Should I Buy a Food Processor?

Siebrie

Now this is a real selling point! Is it energy efficient? And does it largely contain the smell of the soup whilst cooking? (I would soup far more often if I could stand the smell of frying onions - I can't).

I don’t always want to bother frying onions, so I regularly chuck in ready-fried and dried onions.

Rosa_Damascena

Siebrie said:

Now this is a real selling point! Is it energy efficient? And does it largely contain the smell of the soup whilst cooking? (I would soup far more often if I could stand the smell of frying onions - I can't).

I don’t always want to bother frying onions, so I regularly chuck in ready-fried and dried onions.

I've now got it into my head that I want a soup maker! There are loads available second hand, which makes me wonder why people give up on them. Soup is one of the rare things I do cook. I bought ingredients for ratatouille over a week ago but can't psyche myself up to actually make it because of the cooking smell - repulsive!!

YoungBlueEyes

Rosa is there a way you can stop yourself smelling the cooking, rather than stopping the cooking smelling? Itms? Perhaps a covid mask thing with a tiny wee dot of lavender/rose/vanilla oil on it? Not very swish I know but possible?

Otherwise you're looking for a vacuum sealed cooking gadget and I'm not sure they exist....

Edit - or if they exist I don't know about them so can't recommend one ha haa!

elsien

Are you planning to eat your super cold because otherwise it’s going to smell assoon as you heat it up to eat anyway?

Rosa_Damascena

elsien said:

Are you planning to eat your super cold because otherwise it’s going to smell assoon as you heat it up to eat anyway?

Well this is the thing. I have lived alone for more than 20 years and (with the exception of my vegan year in 2010/11) in that time rarely went out of my way to plan, much less cook an evening meal. I'd rely on the contents of my fridge, bread bin and fruit bowl. It is perfectly possible to eat this way because it is convenient to do so. What I hadn't realised until relatively recently was just how poor supermarket bread is as a food choice and I whilst there was bread available I could fill up on toast as a snack at will.

Marginally less convenient is taking something out of the freezer in the morning (soup, curry etc) and zapping a portion in the microwave. The smell of that bothers me less as I can get rid of it fast. Freshly cooked food smells linger and I can smell them for days afterwards, although I appreciate there are not many like me.

As far as I can see, the Tefal unit does appear to be sealed. Others such as CuisineArt are not - not interested in that as it is the size of a smoothie maker as opposed to a flask kettle. So I am seriously tempted to buy if it means I can spend 5 mins prepping veg, wander off for a while and come back to 4+ portions of soup.

-taff

Have you thought about cooking outside? Or is there an area you can put a little camping stove and cook a soup on that? Zero smell in the house then. My father used to use a little foldng table and a camping stove to cook anything that couldn't fit on the cooker when a massive roast was underway, we had a little porch type covered area out the back.. Even better if you can run an extension lead to a pot on a table.

Rosa_Damascena

-taff said:

Have you thought about cooking outside? Or is there an area you can put a little camping stove and cook a soup on that? Zero smell in the house then. My father used to use a little foldng table and a camping stove to cook anything that couldn't fit on the cooker when a massive roast was underway, we had a little porch type covered area out the back.. Even better if you can run an extension lead to a pot on a table.

Lolol . Its very specifically the smell of food hitting oil that creates the problem for me, getting embedded in my clothes, hair etc

This thread wasn't supposed to be about me but I am really fascinated by the soup maker!

amy1992

I use my Kenwood mini chopper the most. It is very inexpensive (sub £25 depending on when/where purchased) and it is great for making homemade sauces (mayos/hollandaise/pesto/chimmichirri, etc). It’s also great if you need to finely chop onions, shallots, garlic, anything really. Grinding up spices is another good use. Because it’s small it’s good for when you’re only cooking for one or two people and is also pretty easy to clean and get in/out of the cupboard. I also have a standard sized food processed and I use this much less as it’s a bit of a faff to clean, etc. but good when you want to grate large amounts of cheese in one go, or for making soups, etc. 

Rosa_Damascena

amy1992 said:

I use my Kenwood mini chopper the most. It is very inexpensive (sub £25 depending on when/where purchased) and it is great for making homemade sauces (mayos/hollandaise/pesto/chimmichirri, etc). It’s also great if you need to finely chop onions, shallots, garlic, anything really. Grinding up spices is another good use. Because it’s small it’s good for when you’re only cooking for one or two people and is also pretty easy to clean and get in/out of the cupboard. I also have a standard sized food processed and I use this much less as it’s a bit of a faff to clean, etc. but good when you want to grate large amounts of cheese in one go, or for making soups, etc. 

Mini-chopper available in the Middle of Lidl atm at 50% off, if anyone needs one. Ends tomorrow.

bouicca21

I promised @Rosa_Damascena a smell test when I next used my soup maker.  Mine has a sauté function but, bearing in mind that Rosa doesn’t like the smell of fried onions, I didn’t use it, just chunked an onion and chucked it in with carrots, coriander, a couple of stock cubes, and water, then left it to do its thing.  When I went back into the kitchen, there was definitely a waft of soup.  No worse than the smell from the soup when it’s in the dish ready to be eaten. Whether that’s acceptable to Rosa is of course impossible to judge.