Top 10 Best Soup Makers in 2020 – Complete Guide

The 10 Best Soup Makers

This wiki has been updated 22 times since it was first published in August of 2015. With one of these efficient and effective soup makers you can ensure your family eats only the freshest and healthiest ingredients without all the hassle of manual preparation. Some are also great for making all kinds of things, like cocktails, smoothies, baby food, and non-dairy milk, so you're sure to find plenty of uses for whichever selection you choose for our list. When users buy our independently chosen editorial selections, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki. Skip to the best soup maker on Amazon.

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This wiki has been updated 22 times since it was first published in August of 2015. With one of these efficient and effective soup makers you can ensure your family eats only the freshest and healthiest ingredients without all the hassle of manual preparation. Some are also great for making all kinds of things, like cocktails, smoothies, baby food, and non-dairy milk, so you're sure to find plenty of uses for whichever selection you choose for our list. When users buy our independently chosen editorial selections, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki. Skip to the best soup maker on Amazon.

10. Soyajoy G4

The versatile Soyajoy G4 (around $140) works equally for blended meals as it does for non-dairy milk, making it a great choice for vegans and vegetarians. It features a stainless steel grinding and cooking chamber that alleviates any concerns about plastic leaching into food.

Smooth and quiet operation Temperature and water level sensor Cleaning can be difficult

9. Philips HR2204

At first glance, it might seem like the Philips HR2204 (around $99) could only produce purees, but it's also capable of creating chunky dishes. It's designed to take up a small amount of counter space, and its results are hot in about 18 minutes.

Six preset programs Holds a little over a liter May not cook meat fully

8. Presto Pure IAE15

The Presto Pure IAE15 (around $140) has an attractive and durable stainless steel body, so you won't have to hide it away when company shows up. It works well with a wide range of base ingredients, including legumes, nuts, and vegetables.

Stay-cool exterior Half-gallon capacity Leaks occasionally

7. Instant Pot Duo Nova

A popular choice for which you'll find no end of recipes online, the Instant Pot Duo Nova (appx. $99) acts a lot like a pressure cooker, but with more versatility and no need for a stove. It's simple to program and requires little effort to keep clean.

Four sizes to choose from Lid seals automatically Takes time to learn how to use it

6. All-Clad Prep & Cook

The 4.7-quart All-Clad Prep & Cook (around $1000) comes complete with six automatic cooking programs, five accessories, and a collection of 300 recipes to chop, mince, blend, steam, and simmer your way through a variety of hot and cold meals.

Adjustable speed and temperature Steel bowl with steam control Lid could be more durable

5. Blendtec Classic 575 Blender

The Blendtec Classic 575 Blender (appx. $229) is a versatile machine used in professional smoothie shops and coffee houses around the world, but it can also cook by simply running for five to 10 minutes. It arrives with a useful spatula for spooning out thick foods.

Pulse mode for processing Clear bpa-free jar Made in the usa

4. KitchenAid Multi-Cooker

The KitchenAid Multi-Cooker (appx. $369) offers 10 programmable cycles, and includes step-by-step guidance for consistently turning out delightful hot dishes like creamy risotto, rich stews, and thick bisques without all the effort of constant stirring.

4-quart ceramic coated pot 24-hour slow-cook timer Comes with a steamer

3. Vorwerk Thermomix

The Vorwerk Thermomix (about $1850) is a countertop processor and culinary all-in-one that comes with everything you need to prepare gourmet chowders, bouillabaisse, and even complete meals effortlessly. Its large color touchscreen makes searching for and executing dishes a breeze.

Over 100 programmable recipes Weighs and measures automatically Good for baby food

2. Vitamix 780

The Vitamix 780 (about $648) is a multifunctional blender designed to do everything from liquefying delicious smoothies to making fresh ice cream. It doesn't have a heating element, but it creates enough friction with its blades to boil water in about six minutes.

Capacitive touchscreen interface Durable container Seven-year warranty

1. Cedarlane Bellini Kitchen Master

Capable of singlehandedly producing an impressive range of dishes, from savory goulash to creamy custard, the Cedarlane Bellini Kitchen Master (about $399) can turn raw ingredients, like crunchy tubers and hearty cuts of meat, into mouthwatering meals.

Comes with bilingual cookbook Can stew and steam simultaneously Powerful 800-watt motor

Special Honors

Smart Living This model is designed to take most of the guesswork out of the process, provided you keep your ingredients within a reasonable size for it to stir them through the cooking chamber. Once you've piled everything into its stainless steel carafe, you simple choose smooth or chunky and let it do its thing. There aren't a lot of bells and whistles here, but there is reliability. thesmartlivingmop. com

Editor's Notes

April 30, 2020:

A few models from our previous ranking have either been discontinued by their companies, or were supplanted by superior devices that were similar, but superior in form and/or function. The Breville Boss is a good example of the latter, as it intended to offer all the functionality of a blender, but with the addition of a heating element for cooking. The only problem there is that it's a large power draw the heat transfer of which is inefficient, as its insulation could only do so much to keep the element's heat from escaping through the housing. It also wasn't the best blender for ice and frozen fruit. Both the Vitamix 780 and the Blendtec Classic 575 Blender outperform it at just about every turn, with both of these high-end machines offering friction-based heating that requires no heating element.

