The Drew&Cole Clever Soup maker, priced at £69.99 (down from £79.99) on Yimbly, has enabled a writer to produce three batches of soup from leftovers that would otherwise have been discarded.
Writing for the Mirror, Rachel Sloper tested the appliance after years of relying on tinned soup due to the effort of traditional preparation. She noted that the Clever Soup cooks and blends in a single jug, offering smooth or chunky results with reduced mess and washing up.
First attempt with broccoli cheddar
For her initial batch, Sloper made broccoli cheddar soup. She diced a head of broccoli (including the stalk) and placed it in the jug with one cup of frozen onions, a stock cube, a teaspoon of garlic paste and black pepper, then added water to the hot fill line. Using the chunky programme, the soup cooked in roughly 35 minutes, after which she added grated extra-mature cheddar and used the smooth+ setting to blend it for about 20 seconds, producing enough to fill three bowls.
The Clever Soup offers several settings: a smooth programme for velvety soup, a chunky programme that heats without blending, and smooth+ which allows pulsing for 2 seconds to 1 minute. Notably absent is a sauté function, which is available on rival models such as the Morphy Richards Sauté and Soup Maker (£71.99) and the Lakeland Sauté Soup Maker (£79.99). At its promotional price with code AUTUMN10, the Clever Soup costs £63.
Cleaning and further recipes
During the first cook, some ingredients caught on the bottom of the jug. Research suggested adding a little water to the base before dry ingredients to prevent sticking. The burnt residue was removed with the supplied cleaning brush after the self-cleaning programme loosened it. Subsequent batches of tomato-and-chickpea and Mediterranean vegetable soup worked well on the smooth setting, and the self-clean function proved effective once water was added at the start.
To clean, the user fills the jug with cold water to the fill line, adds a drop of washing-up liquid, selects "auto clean," and returns after 10 minutes to rinse and dry. Beyond soup, the appliance includes an oat/nut milk programme and a cold blending function for sauces and dressings, plus an automatic keep-warm function that activates after the soup cycle ends.
Since using the Clever Soup, Sloper reports that little has gone into the food waste bin, with most leftovers prompting the question "will it soup?" — cutting waste while producing hearty meals for a few pennies.
