Tower Soup Maker Review + Recipe and GIVEAWAY

Soup makers, I had thought were up there with items such as electronic pineapple corers and mini doughnut makers as kitchen gadgets I’d never really need. During the spring my friend started to rave about her soup maker which she’d received as a Christmas gift but I scoffed and saw it as a useless flowery gadget. Coincidentally as we entered autumn Tower (a different brand to the one my friend has) asked if I’d be willing to try out their soup maker and I thought ‘why the heck not?’ My friend is still raving about her soup maker and it hasn’t taken up residence at the back of her kitchen cupboard as I had predicted, so there’s obviously something good about soup makers. I thought why not put it to the test and let you guys know what I think.

Tower Soup Maker Review

So what is this piece of kit exactly?
I received the Tower Soup Maker* (Model: T12001)

Specification
1100W
1.5L Capacity
Blends and heats
Perfect for chunky soup/ smooth soup/ baby food
Removable stainless steel blade
Interlocking lid
Minimum liquid sensor
Liquid overflow sensor
60 minute timer
Rubberised finish

I’ve whizzed up a few of soups so far and I’m really pleased with it (I share my favourite so far below). It’s simple to use, you just need to roughly chop any food you put in and for warm food make sure any liquids (such as water or stock) are boiling when you add them. For me it’s a case of popping in the veg, hitting the ‘mix’ button a few times for it to blend to the consistency I’m looking for before adding in some boiled chicken stock (I just boil the kettle and pour water over a stock cube unless I specifically have stock in my freezer). Then I hit mix again for a few seconds, add the spices and turn timer dial and leave the soup maker to perform.

Usually, for me anyway, kitchen gadgets which perform more than one dedicated function can be a bit lacklustre in both areas but although the Tower Soup Maker both blends and cooks I’m genuinely impressed with how well it does both. The machine, seemingly, has a stand out mechanism, it chops vegetables as well as our (far more expensive) Magimix food processor and doesn’t overheat or protest during the process despite the fact it is cooking the food at the same time. The blade chops ice and obviously blends other food too, so I’d really suggest this for a blender-less house who are big fans of soups, smoothies (it performs impressively well in that area) or for making baby food.

We’ve taken to making soup in the soup maker during the evening (just chopping a little extra veg at the same time as making dinner) and cooking it. Then we leave it in the soup maker over night and simply turn it on to heat in the morning whilst we are getting ready, then adding to flasks just before heading out the door. Soup is a pretty easy thing to make with or without a soup maker but this makes it really simple.

The following recipe is tasty, spicy and fresh tasting. You can blend this to be fairly thin but we like a nice bit of noticeable veg throughout our soup, so I made sure to only blend a little bit. This is a perfect “leftovers soup” which means it makes a great foundation and tastes great on its own but you can’t go far wrong in adding any other leftovers into this soup, it works well with a little chicken or tofu, a few nuts or even a bit of bacon.

I’ve done a bit of checking online and the cheapest I’ve found this soup maker is here for £49.99.

Smoked Autumn Root Veg Soup

Ingredients
1 small potato
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1/4 butternut squash
1 parsnip
1/2 an onion
3 garlic cloves
1tsp of nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
600ml of chicken or veg stock
25g butter
1/2tsp mixed peppercorns

Method
Peel and chop veg roughly and add to the blender. Use the ‘mix’ button to pulse until semi smooth. Add 1/2l of chicken stock (you can use veg if you prefer). Add spices and butter before pulsing to combine.
Cook in soup maker for 30-35 mins.
Add mixed peppercorns and serve with a chunk of bread.

Giveaway
If you’d like to win a Tower Soup Maker you can enter via the Rafflecopter widget below.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU READ THE ENTRY REQUIREMENTS VIA THE RAFFLECOPTER WIDGETS. INCORRECT ENTRIES WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Terms and Conditions
- This giveaway will start at 13:00 20th Nov 2014 and will close at 00:00 28th Nov 2014.
– This giveaway is open to any readers aged 18 or over and residing in the UK.
– No cash alternative will be offered.
– There is one compulsory method of entry (rafflecopter option 1) which asks the entrant to tell me their favourite soup in the comments section of this blog post. Further entries can be gained using the subsequent options (rafflecopter options 2) within the rafflecopter widget.
– Rafflecopter will require an electronic method of contact.
– This prize (1 prize in total) has been provided by Tower.
– Prize winners will be asked by athriftymrs.com administrators to provide an email address which will be passed on to Tower who will then request full name and address in order to facilitate delivery of the prize.
– Entries can only be accepted as instructed, any entries not meeting these requirements will be automatically disqualified.
– A winner will be drawn at random using a random number generator and the winner will be announced on this blog post within 5 days of the entry period ending.

P.S. An item marked with an asterisks (*) indicates an item I have been sent for consideration free of charge. I am under no pressure to post about any items receive and only talk about items or services I feel will be of benefit (good or bad) to A Thrifty Mrs readers.

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