Food - The tastiest and easiest soup recipe and a Vitamix purchase

November 07, 2014



Soup is my favourite lunch in the Autumn and Winter, full of health, warmth and it keeps you full up without many calories. Making my own has got easier this year with the purchase of a Vitamix. I've been lusting over one for a while now tempted by it's crazy two horsepower powerful blender and the fact you can make hot soup within five minutes without losing any nutrients through conventional heating. It's all a bit technical, something to do with the blade spinning so fast it creates friction to heat or cool, you can also make ice cream or frozen yogurt within two minutes just by using frozen fruit. You can also blend your own flour just by using nuts or rice, smoothies are easy and you don't have to worry about seeds, pulp or skin as it will blend it all up super smooth meaning you get extra nutrients and it gets clean within 20 seconds by turning it on with water and a drop of washing up liquid. The only drawback is the price but I figured if we use it enough we'll get good value for money right?  Vitamix are guaranteed for seven years but most land up lasting for a lifetime anyway, they're built for commercial use. We ended up buying ours, a 'Total Nutrition Centre' from Costco on a special offer. I'd love to offer a few more thoughts and share the best soup recipe.




This soup is one of my favourites and is adapted from a Nigella Christmas recipe. You don't have to worry about peeling any of the veg which makes it super fast to prepare and roasting the veg brings out their natural sweetness which tastes delicious in a soup. It's also nutritious and filling. I've made this twice in the past couple of weeks. If you make a bit pot in advance you'll have lunch sorted for the next few days. Great with fresh bread or rye. You can find the original recipe here. I've left out the blue cheese and cream to keep it healthier. 

Nigella's Roast Squash and Sweet Potato Soup {an adapted version}:
Ingredients {makes about 6 bowlfuls}
3 small red onions, outer layer taken off and chopped in half
1 butternut squash, unpeeled, chopped
500g sweet potatoes, unpeeled, chopped
{Optional any other veg lying around}
Garlic oil to coat
A good shake of cumin
A good shake of chilli powder
Black pepper to season
Vegetable or chicken stock cube/pot

1. Prepare the vegetables, don't worry about peeling them. Add to a large roasting tray and coat with olive oil before sprinkling on the spices.
2. Cook in a hot oven {around 180/200c} for about an hour, checking on them and shaking it up half way through. Cook until tender and starting to blacken.
3. Let them cool slightly.

Vitamix Version:
4. Add a stock cube and some water into the Vitamix before filling it with the roasted vegetables. Put the lid on. Switch to Variable and turn on, starting at speed 1 and gradually increase to speed 10 then flick on high. Leave for 3-4 minutes until all smooth and steam comes out the top. Your hot soup is ready to go. 

Stove Version:
4. Put all the roasted vegetables in a large saucepan and add stock {made up with 1.5 litres of water} a little at a time while whizzing up with a hand blender. Serve straight away or keep in the fridge. 







Would I recommend a Vitamix? I think it really depends what you're looking to use it for as it's a lot of money to spend if you won't use it very much. If you just want smoothies, maybe get a Nutribullet. If you just want soup, maybe get a hand blender or a specific soup maker. However, for the most powerful blender that you know will never burn out, and for a real variety of uses from ice cream, smoothies, soup and even grinding nuts/rice to make flour I think it's a worthy investment. I haven't used it to it's full potential yet but so far I've been very impressed. I love the fact that it's so easy to clean and I store it in my larder cupboard so it's out of the way. I definitely think it will help us to eat even healthier by making more from scratch so that you can control everything that goes into it. One of the biggest draws for me was making your own frozen yoghurt out of just yoghurt and frozen fruit in less than two minutes. You don't have to add sugar. It's a similar price to a Kitchen Aid and I figured if I can spend out on that just for making cakes/bread, I can justify a Vitamix with so many uses and it's far healthier than making buttercream... 
Now I just need to experiment with new recipes and make sure I do use it to it's full potential. If you're thinking of getting one, I'd really recommend going to a demonstration either at a Wholefoods store or somewhere like Costco to ask any questions and see all the things you can do with it. {There are also cheaper models called Aspire which are smaller and have less features. But I thought I'd rather have the biggest capacity possible for things like soup making}. I've only been using it for a couple of weeks so I'm not an expert by any means but so far I'm impressed. 


R <3 xx 

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