Food

10 best soup makers for an easy and speedy meal


Darker days and colder weather leaves everyone craving hot, comforting food. To satisfy those cravings, what could be better than a bowl of homemade, delicious soup? The benefits of making your own soup are tenfold – it’s cheaper, healthier and (usually), tastier.

They’re not necessarily a kitchen essential, however if you’re ready to make the jump to homemade soup, these clever machines can save you a huge amount of time and effort.  

There are a large variety available and choosing the right one can feel slightly overwhelming, which is why we’ve done the hard work and research for you.  

We’ve tested out a wide range of appliances, many of which not only make soup but can also be used for juicing, whipping up sauces, shakes, smoothies and we even tested one which could boil eggs.

While putting our selection to the test, we cooked all kinds of soup recipes, ultimately looking for a good balance between ease of use and functionality, the quality of soup produced, how easy it was to clean and of course, the price.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Lakeland touchscreen soup maker

This versatile soup maker offers a great range of functions at an affordable price point. As well as making chunky or smooth soup in just 30 minutes, you can also make sauce in 20 minutes, as well as smoothies, shakes and baby food. When following the instructions, we found it easy to set up – you just need to give it a quick wash using the auto clean button before using. We particularly liked the simple to use touch screen display – you can create soups using your own recipes by modifying the temperature, which can be set from 75C to 100C, adjusting the timer which goes up to a maximum of 60 minutes, and choosing from either the low, medium or high blending speed.  

As with all of the soup makers we tested, this one came with a recipe book from which we tried several of the suggestion, including a delicious chickpea and chorizo soup which was well cooked and satisfyingly chunky.  

The soup maker has several safety features, the best being that it won’t start unless the lid is properly clicked in place – so you don’t need to worry about soup flying all over the kitchen. We also liked that you can add in extra ingredients via the removable measuring cup in the lid while cooking, and the product’s attractive design and clear jug means it’ll suit any kitchen decor.  

It also worked well for when making smoothies – efficiently crushing ice and blending the fruit together. The machine is quite heavy, but this is the only minor negative we could find during testing. Choose this soup maker for a multifunctional appliance to add to your kitchen counter – you’ll soon be whipping up soups for every occasion.

Neo Direct 4-in-1 stainless steel digital soup maker

This was the cheapest soup maker that we tested, and we were pleasantly surprised at the functionality. Featuring a compact design, which is a definite plus if you have limited kitchen space, it also has a clear blender so you can see your soup in progress. We found this one easy to set up, and you can choose from chunky, blend and pulse settings. We opted for the smooth option while making a leek and potato soup, and the digital display alternated between showing the temperature of the soup and the time remaining. The end result was a bowl of tasty soup within 30 minutes, and we liked that you could further blend your soup after cooking using the pulse function to make sure it was extra smooth. Bear in mind this appliance is very heavy, which makes pouring out the soup slightly challenging.

Cuisinart soup maker plus

This was at the higher price end of the soup makers we tested. This appliance can sauté, stir, simmer, blend and crush ice – well, it can pretty much do it all – plus it certainly looks nice on the kitchen counter. It comes with a full recipe book that goes way beyond just soup, featuring curries, risottos and even cashew nut milk. It has some great features, such as a thermal glass jar to keep your recipe warm, different temperature settings, a slow stir function, a blending function and a non-stick cooking plate. However, all of these features make using the soup maker a little bit complicated in comparison to other products we tested out. Following Cuisinart’s suggested recipe for Catalan fish soup, the finished product was tasty, but there were several different stages to the cooking process, meaning you can’t just press a button and leave it to cook. This one would particularly suit someone looking for an appliance that can do it all. 

Ninja BN750UK blender

Working as a soup maker as well as a blender, this two-in-one machine performed well during testing. Holding a volume of 2.1l, this one had the largest capacity of all of the products we tried out, which was a definite plus. We liked that you could blend cold as well as hot liquids, and we found the powerful blades made light work of roughly chopped ingredients, ultimately creating delicious and smooth soup in 30 minutes. This maker was one of the loudest we tested out, and the main mixing jug is on the heavy side. If you’re looking to batch cook your soup or have a large household, this versatile blender is a good option.

