The best soup makers 2022: easy-to-use machines from Morphy Richards, Drew and Cole and Soup Chef
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Soup is a year-round staple that’s low-cost and often highly nutritious, not to mention incredibly easy to make.
Opting for the homemade variety over the kinds that come in cans allows you to be selective over the ingredients you digest (so you can pass on preservatives and additives like sugar and salt, if you so wish), experiment with favourite flavour combos and prep in batches so you can freeze portions for future meals. It also reduces cost and waste.
We rate soup makers for their ease of use; the amount of prep and cook time they save, the benefit of being able to focus on other tasks whilst it simmers away and the significant reduction in washing up. Really, if soup is one of your go-to meals, investing in a soup maker is a no-brainer.
We put some of the best soup makers to the test, rating them on speed, functionality, quality, cost, versatility (some can also prep smoothies, boil eggs and sauté too) and ease of cleaning too. Here are our favourites…
Soup making capacity: 1.6L
This soup maker is perfect for those with large families, or those who want to batch cook and plan their meals ahead of time. The great news is, it’s also a really quick machine so you can have delicious bowls of soup in less than 20 minutes - and there will be plenty to freeze for later too.
It’s easy to adapt and change your recipes too, so you can really experiment with your flavours. If you want to season, taste, or even add more ingredients during a cooking cycle, simply lift the lid off and when you replace it soup maker remembers where you’ve left off and continues cooking.
An added bonus is that this nifty machine will even clean itself when you have finished using it. You simply have to add a drop of detergent to some water in your soup chef and the auto clean function will do the rest.
The soup maker also comes with access to lots of online recipes.
Soup making capacity: 1.2L.
This soup maker is also a smoothie maker, so it will whip your vegetables and fruit in to something super tasty.
It has four automatic recipe programmes and it takes just two clicks to get started. Just add your roughly chopped ingredients to the jug, choose a programme and click ‘start’ on the large, easy-to-use control panel. The machine will do the rest.
As soon as the programme ends, the soup maker will beep three times to let you know that your food is ready. If you’re not ready to eat, the machine switches automatically to the ‘keep warm’ mode to keep your food at serving temperature for up to 40 minutes.
Tefal products are designed for low-cost and easy repair for 10 years, so if you invest in this machine you can be sure you’ll have a machine that will stand the test of time.
It has a compact design too and a removable power cord which makes it a breeze to store.
Soup making capacity: 1.4L
Neo’s 4 in 1 Soup Maker is compact and somewhat kettle-like in appearance – ideal if you live in close quarters. There’s very little setup required, simply plug it into a socket, and it’s so easy to use we’d bet that even a complete kitchen novice could whip up a half-decent batch of soup without a second glance at the instruction manual (though, do give it a look over for safety reasons).
The jug is made of thick, clear glass, which we liked for eyeballing soup consistency without needing to disturb the process, though it does make it a fairly heavy appliance. It’s also quite tricky to clean as the base cannot be submerged in water (unusually, it does, however, come with a toothbrush for scrubbing in the nooks).
There are three settings; chunky, smooth and pulse, the former two of which take care of the entire cooking (and blending) process, allowing you to go about your chores or self-cares without any worry of pans boiling over. A smooth soup run takes around 30 minutes, though our tester found it wasn’t quite long enough to cook a root veg soup through, so ran it a second time, resulting in a super smooth and creamy soup.
It’s a bit of a vocal appliance – expect to get shouted (beeped) at if you over- or under-fill it, and it clunks a little when the blender gets going, but on the whole it’s not too obnoxious. The instructions advise against using it to blend ice and other frozen items so as smoothies are off the table it’s a bit of a one-trick pony, but a great one.
Soup making capacity: 1.6L