You Can Make Soup Directly in the Instant Pot Ace
I have never been a fan of blender. I don’t drink smoothies and can usually grind, process, or otherwise destroy any kind of food with a food processor or hand blender. I am, however, very impressed with the Ace Cooking Blender (made by the folks at Instant Pot) and its soup making abilities.
Like the Instant Pot itself, this blender has many preprogrammed – some might say “unnecessary” – features. There is a cleaning program, an ice cream program (which I am very skeptical about), a program for every alternative milk you can think of, and a soup program. (There’s also a smoothie program that seems a little forgiving.)
Since we are in the midst of the soup season, I decided to try the functionality of the soup first. While I knew the heavy duty blender had a heating element, I wasn’t sure it would get hot enough to cook harder roots and zucchini, and I didn’t expect a $ 99 blender to make soup that was smoother than something I could do with a hand blender. God, I feel dumb.
In fact, in the end I liked the soup function of this blender much more than I thought. I liked that I didn’t have to stir anything, I liked that I didn’t have to transfer anything from one container to another, and I liked that this thing makes the soup smoother and silkier than anything I’ve ever done. stick blender. You simply put the chopped vegetables, broth and any other ingredients into the glass jar and press Soup. The blender then begins to heat up and, as it begins to boil violently, begins a 22 minute 44 second program in which it periodically mixes and whips the soup, followed by a final final cycle of powerful stirring. I’ll admit that – after seeing hot soup erupting from many blenders during various competitive cooking programs – it was awkward at first to watch the soup boil in the blender. (But I got it over with.)
On the maiden voyage, I made a parsnip soup based on Martha Stewart’s recipe , replacing the leek and turkey broth (which I had on hand) instead of chicken broth and water. I also skipped the cream because the soup was and I can’t believe I’m saying this, it’s quite creamy without it.
Now I only have to mention two bad things I can say about the soup program. Firstly – and I’m sure you smart people in the audience already figured this out – you just can’t brown any of the ingredients in a blender. Also, to keep the soup from erupting, you have to keep the volume below 1400 milliliters so that you can’t cook a huge batch of soup (which is fine for me, but for larger households it can be a limitation).
The first drawback is easy to work around – just fry whatever you want to brown in the pan before adding it to the blender – but the second is something you just have to live with. You can make any puree soup in this blender, but if you want to make the one I made, you will need:
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 reddish brown potato
- 1 apple
- 1 large parsnip (about half a pound)
- 3-4 cups broth or broth
- Salt and pepper
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add the onions and season with salt. Once it begins to brown, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until completely caramelized , about 45 minutes. (You can do this beforehand if you want.) Clean the pan with a little broth, scrape off the browned pieces and transfer everything to a blender.
Cut the remaining food into pieces about a centimeter in size. (I was very random about that, and it didn’t make any difference in the end.) Throw it all in there, then slowly add stock until it hits the fill line. Season with salt and pepper to taste – this will largely depend on how seasoned your stock is – close the lid and press Soup.
There will be a beep, then intermittent buzzing, boiling, and then very aggressive stirring, but in the end you will have a hot, velvety, completely smooth soup. Pour into bowls – no ladle required – sprinkle with croutons or anything else you’d like to add to your soup and enjoy.