I found a fantastic kitchen gadget this week--an electric soup maker. This has made the Soup First rule a breeze the last few days. The possibilities are endless and the soup is done in 20-25 mins and pour right into the dish. No watching, I can leave it and when it beeps, soup is served.
So far, I have done a carrot/celery coriander, carrot/red pepper curry, tomato/carrot/red pepper basil, celery/leek/savoy cabbage. There is an onion in every soup and depending on desired flavours, I use different spices or bay leaves, lemon peels, cider vinegar or other seasonings. I added 80 grams of WW tagliatelle to the cabbage soup along with the veg as a test and it was perfectly done and the pasta starch thickened it a bit which was an added benefit. Today I will be doing a leek and potato with celery.
I got a pretty inexpensive one made by Salter and it was on sale. There are other brands with nice keep warm features and more programs but I am happy with this one and bought a second one to make soup in my studio which has no cooking area. I chop all my veg at home in about 5 minutes and put in an airtight container with any spices or other ingredients.
Essentially it is a tall stainless jug with a handle and electric plug and the top is an immersion blender and the digital controls are located on top. It has a minimum line of 46 oz. and you fill with veg and water, place the top on and choose the program you want. Chunky leaves the veg whole. There is a puree function which auto-purees at the end of the cook time. There is also a blend/clean feature so you can just hit for a few seconds to blend and leave some chunks of veg in the soup. Or clean by filling with warm water and dash of liquid soap and it froths and blends it, you can pour out and wipe it clean.
As I am following MWL at the moment, I am leaving soups chunky or blitzing just a few seconds to partially chop up ingredients when done to give a creamier consistency. I made one tomato soup set the puree feature and it was too pureed for soup but perfect for sauce so we used it as sauce for WW pasta. In fact I am now thinking of making my 'green' pasta sauce in it using the puree feature...which I first had in Italy. There was sautéing first and other bad ingredients but I adapted it for McDougall years ago. I roughly chop green veg (broccoli raab is my fave, or whatever you like), onions, garlic and spices with one small potato for thickening, cook in a little water and puree to serve over pasta.
We have an instant pot which is good for cooking potatoes and brown rice, but honestly it doesn't do soup well because the pressure cooker and high volume of water needed for soups creates way too much steam. The hob is gas which is great but with a normal sauteuse or stockpot its a constant watch/stirring to make sure everything is ok and testing for when done.
