Soup makers are convenient and time-saving. They are particularly useful if you work from home as they allow you to quickly nip to the kitchen, throw the ingredients into the jug, start it up and walk away whilst the appliance does the work for you. I have owned one for 5 years and use it every week for about six months of the year. However, my son recently killed off my trusty old Morphy Richards soup maker by immersing the electronic lid in a sink of water! In all honesty, I would have happily replaced it with the same model again, but as I have already reviewed it, I decided to try a new model and so I bought the Ninja Soup Maker and Blender.
Uses for the Ninja Blender
The Ninja Soup Maker & Blender (HB150UK) says that it can make:
- Smoothies
- Milkshakes
- Soup
- Ice cream
- Frozen cocktails
- Hot chocolate
- Jam
- Sauces
- Dips
I hoped that as well as replacing my dead soup maker, I might also be able to clear some space in my cupboards, by replacing my Nutribullet (which makes smoothies) and possibly my Ninja Creami (which makes ice cream)
Over the last few weeks I have been testing it out in my kitchen at home, working my way through all the different food and drinks Ninja says it can prepare, and here’s my review.
Soup
You can make both smooth and chunky soup in the Ninja. It takes longer than my Morphy Richards (30 minutes compared to 20 minutes) but because the blade is in the base you can be a bit lazier with chopping vegetables and instead of dicing onions you can just quarter them and use the CHOP setting on the machine
The Ninja also has a saute function, but because of the blade at the base, you can’t stir the vegetables whilst they are sauteing. I’m not convinced that it does as good a job as other soup makers I have tested at sauteing and of course that ultimately affects the flavour of your soup base.
However soups I tested all came out well cooked and in the case of the smooth ones, well blended too
Smoothies
Sorry Nutribullet, but you are a one-trick pony and you’ve lost your spot in my cupboard (hello Facebook marketplace!) the Ninja does a great job of blending frozen fruit, milk, or kefir and whatever else you want to throw in! I love a good green smoothie after a long run and it’s a good way to sneak some healthy veg into my kid’s diet too.
Jam
I was really surprised at how straightforward it was to make jam in the Ninja. Just combine sugar, pectin and fruit and let the machine do the blending and heating. My kids were really pleased with the results, as was I!
Sauces
We tried both the pizza and Alfredo pasta sauce from the Ninja recipe book. The machine heats and blends the ingredients and the resulting sauces looked and tasted great.
Dips
Similar to sauces, but a bit thicker, I tried out the spinach and artichoke dip and had very smooth results
Ice Cream & Milkshakes
Technically Ninja says that this blender makes frozen desserts, but one of the recipes in the book is for an “ice cream”, however let’s be clear this machine cannot make ice cream it can only blend already frozen ingredients together to create a semi-chilled sweet dessert which you can then put in the freezer for 15 minutes or more to further solidify. Whilst I’d love to be able to free up the space that my Ninja Creami takes up in the cupboard, the blender in no way replaces it! You can however use it for another task that the Creami does well which is making milkshakes by combining ice cream and milk.
Hot chocolates
I didn’t expect the blender to be a hot chocolate maker, but was pleasantly surprised at the results. As a family, we enjoy hot chocolates as a weekend treat after a long dog walk. On our quest to make better and better hot chocolates my husband even bought a hot chocolate maker a few years ago… which is now surplus to demands, because this blender does a great job of making a really indulgent hot drink chopping and heating real chocolate and milk!
Link to purchase
Amazon… https://geni.us/AbDfa
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