Morphy Richards perfect soup

This soup maker was a firm favourite during testing thanks to its handy built-in scales. Being able to throw in all the ingredients definitely cut down on preparation time, and you can reset the scales to zero each time you want to add in additional items. It was easy to use – simply plug-in, add ingredients and choose from smooth or chunky soup (there’s also a smoothie function). We tried out the gardener’s vegetable soup from the accompanying recipe book, which was easy to cook and tasted great. It was a little tricky to clean as it cannot be submerged in water, although it does have a self-cleaning function which works well enough.

Judge Electricals soup maker

Quick and simple to set up, this product can make up to 1.7l of soup in one go. The sleek design means you won’t mind having it permanently out on your kitchen counter, plus it doesn’t take up much space. This appliance was one of the fastest products we tested out – it can make smooth soup in just 20 minutes, and chunky soup in 30. We tried out the suggested recipe for tomato soup which was very straightforward – you just need to make sure you cut your ingredients to a small enough size to guarantee quick cooking. We found the jug much lighter compared to other products we tested out, which made it easier to pour out the soup and clean after cooking. As well as soup, this one can juice, reheat, pulse and steam – it even comes with an egg basket for boiling eggs.

VonShef multifunctional digital soup maker

With four settings (chunky, smooth, pulse or blend), you can use this multifunctional appliance to make soups, smoothies, and it easily crushes ice. We found it’s better to follow the suggested recipes with this one – we liked the potato and onion soup – as we had mixed results when using our own methods. The product works well for quickly whipping up a chunky soup, however the smooth was slightly lumpy. The actual blending blade is non-detachable which can make cleaning a little tricky.

Tefal easy soup and smoothie maker

This stainless steel soup maker is versatile – it has four programmes which include smooth soup, chunky soup, compote and smoothies. It is a speedy bit of kit, meaning you can make chunky soup in 25 minutes and smooth soup in just 23 minutes, and we particularly liked that you didn’t have to dice your ingredients, something that was required for several other products we tested out. It comes with a comprehensive recipe book and we tried out the chicken soup as well as the gazpacho – both recipes were non-fuss, and we found the keep warm function kept contents hot for around 40 minutes. It’s also worth noting that the blade is fixed to the lid of this soup maker, which makes cleaning much easier. One downside, however, is the lack of pouring lip, so you need to use a ladle to serve.

Scott simplissimo chef

While one of the more expensive appliances we tried out, it did offer the most features. Along with the standard settings of chunky and smooth soup, this all-in-one blender was also able to whip up sauces, shakes, steam food, and if you’re feeling really adventurous, sous vide (cooking food in a vacuum-sealed bag at a precise temperature). We found the digital control programme simple to use (despite having so many different settings available), and the stainless steel blade blended food powerfully. With this impressive appliance, you’ll have a bowl of soup ready in around 30 minutes. We liked the removable measuring cup in the lid, and the auto-clean function left the jug sparkling clean.

Drew & Cole soup chef

With a capacity of 1.6l, the best aspect of this product was the speed in which it cooked soup – in just 19 minutes. With four cooking functions – sauté, smooth+, chunky and keep warm – this appliance was as simple as throwing in your chopped ingredients, pressing a button and leaving it to cook and blend. We found the chunky setting didn’t work quite as well, so we’d suggest chopping the ingredients into small sizes to make sure they are properly cooked. However, the smooth setting produced tasty soup very quickly. One feature we particularly liked was that you can easily add in extra ingredients or seasoning during the cooking process, without having to reset the soup maker. The keep warm setting was handy, as it made sure soup stays hot and ready to eat for up to two hours. This one does have an auto-clean function, however; we found the ingredients can stick a little to the bottom of the maker making it a bit tricky to clean.

IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.



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