If you don't already own a food processor, however, you might want to consider something like the All-Clad Prep & Cook, which boasts significant processing capabilities thanks to the inclusion of a number of blades and other tools. Once prepped, you can easily transition cooking portion of the process and have your soups and other dishes cooking in no time, without even changing the processing container.

The Cure For What Ails You

Vegetables like carrots, celery, onions, and leeks add additional minerals like selenium and phosphorous.

Hot soup always seems to make you feel better when you're sick. It's warm, simple, and soothing, and whether it's a homemade or canned variety, it just tastes good. But it may be more than just a feel-good remedy. Research shows that chicken soup, in particular, can help to treat certain symptoms of cold, flu, and other viruses.

In 2000, Dr. Stephen Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha conducted a study to try to pinpoint the reason behind this supposed wives' tale, using his own wife's recipe for chicken soup that was passed on by her Lithuanian grandmother. He took blood samples from volunteers and discovered that the soup suppressed the movement of a type of white blood cell that defends the body from sickness, which in turn Reduced upper respiratory symptoms like coughing and congestion.

What's even more interesting is that scientists have not yet been able to figure out exactly which ingredients in homemade soup help to alleviate cold symptoms, but they think it could be due to how the nutrients in the chicken and vegetables work together. They also tested some store-bought soups and found them to have similar infection-fighting effects, which is great news for people who aren't so savvy in the kitchen.

Common sense theories conclude that proper homemade chicken soup is rich in minerals such as zinc, calcium, and magnesium after the bones are cooked for a few hours. Vegetables like carrots, celery, onions, and leeks add additional minerals like selenium and phosphorous. It also helps that soup contains a lot of liquid, as hydration is important when you're fighting a cold. But even if it's simply the placebo effect at work, as long as it makes you feel better, who cares?

A Brief History Of Soup Making

Soup is so ubiquitous in virtually every cuisine across the planet that it's easy to assume it's been around since the dawn of time. But everything has to start somewhere, and soup is no exception. For a long time, scholars believed that its origins began somewhere around 5,000 to 9,000 years ago. But a 2012 study found that it's more likely that soup has been around A lot longer than that — 15,000 years longer, to be more specific.

Today, you can find a huge array of canned and cartoned soups, as well as dried mixes, in almost any flavor imaginable.

In order to make soup, and any other dish that requires boiling liquids, a water - and heat-proof container is necessary. Sometime around 20,000 B. C.E., early humans figured out how to make such containers from animal hides and plant materials, like bark and reeds, and used hot rocks to heat water in order to boil acorns and other tough foods. This was an important development as it allowed them to boil bones to cook out the much-needed fats and proteins, which was probably the inspiration for all the popular Paleo bone broth recipes floating around the internet today.

Fast forward a few dozen centuries and you'll find a super concentrated version of soup, interestingly named "restaurant," being sold as a cure for exhaustion by French street vendors. Not long after, in 1765, a Parisian opened up a shop that specialized in selling similar concoctions, which led to the modern usage of the word restaurant for businesses that sell food. On the other side of the Atlantic, a refugee from the French Revolution named Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien became known as the "Prince of Soups" after opening one of the first restaurants in Boston, aptly called "The Restorator."

As for store-bought varieties, condensed soup has been around for much longer than you probably think — Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist working for Campbell's, invented it in 1897. This process allowed the company to package their products in much smaller cans and sell them for lower prices than other brands. Today, you can find a huge array of canned and cartoned soups, as well as dried mixes, in almost any flavor imaginable.

The Benefits Of Using A Soup Maker

So, why should you use a soup maker rather than just sticking with the tried and true method of cooking it on the stovetop?

For starters, a soup maker can save you a lot of time. Rather than standing over the pot stirring while it cooks, you can just throw all of your ingredients in, close the lid, switch it on, and walk away. You'll never have to worry about it boiling over or splattering all over your stove, which can lead to flareups on a hot burner. Plus, most models take 30 minutes or less to cook almost any recipe.

Some more advanced models even give you the choice between a completely smooth or slightly chunky consistency, depending on your preference.

There's also the issue of consistency. When you make soup on the stovetop, even if you set the burner to low, there's no guarantee that the temperature will stay steady (unless you're using a heat diffuser). But when you're using a soup maker, you can set it to a precise temperature and be sure that you won't come back to your supposedly simmering pot of liquid to find it at a rolling boil.

But overall, the biggest benefit of using a soup maker is to home cooks who like to make a lot of pureed soups, bisques, and gazpachos. Many of these appliances have a Built-in blend function, so there's no need to pour your soup into a blender, which can be time-consuming with large recipes that have to be processed in multiple batches. Some more advanced models even give you the choice between a completely smooth or slightly chunky consistency, depending on your preference.

And, in case you're thinking that you don't need another single-use tool taking up space in your kitchen cabinets, soup makers aren't one-trick ponies — they can also be used to make your nutrient-packed morning smoothie, or to blend up a delicious frozen daiquiri or margarita if you're craving something slightly less healthy.