Every so often, we get asked if it’s simple to make soup at home or not. While there’s no doubt that the answer to that question is yes, there are easy ways and there are more difficult ways.You’ll probably know what I mean when I say that there are people that find the hard way to do anything, and that’s not something I want to get into, so I’m a big fan of automation, no matter what the task is.

When it comes to cooking, automation can only go so far. Short of having a robotic chef at your beck and call, you’re going to need to do at least some of the work yourself. Don’t be fooled though, a little manual intervention is a very good thing, as it allows you to put your own stamp on what would otherwise be a cookie cutter approach to mealtimes.

When it comes to soup makers, that personal touch arrives in the form of choosing ingredients, and then preparing them in the quickest possible way. If you like your carrots to be peeled, even if they’re in soups, then that’s a job you’ll need to do yourself. Otherwise it just needs a quick wash and rough chop up into big chunks and the rest can be done for you on near autopilot.

A quick glance at a few soup maker websites (for example Soup Maker Zone) will guide you in the right direction in choosing a great maker for your soups, which in a nutshell is a blender and a kettle in one. Chuck your ingredients into the machine, add water and stock (as you would do if you made soup in a pan), then stick the lid on and start it up. Just half an hour later you can return to a freshly made batch of soup ready to eat. It really is that simple!

On this site, we’re not really experts in food, although we all agree that we very much enjoy eating it – who doesn’t? We’ve seen a lot of tech over the years, that’s why we started the site, and that’s why gadgets for the kitchen are at the top of the pile in our reviews. There’s loads of opinions out there on the web, but we really like the Morphy Richards products. At Soup Maker Zone they opt for the Tefal Easy Soup maker in their review of the top machines, but it’s the 48822 soup maker by Morphy Richards that we’d put in the top spot (they have it second).

They’ve gone into loads of detail about both soup makers, so you can read all about them over there, but the reason we prefer the Morphy Richards is that it’s cheaper and easier to use. Frankly, we’re not that interested in making all the subtle tweaks with them – it’s just soup after all!

Some other sites seem to point you towards the more expensive soup makers, but who wants to spend well over £100 on one when you can buy something that’s perfectly capable at a fraction of the price – it just doesn’t make a great deal of sense.

Where you’ll make the difference is in the ingredients. Head to a local market and support your local green grocers. Fresh produce is almost certainly better for you, will give you better flavours, and is often cheaper too to boot. You really can’t complain at those three coming together.