I've been eating store bought tubs of soup every day for about a month now, so when I was contacted and asked if I was at all interested in trying out the new Tefal Soup & Co, and having one for give away if I was impressed - I jumped at the shot.
I'm a pretty lazy person (that is well documented on this blog which does not take too much effort to run), so the thought of putting soup into a machine and it cooking without any stirring or effort required intrigued me slightly.
Madeline had my Soup & Co sent me via courier over night but I had to wait until The Husband picked me up from work one night as I was not about to carry it on the tram, it's hard enough carrying my hand bag sometimes, so I had to wait a few nights to use it.
My mum is staying over for a few nights, so we tackled the project together.
Sometimes it is good to have someone watching me in the kitchen.
I mean really, washing the dishes once resulted in a trip to the emergency room for me.
It took seconds to assemble, literally placing the stainless steel bowl on to the base, and putting the lid on. Done in seconds.
Mum was incredibly suspicious that a machine would cook soup to perfect consistency in only 25 minutes, and being the traditional soup maker that she is, was ready to watch it fail.
She isn't in to lazy people cooking like I am. She enjoys slaving over a hot stove.
Mum obviously does not trust me with a sharp knife, so took it upon her self to chop the ingredients for the Lentil Soup recipe that we were using.
So, you do have to chop and prepare the ingredients your self.
It's not like a blender in that nature, but it would be awesome if you could put carrots in whole and didn't have to chop, anyway, mum wanted me to make note that we had a professional chopper in the building after I suggested blending the veggies in my Kitchen Aid blender haha.
We decided to use a recipe from the recipe book that came with the Soup & Co:
Cream of Lentil with Bacon
Serves 4
150g green lentils
1 onion
1/2 carrot
1/2 white of leek
60g smoked bacon (I did not use this, I already had a BLT today so had enough of bacon, but will include the bacon steps)
150ml single cream
salt
1L water (we used 1L of vegetable stock instead)
- Soak the lentils in lukewarm water according to the directions on the packet.
Cooking is facilitated and the lentils will be more tender (once again, I am too lazy for this rubbish and just rinsed them and popped them in).
- Peel the onion and carrot and cut them in cubes. Wash the white of leek and cut into rounds. Cut the smoked bacon into small cubes.
- Place the cubes of carrot, onion, leek, lentils, bacon and 1L water into the Soup & Co.
- Press the P button to select programme P1. Confirm the programme by pressing the OK button.
- Leave to cook for 25 minutes. When the soup is ready, the appliance beeps three times.
- Add the single cream and a large pinch of salt. Blend for 30 seconds on maximum speed and serve immediately.
For relevance, prices of ingredients purchased from Safeway:
1 carrot = 0.33c
1 brown onion = 0.56c
leek = $2.48
Green lentils = $2.09
Cream = $3.00
Stock = $4.00
TOTAL: $12.46 for 4 serves
There were not many ingredients used as you can see, and with minimum mess which is a good thing when cooking in a kitchen with as little space as mine, which will be the death of me.
We put the solid ingredients in first, followed by the stock (which was meant to be water).
Press one button, and it sets for 25 minutes with no need to touch it until it beeps three times informing you that it is done.
At this stage, Mum and I are standing around looking incredulous and doubtful, especially as it was virtually silent.
When it got to one minute remaining it automatically started to pulsate, blending the ingredients, which in turn scared the bejesus out of Mum and I who not expecting it to make a noise all of a sudden and we may have stood back, but it didn't blow!
We didn't exactly read the instruction manual, which apparently you should do, and I set it up underneath a cupboard which resulted in a bit of a steam build up on the cupboard, but nothing to really worry about. The manual does say to not put it under a cupboard for this exact reason.
We added the cream and salt, and then set about blending it for another 30 seconds, but could not work out if there was a timer for this, so just estimated 30 seconds. I'm guessing that if I read the manual, it will have a timer feature for shizzle.
We were both seriously shocked at how amazing it was. The Soup & Co will also keep the soup heated for 40 minutes if you forget about it and do not empty it for awhile.
Mum is converted. She is already telling people about it on the phone!
Words from The Mother:
Well , I was skeptical about The Soup &Co as I am an old school cook.
But from the first minute as the much loved aroma of home cooked soup started to permeate the kitchen , I started to think that perhaps this just might be ok.
However it was such an amazing result , the flavor was fresh and the texture and consistency perfect. Imagine spending a few minutes throwing a few veggies into a vessel and producing a nourishing and yummy meal .
I am very impressed.
The soup was freaking delicious. So good.
The Husband is not a massive soup fan, but too bad sucker because now that I have an easy meal, he will be eating it. I have a feeling I will be freezing soup for months to come.
We were going to double the quantity when making this, but stuck to the recipe in the book and were pleasantly surprised that it did indeed make 4 bowls full.
It has a self cleaning mode, where you fill it with 1L water and a drop of detergent and switch it on, which dislodges all food from the blades but still needs a little bit of a wipe out with a sponge.
Okay, so mum is impressed.
I am impressed.
I think you should be impressed too.
If this could chop the ingredients too, this would be perfection!
Anyway, on to the even better point, that benefits you:
I have one up for give away!!! The Soup & Co is $299 in stores, and worth every shilling.
To enter the give away, be a follower, leave a comment and let me know what your favorite soup is!!!
This is only open to Australian readers, sorry.
I shall draw the competition next Sunday afternoon.
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