The large capacity provides an easy, nutritious cooking option for all of the family after a busy day. Or, you can batch cook your healthy lunches for the week ahead with tasty soups With a total of five programs (yes, five!), Tefal stands out from the rest. This includes a 'compote' programme and the extremely useful keep warm feature, which keeps your broth snug for an impressive 40 minutes. A good soup maker should be able to blend up any ingredients until smooth, helping you create delicious, hearty soups with ease. However, the best model for you will depend on personal preference. Type: Soup maker with cold settings | Power: 1000w | Capacity: 1.6L | Number of programmes: 3 | Weight: 3.72kg What we like

An all-in-one device, a soup maker can chop, blend, cook and heat your food for you – and some even clean themselves too - so you can add the ingredients and get on with doing something else rather than standing over a hob. This cuts down on the amount of appliances and utensils you use and can save you a lot of time too.Most models come with the option to make smooth or chunky soups. The soup maker will cook the ingredients first, then either blend until smooth or leave for a chunkier finish . Other pre-programmed settings to look out for include:

Speed isn’t always best; on test, we found that some of the faster soup makers left some fresh ingredients raw at the end of a program. Generally, it will take half an hour or more to cook ingredients thoroughly. Some models have dedicated cleaning programs. You simply add water and a few drops of washing up liquid and it will heat and mix the solution to clean the inside of the jug. However, this may not remove burned-on food. Type: Soup maker with cold settings | Power: 1000w | Capacity: 1.4L (hot liquids), 1.75L (cold liquids) | Number of programmes: 4 | Weight: 7.14kg What we like After much research, we think the best overall soup maker to buy is the Morphy Richards Sauté and Soup Maker. It features lots of handy settings for making a tasty bowl of smooth or chunky soup, even sautéing the food for you. The 1.6-litre jug size can easily feed a family of four in as little as 21 minutes – and the price isn’t bad either. How we chose our recommendationsIncludes an intelligent control system to prevent burning, so it’s safe to use in a busy family household Soup maker settings vary, but if you want to get more from your machine, look for pre-programmed options that allow you to select whether you want smooth or chunky soup (or even a bit of both) and to sauté foods like onion and garlic first for extra flavour. They may also come with different speed and temperature settings for making different sauces and textures.

The world is your oyster here. These are some of Good Housekeeping’s most popular winter soup recipes if you want to experiment with your new device: Type: Soup maker with cold setting | Power: 1000w | Capacity: 1.6L | Number of programmes: 3 | Weight: 2.4kg What we like Think about how many people you’re likely to be serving. Generally speaking, 400ml is enough for one portion of soup. All the models on our list have a maximum capacity of 1.6L or above, meaning you can make enough for at least four people. SettingsType: Soup maker with cold settings | Power: 1100w | Capacity: 1.6L | Number of programmes: 9 | Weight: 2.89kg What we like Sous vide – water is heated and maintained at a controlled temperature to cook fish or meat consistently.