was leek and potato, using the recipe in Isa Does It. This is the only smooth soup that I needed to use the blend mode on afterwards but I think this is due to not being able to use the full amount of stock in the recipe because it would have gone above the maximum fill line on the soup maker. Next time I make it I'll probably reduce the ingredients and add more water.

Lots of soup!

The second soup I made, was a spicy butternut squash and apple soup.  I vaguely followed the recipe in Appetite for Reduction, as I hadn't got any cider or the exact amount of ingredients. I kept the skin and seed from the butternut squash and roasted them in a little thyme flavoured olive oil I also got for Christmas and used them to top the soup.  This soup was a little spicy which I liked, but a little on the thin side and a bit bland.  Next time I've try adding the cider and a little less stock.

Today I winged it with my soup creation. I fried onion and garlic in the thyme olive oil, added sweet potato, parsnips, carrots, dried thyme and rosemary along with enough stock to cover the vegetables. It was perfection.

Ignore the mess. I haven't tidied the coffee table!

I would have never have bought this item for myself, but it's something that if I saw it in a shop I would have though was very nifty. It's very easy to clean and the power cord can be detached and stored inside the soup make when not in use which makes a little easier to store.  I'm not really an enthusiastic soup maker, mainly because I like smooth soups and I find it a faff having to blend them, but this gadget makes it souper easy (sorry, I couldn't resist) and I could see myself becoming a little obsessed!

You may notice that some of these photos look a little prettier than normal, that's because I've finally got down with the kids and set up an Instagram account. You can follow me at @boltonianvegan.